Baby Grand

(We have absolutely no photographic evidence of any of the following)

With stats complete, we went in search of the first bar we had sampled on our original NYC visit, but without a clue as to its location we gave up and dipped into a tiny little establishment on LaFayette and Grand St. named Baby Grand! It was smaller than our hotel room (literally) and our presence alone forced a 'one in, one out' door policy.

Within minutes we were talking to the lovely bar maid, Adrienne. We enjoyed her pleasant demeanour and great conversation, and without the distractions of things like other customers or the space to move anywhere else in the bar, she soon found herself stuck talking to us!

She revealed her immensely diverse personality, with a passion for shoe and fashion design, which was firmly influenced by her other major interests of origami, mathematical patterns and psychology.

Before too long, the bar’s owner, Mike arrived. A huge Tottenham Hotspurs supporter and connoisseur of football in general, Mike had a wealth of intellectual pursuits himself. A qualified lawyer/ keen video gamer/ bar owner/ football player, Mike discussed the football scenes back home with Tom, before unleashing a host of theories on the evolutionary roots of competitive sports and the inherent beauty of efficient design. We were smitten with both of them.

With the bar to ourselves, Adrienne suggested we get some food in. We called up the local pizza place - the world renowned Lombardi's, and tucked into the finest pizza on earth with our new friends. We then whiled away the hours drinking Earl Grey and taking part in an impromptu origami workshop - not your average night out! We were shocked into the realisation that we were not in our own private bar when a couple of punters had the audacity to walk into the bar, but one was a professional UFC fighter so we didn't complain. With an early start ahead of us for our flight the following day we bid a reluctant farewell to Mike and Adrienne, armed with some custom made origami. Meeting these two fascinating characters in such a cool setting was the perfect last night to cap off an unforgettable 3 months.

This is not the end...we are writing this from Waterloo, back on UK soil, having endured a rigorous sleep deprived 28 hours. We will post up a final verse with a few poignant thoughts once we've had a few days to mull it all over. And sleep. But, this is the end of the American Verses...we hope you've enjoyed our self indulgent flights of fancy as much as we have!