Fruit of life.

Today I learned there's a grapefruit equivalent of limoncello, and it is fabulous. So fabulous, I can't remember what it's called. But it exists.

In part, thanks to that, I'm very good and sloshed. While I'm not at the point yet of my nose being numb, I'm drunk enough that on the subway ride back to my apartment I was chanting the three no-Ps to myself - don't puke, don't piss, don't pass out. Because I don't drink much, one infused cranberry/champagne cocktail, one shot of the limoncello-like drink, half a drink of a local pear spirit, and half a fabulous kir royale, is hitting me good and hard and pleasantly. And because I'm me, I was still able to talk to two staff people about the restaurant's closing sale.

Tonight was the last night for a twenty-year neighborhood place. I'd found out about it some days ago, and decided to make an event of it: dress up nicely, take myself out. So I did, and I ate well. A poached egg and spinach salad with blue cheese and a shallot-infused vinaigrette, fluke as the catch of the day on fresh braised greens and small potatoes with more shallots, a pear crumble with whole cranberries and whipped marscapone, some deliciously bitter coffee, and the aforementioned alcoholic drinks, not quite paced well enough but all of them grand. I didn't finish some of them. There wasn't any need to get hammered.

And after I paid and tipped, I took a moment to talk to the manager and one of the staff members about the possibility of the place selling off their stock, as was the case of a restaurant near where I worked this summer. It turns out it will be, so for anyone in the New York City area: on January 18th, Nick and Toni's on West 67th street, just off Broadway, will open their doors to the public to sell off what remains of their inventory after a private restaurateur auction. This will include flatware, silverware, salt and pepper shakers, whatever dry goods, herbs, and spices they weren't able to cook through in their last days, and some pretty delightful coffee cups. I'll see about heading over for some of the coffee cups. But there's no reason one wouldn't try heading over for some new soup bowls or a restaurant-grade cutting board. It's worth it to take in the scope and scale of restaurant cooking in a way the public doesn't often even get the chance to glimpse.

Google tells me it's pompelmocello . It doesn't seem to be commercially available on any large scale. But it's citrus season in the northern hemisphere, and the time is ripe for do-it-yourself projects that will be ready and refreshing come springtime.