The Windsor in the West Village (W. 4th St at W. 10th) has become one of our favorite spots to meet up and drink with friends. Not easy to find spots like this that have plenty of TV’s for sports but in an unobtrusive way that doesn’t hamper the cool vibe. They’re whipping up some special dishes and fresh ingredient margaritas for Cinco de Mayo. The Mexicali burger w/ guac, pico de gallo, jack cheese, fried jalapeno & apple wood smoked bacon sounds pretty freakin’ fantastic, as do the spicy cucumber margarita and Mexican mule (blanco tequila, fresh pressed lime, ginger beer & angostura bitters) created by their resident mixologist Ben Scorah.

Teqa in Murray Hill (3rd Ave b/t 30th and 31st) is capping off its week-long celebration of the holiday with live music, two hours of open bar and a prix-fixe menu which includes their tuna on crack (spicy tuna, avocado and cucumber with tortilla chips), a selection of four different tacos, quesadillas, chips, salsa, guacamole, rice & beans, grilled corn and dessert.  Seatings at 1PM, 3PM and 5PM are $100 per person and the 8PM seating is $125 per person.  For reservations please call 212-212-3223.

Mex Fest at South Street Seaport is a Mexican-themed food truck festival taking place at Pier 16 at the South Street Seaport from 12pm-7pm. Trucks will be pay as you go, and each vendor will be infusing Mexican flavor into one of their regular menu items. Trucks scheduled to attend are Luke’s Lobster, Treats Truck, Kimchi Taco, Coolhaus, Frites’n’Meats, Gorilla Cheese, Schnitzel & Things, Wafels & Dinges, Taim Mobile, Milk Truck, Kelvin Slush, Souvlaki GR, Mexico Blvd, Eddie’s Pizza and Big D’s Grub Truck. A regular ticket for $5 gets you a sombrero and a ticket voucher that can be redeemed for 1 Beer, 1 Margarita, 1 Shot of Tequila, 1 Michelada or 2 Tacos. (Vouchers will cost $8 at the event and are not redeemable for food truck items.) A VIP ticket for $25 gets you a sombrero, 5 ticket vouchers that can be redeemed for the items mentioned above, and a pubcrawls.com Cinco de Mayo All-Access Pass.

WHO:  Red Hook Lobster Truck, Kimchi Taco Truck, Frites and Meats,  Kelvin Natural Slush, and Phil’s Steaks. Check out the menus here

WHEN:  Sunday, April 29, 2012; 11AM to 5PM

WHERE: Hell’s Kitchen Flea Market
39th Street and 9th Avenue

Then on Sunday it’s time for the launch of New Amsterdam Market which is kicking its season off on Sunday  from 11am to 4pm, rain or shine, at the old Fulton Fish Market (located on South Street and Beekman Street). The theme of Sunday’s market is “Bread Pavillion 2012″ with 15 local bakers creating their vision of a great loaf of bread made with flour from a variety of grains now being grown in our region. Jim Lahey of Sullivan Street Bakery will set up a wood-burning oven and conduct pizza-making demonstrations along with Co. chef Matt Aita at 1:00pm, 2:00pm, and 3:00pm.  Check out the list of food vendors which includes Luke’s Lobster, Morris Grilled Cheese Truck, People’s Pops, Kombucha Brooklyn, La Newyorkina, Rick’s Picks, Saxelby Cheesemongers, Brooklyn Cured andKings County Jerky, among others.

Bread Pavillion participants include:

Bakeri
Bread Alone
Bien Cuit
BR Guest
Dean & Deluca Bakery
Grandaisy Bakery
Hot Bread Kitchen
Il Buco Alimentari
Janet’s Quality Baked Goods
Le Pain Quotidien
Nordic Breads
OGRIN & Greenmarket
Orwashers Bakery
Roberta’s Bread
Runner and Stone
Sullivan Street Bakery

This post was submitted by greg.

Monday Night Crab Dinner Series at Kin Shop — Chef/Owner Harold Dieterle has a soft spot for crabs, as he writes about in this WSJ piece. Kin Shop (469 6th Ave; @KinShopNYC) recently launched a Monday night crab dinner series, highlighting at least three different species of crab spread over four courses. It is a five-course tasting menu ($60/person) featuring a variety of the popular crustaceans. Add $27 for beverage pairings.  The menu evolves and changes week to week.  They’ve made stuffed blue crabs with pork, fried Jonah crab claws and spicy crab noodles with king or Dungeness crab. During soft-shell crab season, they’ve served a whole fried one done Tahi-style. Call 212.675.4295 for reservations.

Paella Mondays at Yerba Buena — Both the East Village and West Village locations of Yerba Buena (23 Ave A & 1 Perry St) are now offering Paella Mondays with four different styles of Paella for $22 a person. Executive Chef Julian Medina even made a video here to showcase how he makes these paella.  You can wash it all down with 3 different specialty sangria ($10/glass).

Brisket Mondays at Kutsher’s – Kutsher’s in Tribeca (186 Franklin St; @KutshersTribeca) just launched this Monday meat-centric special where they’ll be serving up brisket with an always-changing assortment of sides and garnishes. The special actually kicks off tonight with Creekstone Farms Deckle Brisket with spring garlic and Jerusalem artichokes.

Sangria Mondays at Tre Restaurant — Tre Restaurant on the LES (173 Ludlow; @TreNewYork) goes all you can drink & eat on Monday’s with its $19.95 special featuring sangria and spaghetti & meatballs. On a nice night, ask to sit in the courtyard out back. Don’t waste any time, either, as you have a 90-minute limit to eat and drink to your heart’s content.

Here are a few other Monday night deals to keep in mind:

BXL Cafe (43rd nr 6th) & BXL East (51st nr 3rd) offer all you can eat mussels + fries and a Stella for $22 on Monday nights

Ciano offers free corkage on Monday nights (45 East 22nd St)

$1 Oysters at Desnuda from 6pm to close on East 7th st in East Village

Lobster Monday’s at Ulysses on Stone St in FiDi where after 4pm you get a 1.5 lb lobster with corn on the cob & a baked potato for only $18.95

At Amity Hall at 80 West 3rd St in the Village, you can get a half dozen Blue Point Oysters and any Blue Point Draft for just $9.95 on Monday nights

Long Island City is a much easier trip than San Diego!  Literally just minutes away from Grand Central on the 7-train.  And tonight Alewife Queens (5-14 51st Ave in LIC) is bringing the best of San Diego’s Stone Brewing to LIC.  I’m dying to try the Smoked Porter with Coconut on cask.  Oh, and for those who didn’t get to try Chef Bryan’s Soup Dumpling Meatballs at the Get Real Beers N’ Balls fest earlier this month, we hear they’re gonna be available on the menu tonight.  Safe to say it’s a good night to be visiting Alewife Queens.  Follow Alewife Queens on Twitter here and Chef Bryan here.

POURING:
Levitation Ale | 4.4%
Oaked Arrogant Bastard | 7.2%
Ruination IPA | 7.7%
Smoked Porter | 5.9%
11.11.11 Vertical Epic Ale | 9.4%
Russian Imperial Stout | 10.5%

CASK:
Ruination with Chinook and Oak
Smoked Porter with Coconut

PAIRING: Each pairing 5oz of beer with beer d’oeuvres $7

Coffee and Mint Infused Vodka with Russian Imperial Stout
Chili Garlic Wings with Ruination IPA
Soup Dumpling Meatballs with Levitation Ale
Fisher Island Oysters with Harissa Cocktail Sauce with Smoked Porter
Coconut “Stout” float with Smoked Porter with Coconut

Comparison Flight:
Ruination IPA, Ruination with Chinook and Oak, Smoked Porter, Smoked Porter with Coconut

Beer Sommelier Jon Langley will pour a sampling from our friend Brian Strumke’s Stillwater Artisanal Ales, including the juniper scented Kopstootje (roughly the Dutch slang for beer and a shot); Bri-Witter, a berliner weisse, and a strong Belgian pale, released by Stillwater as an anniversary beer.

Event: Bronx Brewery Introduces its Bourbon Barrel-Aged Bronx Pale Ale at Café D’Alsace
Location: Café D’Alsace (1695 2nd Ave)
Link out: Click here
Description: On April 11 from 6-8pm at Café D’Alsace (1695 2nd Ave), The Bronx Brewery is introducing the oak-aged version of its Bronx Pale Ale. The Bourbon Barrel-Aged Bronx Pale Ale will go on sale in bars and restaurants throughout Manhattan and the Bronx on Thursday, April 12. Just 300 individually numbered 22-ounce bottles of this limited batch will be sold. The Bronx Brewery team will be on-hand to introduce the new beer at the Café D’Alsace Special Release Party & Tasting. Head Brewer, Damian Brown, and General Manager, Chris Gallant will discuss the specialty beer and answer questions about the brewing and aging process. Café D’Alsace beer sommelier and BeerSomm co-founder Gianni Cavicchi will be pouring samples of the new oak aged brew, alongside the brewery’s flagship Bronx Pale Ale.

Released in September 2011, the Bronx Pale Ale is The Bronx Brewery’s first beer. It is a deep amber American-style pale ale that is brewed with five different barley malts, generous additions of Cascade and Centennial hops, and a unique strain of yeast. It is dry-hopped, unfiltered, and unpasteurized. The beer is available in over thirty bars and restaurants in the city and has won critical acclaim, taking home a silver medal in the 2012 New York International Beer Competition. About the beer, Cavicchi says, “Pure Finesse! Finally a pale ale that tight rope walks the balance of hops and malt.”

The company is excited to now release this aged variant, which was conditioned in an American Oak Woodford Reserve Bourbon barrel. The several-month conditioning process has imparted generous notes of bourbon and oak into the ale, with subtle notes of vanilla rounding out the complex, yet soft ale. “It is definitely a beer to savor and enjoy with friends” says Brown.