As I slipped the black dress over my head I knew. I knew it was perfect. I knew it would fit me and be beautiful. And it was. The one shoulder charmeuse bodice against my skin was luscious and the knit jersey was quite slimming making for a very elegant and chic yet sexy dress.
That afternoon I called my most glamorous friend and insisted he take me someplace to match my dress. And to no one's surprise he agreed. We arranged to go to Park Ave Spring (a quite fancy restaurant that changes its entire decor and menu with each season and we have gone together to the other 3) then after that to the rooftop bar at the Peninsula Hotel on 5th Avenue.
All day I felt tall and thin and impossibly chic in my dress and received many compliments-of course making me feel even better in it! It was a very busy day but it still could not go fast enough for me, since I was SO excited about the evening to come. It finally ended and I left to meet my friend.
We started the evening at the bar, which isn't something I often do as I can only handle one cocktail per evening and I was saving that for after dinner. But it began as a special and glittering evening with drinks of champagne and strawberry-for spring. We then moved to our table and had a most wonderful dinner. I had scallops that were perfectly cooked. Silk. He had a smoked salmon/pasta garnished with bread crumbs that did a lovely dance inside your mouth. Then I had grilled lobster that was sweet and charred and quite perfect while he enjoyed a gorgeous medallion of beef.
The "spring" dining room, which I believe we liked best of all 4 seasons, was quite beautiful. Golden khaki fabric adorned the walls with purple accents and lush apple and cherry blossoms in large glass earns in several niches along the walls. The lamps over each table were amethyst marbled glass accented with a golden khaki glass bead at its top. In the center of the room is a golden box that held concrete lions in a square around the perimeter. Shrubs were the middle but in their center were more glass urns of the most perfect apple and cherry blossoms reaching to the ceiling and were glamour incarnate. Small glass vases with deep purple delphinium were on each corner anchoring the lions.
Our conversation sparkled like the champagne! Quips and banter prevailed perfectly suited to my dress and his jacket threaded with silver.
We then strolled down Park Avenue on a perfect city evening. Breezy, a sapphire dusk, and of course the glam stores as we turned onto 57th St. Walking past Dior and Chanel and Saint-Laurent they seemed to join our marvelous evening and made me realize just how 1920's an evening it really was. We were flappers for those few hours and loved every second of it.
We walked into the hotel to crystal chandeliers, cream velvet chaises, beautiful paintings and as we got closer to the elevator the decor became less 20's and more modern which seemed to fit this back and forth Cole Porter evening just perfectly. In the elevator we even flirted with the 2 others in it then went our separate ways on the Penthouse floor. Walking to our table in an open air rooftop garden was simply magnificent. To be equal to the tops of the Fifth Avenue buildings is a fascinating experience that happens too rarely. And yet that is what makes it so effervescent. To be in the view and one with it is an unusual experience making one feel a bit off balance and yet somehow divine at the same time. I felt that in the Rainbow Room and when in downtown LA on the rooftop bar of the W Hotel-one of the few skyscrapers there. We watched dusk finish and night settle in, watching car lights and office lights blinking on or off. We guessed what buildings we were looking at from the top and we guessed what the view across the city we saw so clearly was.
More banter and witty repartee with our gorgeous cocktails. We talked and talked... We talked of our husbands who we missed dreadfully but were happy (or happier) at home, we talked of childhood experiences and other friends...the evening was mellowing coming (sadly) to its logical end.
When I got home it was midnight, I had been awake and working since 5:30 that morning and would have to get up at 5:30 again the next morning. I still had to force myself to sleep since was on such a high. I am still on that high as I didn't so much wake up this morning I sprung up. Even now I am not tired which I was expecting to be. I hope the euphoria can really carry me through the day as there is going to be a gym experience at the end of it (which I must have in order fit into the sleek pencil skirts and fitted sheaths I love to wear).
I toast to a magical evening that I wished would never end.
