For the Kid in All of Us (Grooms)

Walking home after last night's performance, I stopped by the Westside Market on Broadway and 77th to pick up some "bachelor food." After all, I am living in the city now, with 2E's on the west coast, and there's just no need for me to make my world famous shrimp dinners while I'm living life as an island.

(See About a Boy for island-living reference.)

What I found while browsing for pre-made sandwiches and plastic pasta cartons was a Lunchables pack. You remember Lunchables: the yellow, rectangular lunch boxes designed for 10-year-olds and for parents who don't have time to throw a nutritious lunch together at 7AM. And what did I do ... ? I went ahead and bought one.

Why? you ask. Why ignore the voices in your head? Why ignore the adult in you who says, Those are for kids, fool! You're 26-years-old! Those aren't healthy, even in the most lenient definition of the word. It's not even DINNER - it's LUNCH! You damn fool!

Well, I'll tell you why, readers. For one, it was $3, and every other pre-made lunch/dinner was at least $10. But more importantly, it's a thing we do. Men. Grooms. Whatever. We have these boyish impulses, impulses that go against every established notion of what is right or normal or O-K. Despite those notions, I sat down last night and took a miniature slice of ham and a miniature slice of cheese and put them squarely atop a miniature Ritz cracker and enjoyed it. Sometimes I even made a Ritz cracker sandwich, despite the fact that there are an equal number of ham slices, cheese slices and crackers. I broke the mold. I did something ridiculous. And you know what? I had completely forgotten about the fruit punch-flavored Capri Sun that came with each and every Lunchables box. It made my friggin' night.

Knowing I have this boyish side, 2E's knew she wouldn't have to work too hard to convince me that we should look into Coolhaus and having their services at our wedding. The beautiful, wonderful people at Coolhaus make ice cream sandwiches. They do God's work.

2E's and I have been planning on having an ice cream bar at our wedding as opposed to a cake; in our minds, it's a nice way to spice things up and make the close of the evening a bit more unique. We imagined we'd be doing this on our own ... providing our own toppings, etc. ... until we learned about Coolhaus.

To put it simply, Coolhaus asks you to pick a type of cookie (brioche, oatmeal raisin, sugar, etc.) and a flavor of ice cream (chai, apple pie, mango, cookies and cream, etc.), and then they make magic. They're otherworldly. They do edible logo wrappers. They'll set up a table and prepare made-to-order sandwiches, or you can reserve the truck for your wedding or event, and they'll pull up outside in true NY/LA Food Truck fashion. Even for the effect, it's totally worth it. This is Coolhaus.

Coolhaus is based in LA, but when we heard that they were planning on having a truck in the NY area in the next few months (and heard how reasonable their prices were), we were sold ... as was the 10-year-old in me ... cause he is absolutely getting a chocolate chip & dirty minty chip ice cream sandwich when he realizes -- mid-reception -- that girls still have cooties.

love,
madman

(you can awaken your inner child at eatcoolhaus.com)