The In-box

Reader Pleads for a Cosmo-Free Birthday

Given the recent release of Sex and the City, we weren’t surprised when a reader sent us an e-mail with the subject line “I don’t want jersey girls drinking cosmos to ruin my birthday.” Her plea for a locale:

My 21st birthday is on monday and i’m looking for the perfect place to celebrate..minus all the hoopla that usually surrounds the trashy, puke in the mouth into the entree 21st. just looking for something cozy and the ability to be as loud as i want. i checked out hecho en dumbo and it looked great, but alas, it’s closed on Mondays. i was also thinking a beer garden in queens but my hopes and dreams were crushed when i was informed that a peripheral friend of ours recently had her bday there last week. bummer.

Judging by your first choice, we’re assuming you live in Dumbo and you like Mexican — if your party is small, you could always take over Pedro’s, the ramshackle subterranean Mexican-Dominican joint with sidewalk tables. No cosmos there! But for something slightly more upscale and in keeping with Hecho en Dumbo, we’d suggest Rebar. It’s elegant but totally casual, with an arsenal of reasonably priced beers sure to rival that of the beer garden you also had in mind (we’re talking Blithering Idiot barley wine on tap). Rest assured, there are good tortilla chips there, too, as well as cheese-and-meat plates and Spanish sandwiches. Feliz cumpleaños!

Reader Pleads for a Cosmo-Free Birthday