A long weekend in NY in February, chilly, not really, rainy, not really, lots of good fun, sure!
We came up for a weekend to visit with our friends Nid and Pat from Thailand, who are visiting family and friends in the States. We've known them for a long time, visited them at home, and hosted them in Washington and other cities over the years, so it has been a reunion of long-time dear friends, to be repeated as often as possible.
We also drove up with our friend Lamar who was coming to the city to see a new friend, and shared the drive with us from Washington on Friday. It's a long drive, made longer by a medical appointment in Chevy Chase that lasted over an hour, so it didn't end in New York, Friday night till 7:00 PM!
The drive: We were late leaving Washington so had lunch at what was an old favorite, the Double T Diner on Route 40, not far from Whitemarsh Center in north suburban Baltimore. We had enjoyed stopping here as part of our search for the perfect spinach pie at Greek diners between DC and NY, which we have undertaken for several years. Once upon a time, Double T had such. Not any more. A true disappointment. Ben and Lamar had what appeared to be a microwaved slice of pie, warm but with droopy phyllo pastry. What a downer. On top of that John ordered a Reuben with corned beef, which came as a slice of rye bread, untoasted, with four slices of corned beet and microwave melted Swiss cheese on top. Oh, sadness, what a ruin! No matter that the clam chowder was up to standard and the French fries excellent, and even the Greek salad acceptable. The Double T is off our list.
But the stop at Brew-Ha-Ha in Wilmington revived our spirits. We enjoyed their excellent lattes and Ben had is normal XX-dry skim textured cappuccino, always good here. It's our standard stop on the trek between DC and NY, so all was better for coffee.
In the evening, we settled at our host's home in Washington Hts and took the elevator up to Ft. Tryon Park from his street to the New Leaf. This is a restaurant in an old stone building in the park that surrounds the Cloisters, overlooking the north end of Manhattan, with the Hudson below. The restaurant is eclectic and served us three fine meals. We had acceptable gin and vodka drinks to begin and a fine Marlborough Giesen Sauv Blanc to go with the meals: A beef stew with stout for me and host David, that was truly hearty; Ben and David both began with oysters from Prince Edward Island, while Ben had risotto cake and then avocado and artichoke heart salad in place of his main dish. We moved graciously to the elevator and home. The restaurant was established as part of Bette Midler's philanthropic work with NY parks. She has apparently taken a significant interest in Ft. Tryon Park, and it shows in the pleasant restaurant, its good service, and even its combo playing jazz with a female vocalist.
John awoke in the middle of the night to the sensation of skunk! It turns out that the rocky incline behind the apartment building is home not only to a family of skunks but also several ornery feral cats, who do battle with the skunks each evening. Unbeknownst to him, a skunk had not entered through the open window as he feared, as he listened cautiously for the patter little black and white feet, but the odor was drifting off the rocky precipice behind the apartment and into the bedroom. A bit sickening, yes, but a relief to know there wasn't an anxious skunk raising his or her tail in the bedroom!
Saturday was our day to see our friends Nid and Pat. We met and headed out for lunch at the Han Gawi Korean vegetarian restaurant on 32nd Street. We'd been here before and had hoped to get reservations that evening, but the restaurant was hosting a private party so we headed out for a lunch of kimchi, vegetarian seaweed rice casserole, mushrooms in several different guises, many different types of omelets and dumplings, and some fragrant Korean teas. John had a citron paste tea with sesame nuts, sweet but refreshing. Ben and Pat had green tea and Nid enjoyed a ginger tea. We sat on the floor with our feet dangling into a small pit beneath the table--a fop to poor non-Koreans or non-Japanese who do not find it comfy to sit on our ankles. Lovely meal, followed by equally good coffee at Stumptown on 29th Street.
We had a bit of spare time at the apartment and then headed out to Gente on East 45th Street behind Grand Central Station for dinner. This is a smallish restaurant, which in the evening takes on the guise of a local neighborhood place, but probably caters to a significant lunchtime crowd as well. The menu is not intriguing and the first reaction is that the meal will be somewhat banal. Instead the meals arrived almost to perfection. The ingredients were fresh, the tastes full, and the end result a table of satisfied diners, except perhaps for a pesto and pasta that wasn't perfectly satisfying. Our starters were a salad of arugula, prosciutto and white beans for John, antipasti for our friends and a soup for Ben. Then we proceeded on to pasta for Nid and Pat, pesto for Nid and ravioli for Pat, chicken stuffed with mozzarella, mushrooms and prosciutto for John and a mushroom risotto for Ben. Pat had so enjoyed the sautéed spinach in her antipasto that we ordered a side of it--done with garlic and fine olive oil. The wine, a Nero de Avalo from Sicily went well with the meal--it was a fruity, not heavy red. We finished with a small cappuccino ball divided between the four of us. A very lovely, simple, excellently prepared meal.
This morning we had brunch with Nid and Pat in the dining room of the Thai Residence they had had when they lived in NY, now hosting them, with fine omelets, toast and coffee. Then we headed out with the hope of seeing the Renoir show at the Frick, but the line was too long so we punted and headed off to Nespresso on Madison Avenue for coffees and conversation. We said our goodbyes and headed to Russ and Daughters on Houston Street to buy much Gaspé lox to take back, packed in dry ice, to Washington.
One of the things we have found in NY this trip is that as over 65 or disabled people we travel for half fare on the busses and subways. It's $1.10, though in coin that requires purchasing the new golden colored dollar coins--which we had never seen before! It's amazing how that adds up instead of $2.25 a ride. You can't use a fare card, but even going with the hassles of getting the cash or buying a special ticket each time you use the subway, it's worth it.
Tonight we are heading out to Lambs Club for dinner and expect a lovely meal.
Actually, it was lamb and fish--and pâté and sea urchin and chorizo and puréed veges and French vintage wine at Lambs Club, an elegant, to the point of being posh, restaurant in the theater district off Times Square. We were guests of Lamar and Robert; Lamar who came up with us and Robert who was in from Toronto on business.
