Mattias Mattias? Mattias Mattias!

I just spent a weekend in New York visiting my old college room-mate Petter, his wife Laurie, and their one-year old son Mattias. Big Mattias meets Little Mattias.

Unfortunately, Petter - the investment banker - was forced to work most of the weekend. Some utility wants to build a new transmission line and needs financing or something like that. But, I got to hang out with Little Mattias and Laurie, and had a nice relaxing weekend.

We took walks both days out here on Roosevelt Island (where they live), which is a very nice place. In case you're not familiar with it, it's an island in the East River between Manhattan and Queens. It feels like you've left the city - lots of greenery, playgrounds, tennis courts, etc - but you're still only minutes away from Midtown.

To many, the island is known for the lunatic asylum that used to reside here. Over the last 20-30 years the island has had a big upswing and many residential apartments and condos have been added. Petter and Laurie live in a new building that has a wonderful view of Manhattan and the East River.

On Saturday, Laurie, Mattias and I took the tram into Manhattan and walked around for a while. It was a beautiful day - sunny and neither too warm nor too cold. I checked out a few wine shops in Midtown: Sherry-Lehman on Park Ave (fantastic selection - verticals of first-growth Bordeaux, etc - but horribly overprices) and Crush on 57th and Lex (passionate and knowledgeable staff, and a great cooled room in the back). Laurie and Mattias went back (naptime) and I took the subway down to Astor Place to check out Astor Wines (big store with a good selection) where I bought a couple of bottles for the weekend: a 2007 Giacosa Roero Arneis (a nice little Italian white that I've enjoyed in previous vintages) and a 2003 Lagier-Meredith Syrah from Mt. Veeder in Napa Valley. The latter wine was quite a find - not only is it very difficult to find, but it was also marked down from $55 to $35. We enjoyed it tonight with a lamb stew and it showed very well.

I continued walking down to SoHo and immersed myself in the frenzy of it all - the people, the smells, the energy - before I ducked into a little place on the corner of Bleecker and Broadway for a late lunch. It was a charming little place with large open windows towards both streets. I ordered a truffled burger with aged brie, carmelized onions, with garlic fries, and had a Leffe to go with it. Unfortunately the burger was overcooked (nearly well done while I'd asked for medium rare) but otherwise a very pleasant experience.

On the way back, my subway train was diverted to a different track - apparently there was a message but I and about ten other people missed it - so I suddenly found myself in Queens. I thought about going back into Manhattan and trying again, but saw on the map that I was pretty close to Roosevelt Island so I took a taxi instead. $10 and 10 minutes later I was back.

Ok - catch you on the flip side.