Hopscotch in Spanish! (or "Girls' Night Out")

On Tuesday night, Ally, Stacy, Oda, Dina and I headed down to Allen Street to check out Rayuela ... it's Restaurant Week in NYC and Ally was on top of her game enough to actually get us reservations in advance.

On the back of the adorable, tiny, square business cards is the definition of "rayuela": (1.) spanish for hopscotch: a game played usually by children in which they hop into a series of squares drawn on the ground. (2.) a ray of light. (3.) an innovative novel by Latin-American writer Julio Cortazaar, based on the twists and turns of the game hopscotch.

I love it when there's a story behind the name.

We mostly ordered from the prix fixe Restaurant Week menu and sampled a variety of fare from chicken livers (not me!) to chile rellenos stuffed with lamb to fufu balls (still am not quite sure what those were) to a flan-like desert that had an olive tapenade base as a crust of sorts -- interesting to say the least and mostly everything was pretty tasty. Especially the TWO pitchers of Rosada sangria.

I also loved the design and decor of the restaurant. The first floor was the bar and lounge and featured an open staircase leading up to the actual dining room and patio on the second floor. We were seated in a cozy booth with gauzy curtains separating us from the tables on either side and had a perfect view of my favorite thing about the restaurant -- the huge tree that was growing out of the first floor and through numerous cut-outs in the second floor.

Another great night out with the girls with lots of great updates, laughter and fun (and sometimes crazy) stories. I'll miss you guys when I move!