Rock Center Cafe

The iconic outdoor skating rink in New York's Rockefeller Center turns into the Rock Center Cafe, a casual outdoor restaurant that is perfect for lunch, dinner and especially happy hour. They feature daily drink specials and light entrees at both the larger tables with wait service as well as at the bar. I was here twice over the summer, once with my roommates for a small bite to eat after work one evening and another time with my brother and his girlfriend for a late-afternoon cocktail.
Here's a look at their MENU.
Located at 20 W. 50th St; near 5th Ave [MAP]
Their hours change depending on the season...
Jan-Sept: Mon-Fri, 7:30am - 10:30pm; Sat, 11am - 11pm; Sun, 11am - 10pm
Oct-Nov 15th: Mon-Fri. 7:30am - 10pm; Sat, 11am - 10pm; Sun, 11am - 9pm
Nov. 16h - Dec: Mon-Thurs, 7:30am - 10pm; Fri, 7:30am - 11pm; Sat, 11am - 11pm; Sun, 10am - 10pm

Poll Results: Meeting up with Friends...

When meeting up with friends the majority of Gossip Street readers prefer to go to dinner rather than brunch, lunch or happy hour. What's your vote? Make your vote count, vote HERE.
I've created a new poll (see left) asking what is your go-to drunk food? Vote HERE.

Aquamarine

After work a colleague and I went to Aquarmarine for a dinner meeting and loved it! The menu has something for everyone- even the non-sushi lovers. Naturally we started off with an appetizer of edamame. They offer an entire vegetable section including the Sauteed Asian Veggie Thai Style, which I highly recommend. And of course they offer classic sushi rolls like avocado, cucumber, and more but they also offer an aray of Aquamarine Special Rolls including a Hawaiian Roll with salmon and pineapple topped with avocado and spicy mayo and the Manhattan Roll with shrimp tempura, enoki mushrooms, kani, spicy may and red tobiko. They even offer a Japanese Fruit salad which I didn't have but it sounds great, especially for lunch. The fruit salad consists of mesculin, mango, avocado, pineapple, kiwi, orange and cherry tomato with yogurt dressing.
Watch this video to get the full inside view of Aquamarine:

Aspen Restaurant & Lounge

The photos of Aspen's interior have tempted me for several months now and I finally had the chance to experience the cozy hotspot last weekend. The bar seems pleasant with wood panel walls and three fake deer heads but step in a little further to enter into the restaurant where patrons dine around a giant fire pit. I continued to be impressed with the restaurant as our waitress rattled off the specials which included lamb atop of mashed potatoes infused with truffle oil.
I ordered the magnificent Vegetarian Terrine dished served on a rectangular white plate with three portions of vegetables lined up. From left to right there were beet mashed potatoes, baked eggplant wrapped with brussel sprout leaves in the middle followed by a serving of green beans to the right.
Overall the restaurant was lovely- romantic but not too romantic, trendy but not too trendy. The space would also serve well as an event venue.
Located on 22nd Street between 5th & 6th Avenues. (Dinner served from 6-midnight; bar opened from 5pm-late night; closed Sundays)
According to OpenTable, Aspen hosts a Happy Hour daily from 5-8pm; Thursdays DJ Tommy James plays from 8pm-2am; Friday nights you'll find DJ Life spinning from 9pm-2am and on Saturdays DJ's Billy Caldwell and Justin Strauss perform from 9pm-4am

Lola's: Los Angeles

Last night I met a friend from college who now lives in LA at Lola's in West Hollywood. It is the perfect little after work place, tucked away on Fairfax Ave, between Melrose Ave. and Santa Monica Blvd. Their drink menu is jammed packed with different martini options including Red Caramel Apple Martini and the Star F*cker Martini, neither of which I had but they sounded pretty interesting. Instead I opted for a glass of Pinot Grigio and the cheese and fruit platter.
They also have live jazz on Wednesday nights starting at 8pm and happy hour Mon.-Fri. from 5:30-7:30pm
Side note worth mentioning: Scenes from The Hills have been filmed here!

FLUTE

After dinner at The House my friend and I walked to FLUTE, a champagne lounge in Gramercy (20th btw. Broadway & Park). I never knew there were so many different types of champagne, most of which lined the shelves above the bar. The dim lighting and plush sofas would be perfect for an after-dinner date, even though I was there with a friend we had a great time and ordered the Bellini Sampler. For each of the champagne samplers you could choose 3 different types to taste. For the Bellini sampler we choose the pear, mango and peach flavors. Pear was our least favorite as the taste was very subtle.

Apparently Tuesdays from 5-8pm it's Happy Hour at Flute. On our way out we also noticed a flyer announcing Champagne classes, it would be interesting to learn more about the varieties of champagne, I'll have to look into it.