Cafe Habana’s Brunch

Last Sunday, my friend Julia and I spent the day together having brunch, shopping, and rock climbing. Julia and I know each other from kindergarten and have kept in touch even though my family left Pittsburgh in middle school. We used to have play dates when we were kids, always competed for the position of teacher’s pet (even in the first grade), and used to past notes to each other in the 6th grade with secret codes like DTA and DSA (don’t tell anyone and don’t show anyone…creative, I know). Julia was in town for the week because she was spending some time with her uncle before heading back to Berkeley for the semester. We decided to meet up for brunch and then walk around Soho before heading to her cousin’s rock climbing gym; I suggested Cafe Habana because I was really craving their black beans. We were seated immediately (unlike last time) but we could not flag down a waitress to give us water or take our order. When we eventually did get the bartender’s attention, we placed our order – Julia ordered the French toast:

And I ordered the huevos rancheros:

The French toast and huevos rancheros were both absolutely amazing (whatever they put in their black beans seriously reminds me of my days going to Mad Mex in Pittsburgh). The service, on the other hand, was really terrible; we couldn’t get our water refilled, we didn’t get silverware for a good 20 minutes, and they slipped us our bill as soon as we got our food.

After our brunch at Cafe Habana, we walked around Soho looking for a ring for Julia and then took the subway to Times Square to head to the rock climbing gym. The rock climbing studio is actually affiliated with the gym in an apartment building near Times Square and has two walls for climbing and one big room for bouldering. Julia loved rock climbing and screamed the entire way UP:

I also loved rock climbing but took a chance with bouldering, which was really scary because you couldn’t rely on your harness to fall back on:

We spent a good portion of the rainy day at the rock climbing gym and had a lot of fun with her cousin, Edward, who helped us belay the entire afternoon. Me and Julia after a full day of activities: