After an appointment yesterday at the extremity of 42nd Street, on the water (literally, the office floated) of the Hudson, I walked across town, through the heart of Manhattan.
...and stopping and ducking back underground when I reached East 42nd and Park Avenue.
...Grand Central.
Where I met Vince for some oysters and a martini.
Kumomotos for me, Rockies for him - local parlance for Oysters Rockefeller (read Dinner at Antoine's to make you hungry for a plateful). It's a good place to go, once in a while. Wildly overpriced, and the food is actually not particularly good. But if you stick the oysters, and sit either at the bar or at one of communal horseshoes rather than in the red-checked tablecloth section, you tend to be pretty happy.
We were.
It's 5:00 somewhere! My least favorite neighborhood, but it sure is a site to see! Enjoy!!!
ReplyDeleteYes.
DeleteAs I was walking through I was trying to think of how many times I have been through Times Square in...14 years. Five? Six? Not sure. It is thrilling in very small doses, but that may be because I was walking down 42nd and its rows and rows of theatres.
A girl could die happy with oysters and champagne!
ReplyDeleteA girl could.
DeleteHope you enjoyed the trek on 42nd from 6th to Park. I worked in Bryant Park for six years and those few blocks always seemed beautiful: but for new storefronts and dress styles I felt like I was in the '40's. Especially when you look up. Oyster Bar way too expensive and mediocre, I agree, but I think you got the best there is to have there. Or maybe a pan roast just watch it being made.
ReplyDeleteJust looked up "Dinner at Antoine's." Wow! A mystery set in 1940's New Orleans. With food prominent! Got to read it.
Unfortunately, I didn't know of this book when I visited N.O.. We found Antoine's somewhat ossified and repellent so we went to Galatoire's instead. But now I wish we had gone to both.
Ossified. Now there's a word you don't see in too many blog comments...Repellent: also good.
DeleteWhy?
Anyhoo, Dinner at Antoine's. Very much a book of its time (that's an excuse)- but good to read, still.
Antoine's felt ossified because it was dark and labyrinth with glass cases of very old menus and other paraphernalia which all testified to the restaurant's unchanging ways. Also, there was no one around: we must have entered in between service shifts, which we should have realized since we both worked in restaurants. It was creepy.
DeleteAntoines was repellent because of the overwhelming smell of cleaning fluids and the clusters of other American tourists lurking about outside (who obviously realized it was between service shifts). We were tourists too but we didn't want to be lumped in with them. No.
We probably gave Antoine's short shrift.
That was partially due to the drinks we had undoubtably had while walking across the Quarter from our hotel where we were the only straight couple (so great). It was that kind of holiday. The hotel probably provided a few complementary drinks as well. I don't remember clearly, not just from my alcohol consumption, but also because it was twenty fiveish years ago. At that time my only ideas of N.O. had been formed by Scarlett and Rhett's honeymoon and "Confederacy of Dunces."
So we went Galatoire's and had a delicious and rowdy lunch there. It seemed to us that people who actually lived in N.O. ate there. Whomever the other patrons were they sure didn't look or act like tourists.
Love that the traffic lights outside Ripley's are gold - to match?
ReplyDeleteManhattan looks very nice! But for me, NY in general is too crowded. I prefer small towns :)
ReplyDeleteI live in a very rural area it is good to be rooted there. When I need to grow I'll head to the city. It is the opposite of living in the city and going to the country for a change of scenery. Thank you for the photgraphs Marie.
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