thewayofthefuture, do you have any dates inbetween March 8 and April 2nd in mind? I am due for a NY visit in March at some point. Not sure I can make the 8th but if you do another one before the April date, maybe the 22nd, I can possibly do that. Saturday would work best.

I still need to settle on the location, but 3/15 or 3/22 would work for Belarus. Which would be better for you?

We figure to be in town 3/19-25 but unfortunately the 22nd is committed. Can any of this happen any day or evening except Saturday?

Unfortunately I'll be limited to Saturdays or at most Sunday lunch - my days of flexible plans are numbered for the near future. Fridays are iffy for now too, not sure I can head out early enough to get to a dinner.

Let me check re flights etc., but happy to plan around weekend of 22nd if Sunday lunch works for monitor. I know my last flight out is generally around 7pm.

Ok, weekend of 22nd works well and it turns out they added a later flight around 9pm from LGA, so Sunday is quite doable too for lunch/early dinner.

So, Saturday dinner or lunch/early dinner Sunday will work for me.

Sunday the 23rd is good for me. Lunch would probably be best.

monitor, does that work for you and frantic?

Lunch would be good. Dinner would be even better.

Why not do Brunch at one and early Dinner at the next with a few bottles of wine in-between? It is, after all, Sunday. :D

We can do a lingering lunch :D

Ended up booking the 7pm flight back after all since the 9pm is a baby plane with no F cabin and more expensive to boot.

I called the number from an old article about a 24-hour Belorussian grocery in Brighton Beach and apparently they are still in operation :) (the ~4 words of Russian I learned on my recent trip paid dividends in this conversation)

I already needed to rent a car for errands tomorrow morning, so I will just plan to be down there around 1:30 tomorrow afternoon. I'm not able to determine what the actual name of the place is (I see entries online for Belarus II, Belaruse, Belarus International Cafe, and others), but the address is 495 Neptune Avenue @ West 5th Street.

This is better for our (lingering) lunch on 3/23 also, since it sounds like Manhattan will be more convenient for everyone and it will be much easier to find Belgian food.

Friday night dinner would work well for me! (April 4th)

Ok. It looks like Belgium is now happening on 3/23, but we'll plan to do another one on 4/4. Belize, Benin, and Bhutan are next on the list. I know of a couple of places that serve Bhutanese food, so if I can't find anything for Belize or Benin we'll just skip ahead to Bhutan for that night.

For the 3/23 lingering Belgian lunch, a friend mentioned http://petiteabeille.com/home.

I have not been there myself but was told the "mussels and fries are yummy". So a possible option.

Petite Abeille is indeed good, and great Belgian beer selection to go with the moules frites. There are a few of them, and the one near me in Tribeca (perhaps others as well) has a bunch of Tintin art so you definitely get the Belgian vibe.

There's also Pommes Frites on Second Ave. in the East Village, which makes delicious fries, but may be better if you're ever planning a 2 am event. ;)

Meal #16 - Belarus
 

As I mentioned upthread, the only true Belorussian restaurant in town (Syabri) has recently shut its doors, and it was explained that this was possibly due to a landlord dispute. I managed to get in touch with the owner, who tells me he hopes to reopen at some point; I have promised that we would happily revisit the cuisine of Belarus if he is able to do so.

Meanwhile, we moved forward with Plan B on Saturday by traveling to Brighton Beach for a take-out lunch from the aptly-named Belarus grocery store. This had been previously recommended by greendx (our second FTer to join us at his native country's meal) who helped us navigate the food selection and overcome the language barrier with the shop owner. The choices were extensive, but we left with a few variations of draniki, crepes, and some imported desserts. The most interesting item was a sort of marshmallow ball wrapped in peanut-filled chocolate - perhaps greendx can help me with the name of this item. These were tasty but I'm told they are much better when made fresh.

http://i.imgur.com/zoYe2tr.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/CZsMvyf.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/EArlCEN.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/CRSim1U.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/QpaGgzR.jpg

I should probably go ahead and set a location and secure reservations for our Belgian lunch on 3/23. The leading contenders right Markt (6th Ave @ 21st), Petite Abielle (3 locations), or Resto (29th btwn Park & Lex). Any preferences?