BY JANEL BLADOW | What a week – Monday a holiday with Presidents Day and we shopped. The next day was a wild fest with Fat Tuesday and modified Mardi Gras parties at local pubs, Ash Wednesday and we started Lent by giving up chocolate (again!). Award season comes to an end this weekend with the Academy Awards. The end of February may seem like the time to dig in and hibernate, but if you still want to party, Seaport Report has found plenty of occasions to get down.
Oscar parties… several of the local establishments in the Financial District are hosting Academy Award viewing parties on their big screens. So if you want someone to bicker with about red carpet best dressed, Billy Crystal’s hosting, boring song and dance routines or just winners you weren’t expecting, pop over to one of the hood’s watering holes of a lively night.
Yippee, an extra day… So many reasons to celebrate Feb. 29! Leap year only comes around every four years so for many of us, that’s reason enough to party. But let’s declare it International Frog Day! Or celebrate St. Bridget who petitioned St. Patrick to make it an Irish tradition for women to ask men to marry them so they would have more say in choosing a mate. That tradition has carried on as Sadie Hawkins Day. So however you say it, smile, you have an extra day!
Get your Irish on… And if you still need an excuse to get out and do a jig, how about St. Patrick’s Day, March 17? It’s the holy day of drinking and singing and bellying up to the bar for the shamrock crowd. Green beer will be on tap at whole slew of pubs from Stone Street to Southbridge Towers. A few SR favs: Irish Punt, 40 Exchange Place; Mercantile Grill, 126 Pearl St.; The Full Shilling, 160 Pearl St.; TJ Bryne’s, 77 Fulton St.; and Jeremy’s Ale House, 228 Front St.
Fleet-footed festivities… Now if you want to put aside the partying for a while, shape up and do a good deed, start training for the NY Road Runner’s classic half-marathon on March 18. You have a month! While some 15,000 runners are already signed up, you can still get a place by running for a charity. The 7th annual run begins in Central Park near 64th St. but finishes with a big bang in the Seaport on Water St. at Maiden Lane, where the fun will be. It follows a new route through the park into Times Square and down the West Side along the Hudson River. To sign up, visit: www.nyrr.org
Wedding bells… While this is a bit off SR’s beat, we have to give a shout out to one of our favorite new couples. Our niece Jacqueline Moncrieff Oliver, a teacher from Whitestone, married Joseph Michael Scotto III, a firefighter from Brooklyn, on Saturday, Feb. 18, at St. Luke Church in Whitestone. The bride looked beyond beautiful in a strapless, fitted beaded white gown with a full-ruffle tulle mermaid train. The groom was dashing in a tailored black tux. A fabulous reception of cocktails, sit-down dinner and dancing and Viennese dessert bar followed at Chateau Briand in Carle Place.
You might be saying, what’s this got to do with downtown? Joe is a Dragon Fighter. That is, he’s based out of Engine 9, Ladder 6 at 77 Canal St., in Chinatown. Now that is a bit north for SR but…we like to cover a wide berth!
Some trivia: The firehouse was known as Phoenix Hose Co. before NYC had a paid fire department and the location was a Civil War hospital and Armory. In 1865, Ladder 6 was formed as part of the Metropolitan Fire Department. And most importantly, Jackie’s grandfather, the late Richard Oliver Sr., a decorated NYFD fireman, was also assigned to Ladder 6. So the circle remains unbroken. Congrats to a great couple!
Sticky fingers at the drugstore… A cashier at the Water St. Duane Reade was arrested for allegedly selling customers’ credit card information to a third party. Lazandra Tirado, 19, was arrested last Thursday for taking the data from 10 customers between Feb.7 and Feb 16. She was charged with grand larceny, unlawful possession of a skimming device and unlawful possession of personal IDs.
