A very derryX bachelor party…

If you’ve seen the film Bachelor Party starring Tom Hanks, you know that modeling a bachelor party they way they did isn’t an easy thing to do.

A little bit of planning went into what I ultimately did for my bachelor party, and the framework was really set based on one geographic location, 25 Chapel Street in downtown Albany, home of Yono’s Restaurant and the Hampton Inn. But I’m skipping ahead a little.

The weekend actually turned out to be a fairly comprehensive roundup of many of my favorite local things, and I can’t think of anything else I could have squeezed into the weekend.

My two groomsmen (my brother Dom and our good friend, Jeff) arrived in Albany at 9PM on Friday night. This was the day where I hit my 75 pounds lost milestone, and I had been looking forward to enjoying some poutine and a burger at the Capital City Gastropub as a reward for my recent streak of training hard. We all actually ordered burgers, and they were amazing.

The next morning, we had a bunch of time before we had to get fit for our suits, so I had everything ready to make a corned beef hash mega breakfast.

Then we headed over to my pal, Anthony, at Tuxego in Latham to get fit for suits for the wedding day. Afterwards, Jeff got the best haircut of his life at a barbershop next to Tuxego, and then we drove a couple of miles to a little place called Ala Shanghai for a formidable lunch.

We headed into Troy to Aquilonia Comics for the guys to pick up some comics and books for the ride home and beyond. Even after that, it was a little too early to check into the Hampton Inn, so I stopped at Cheesecake Machismo for a snack.

The hotel room was really nice, and the beds were comfy.

We had quite a bit of time before our 7:30 dinner reservation at Yono’s, but I got dressed a bit early.

(Relax; I wore a nice shirt over that to dinner.)

After a beyond stellar experience at Yono’s with my buddies, Jeff, John Jordan, MetalFrog, my cousin Bobby, and Dom, we walked over to McGeary’s for some beers. It was crazy busy because the Martina McBride concert had just let out, but it was nice to say hello to my #fitnessfriend, Chelsea, who works the bar there.

We had some nice cigars in the bitter cold, then hauled it back over to the hotel and crashed for the night.

The next morning, since we had a little time before Dom and Jeff had to catch their bus, we headed back to Troy for breakfast at Illium Cafe. After breakfast, I finally had an espresso across the street at the Charles F. Lucas Confectionery; their espresso is far ahead of the curve.

And I picked up one of Sweet Sue’s “Monster Oreo” cookies that they had behind the counter for later.

Once Dom and Jeff got on their bus, the amazing streak of fun and tasty delights had to end. Considering everything happened within a 40 hour period, I think we covered a lot of the area’s amazing things, at least the things I find amazing.