On Saturday I had a rather busy but fun day. My husband went to work and I did my usual wandering around the city which I hadn't done in quite some time and was really missing. First I got my hair colored at Vidal Sassoon which is always a glorious experience. I'm even now becoming friends with my colorist. Then I got a manicure-again another glorious experience. Now I was free for several hours before the dinner party we were invited to.
I had a terrific lunch at Republic. This is a buzzy loud delicious pan Asian place owned by the same people who own Wagamama in London. I used to eat here all the time but they took my favorite seaweed salad off the menu and somehow I could never find anything I liked as much and wasn't too fattening so I stopped going. After a year or so I found myself in the neighborhood needing to have a quick dinner before meeting a friend at the movie theater a few blocks away so gave it a try. They had changed the menu again and added an incredible sashimi salad that I can't get enough of. I went for lunch on Saturday and enjoyed the salad very much coupling it with a very spicy very delicious green papaya salad.
Then I went into my office to work but my password had expired and without IT there I couldn't do the things I had planned on so left. Somehow by this time it was 4 o'clock and I really wanted to see one of the many museum exhibits around the city that are on my list so I took the train up to the Whitney and saw Georgia O'keefe exhibit. It was painful to give $18 to the museum to spend an hour looking at one exhibit but so it goes especially since it was a wonderful exhibit and I am SO glad I took the time to go.
It showed her very early work, predating the giant flowers that we all know and decorated with in the 80's! There were line sketches from 1915 and 1916 that were elegant and beautiful. Other work was equally beautiful-dark waves of color that also predate the famous flowers but gave you their knowledge. And thankfully there were no dead cow bones-the one genre of Georgia O'Keefe's work that I really detest. There were photographs of her taken by Alfred Stieglitz and while I always knew she was beautiful I never realized just how beautiful she was. And so thin-21st century model thin! It was really very interesting to see the photos juxtaposed with the paintings-so much so in fact that one of the descriptor cards quoted GOK herself in that you cannot understand her later work until you see the photos Stieglitz took of her.
By then I had to rush a little, it was 5 and I was due in the east village at 6. I walked up Madison to 77th towards the train and was distracted by an antique jewelry store that I had never seen before. I went in looked around a bit-such exquisite things that (sadly) I couldn't afford. I had a lovely conversation with the manager and did buy a book that the owner had had made of her vintage fashion postcard collection and enjoyed perusing it while on the train going downtown.
I got to our foodie friend's apartment about 10 minutes early and as a person who entertains often I understand how painful it is when guests arrive early so I wandered around for a few blocks looking in windows...I rang the buzzer at 6:05. I am usually a very punctual person but when going to someone's house it really is better to be late.
Her apartment is huge by NYC standards and her friends were comfortable and intelligent-really a terrific combination! AND (!) her husband was pouring Prosecco into vintage champagne glasses then spooning a cranberry slush into them which was quite quite gorgeous and just as delicious. I am still shocked by this but I actually drank 4 of them over the course of the evening and wasn't even tipsy! How that happened I don't know-I am usually buzzy half way through a single cocktail.
My husband and I had a terrific time, the food was delicious and beautifully served. I take great pleasure in telling you that I have introduced my friend to Depression glass collecting (hence the beautiful serving pieces) and we have begun to go to flea markets wherever we can find them. She was so thoughtful and changed her stuffing recipe to turkey bacon, artichokes, and Parmesan cheese because she knows that my level of kosher doesn't allow me to eat anything from a pig (which is rather difficult these days given how fashionable it is).
It was such a pleasure to spend the evening there.
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