Big swings

ANOOP PILLARISETTI • Strange Delight

CULTURE & LEISURE • Friday Routine

ANOOP PILLARISETTI • proprietor • Strange Delight // vp technology • Momofuku
Neighborhood you work and live in: Fort Greene

It’s Friday afternoon, how are you rolling into the weekend?
Friday can hit like a Monday sometimes. Other times, it hits like a Friday. This Friday, it hits like Groundhog Day (the movie). I've been covering at Strange Delight for many nights — and now, some days (plug our new lunch service plug plug) — which means I've lost all sense of time entirely.

This does have its benefits: The friends show up and my night becomes shaking hands and kissing babies, both real and imaginary; the team does such a good job of running the ship that I can sneak down to the basement to snack on shrimp remoulade and fried saltines when I need an escape. I've been tinkering with a couple of new drinks as well — SD Bloody Mary service, your choice red or green, plus an unofficial Pat O'Briens Hurricane x Ghia mash-up called a Ghiacane. All coming soon… maybe.

Any restaurant plans this weekend?
Every weekend, I say I'll do the following:

• Saturday Lunch at Four Horsemen in Williamsburg, a goated NYC experience that deserves all of the continual praise, justifiable long waits, and hype. Four Horsemen is my sanctuary, especially the seat at the corner of the bar by the windows where you can close your eyes and nestle your head into the potted plant you’re sharing counter space with, while meditating on the deliciousness in front of you.

• Saturday night at Bamonte's with the homies. At the bar. A martini, or an old fashioned, in one of those teeny glasses. An order of fried calamari arrabiata. If you’re lucky, you'll meet some priests from the local church, and they’ll serenade you while questioning your religious/spiritual identity.

• A sunday burger at Peter Luger. Even when they aren't firing on all cylinders, this is my #1, and when the stars align, the boundaries between the spiritual and physical deteriorate. If Four Horsemen is my sanctuary, Sunday Luger is my church service. Don't tell the priests.

These things rarely happen, but other special things often do: a wine and a snack at Fradei, a hot breast at The Commodore, a chicken al diavolo at Romans. And more frequently than one would expect, a vegetable-heavy dry pot with my partner at MaLa Project.

How about a little leisure or culture?
Saturdays kick off with a little tennis at the beautiful, always perfect campus of the National Tennis Center in Flushing. The site of so much of my awkward gliding across the court, searching for that great shot that comes after about 72 mediocre ones. I get back to Fort Greene around 930a, spend anywhere from 15-45 minutes looking for parking, then hit the farmer's market for the following week's sundries and provisions. If I'm not working service and the scheduling gods allow it, I'm hoping to see my partner perform.

Do you get away anywhere regularly for the weekend?
Total Tennis, upstate in Saugerties, with the buddy James. It's a 2-3x a year trip at this point, and we’re thinking about adding a winter indoor version just because it's so good (though nothing compares to my favorite time there — peak July, 10+ hours of tennis over two days while it's 92 and sunny). Stay hydrated.

What was your last great vacation?
Had a fun and wacky couple of weeks in July, framed by two beautiful weddings in Vermont that happened to fall on back-to-back weekends. A highlight of that definitely was a trip to Montreal — it’d been a minute since my last trip and I hit a few classics — Joe Beef, Au Pied du Cochon (shout out the most insane seafood plateau in the history of seafood plateaus), while trying out the new, excellent Le Violon from chef Danny Smiles.

A little further north of Montreal, I got to play a little tennis at a camp in Mont Tremblant (shoutout weird empty ski towns in the summer!) and had a 10/10 spa experience at Scandinave Spa Mont Tremblant. Being able to duck out in the middle of a restaurant opening and reset for a few short days was a real privilege and blessing. And for what it's worth, I came back to the city and immediately ordered Sichuan from Park Slope's hidden gem, Authentic Szechuan (of 5th Ave).