Dinner with Friends

Cocktails at the Bar

I went, for the first time in 15 Years, to Bemelman's Bar at the Carlyle Hotel and it was glorious. It was the very pinnacle of elegance and I felt even more so than I usually do.  I had read an article in Edible Manhattan about it and a powerful craving for a gin martini. A true classic and at a true classic.

It was more crowded at 6 pm than I expected though I would imagine people after work, on upper Madison Avenue go there. Or before dinner. The room was dark but for the pale wallpaper, full of the whimsy of Peter Rabbit like characters frolicking in Central Park. It was loud with the laughter of upper east ladies who lunch in their dark sheath dresses and blonde coiffures, the dark was deeper with the gentlemen on their phones in dark suits. I found the only seat at the bar. It was too far away for the bartender to see me and waiters only paid attention to the tables. After a moment a seat opened up in front of the rather attractive bartender, which I took. I ordered my Negroni but asked which gins were available. I was a bit disappointed that list was so mainstream, especially for the nightmarish price of $19.50++!!!!!???? The group around laughed with me at the bartender's spirited recitation and tried to make him do it again backwards in the same order. It was a textbook cocktail and frankly for that exorbitant fee I expected better but I had a fun evening overall and am glad I went.  Sitting at that bar in my designer clothes made me feel that I was a Park Avenue Princess.  I crossed my legs, and looked out over the room-suddenly my legs felt 10 feet long!

A man say down next to me and immediately flirted, and quite outrageously so. Every other sentence was how erotic my movements were. Ok, I did look good in one of my pencil skirts with a rather long slit, a high necked blouse over which was a very fitted very masculine vest, though 1/2 the back is cut out to be replaced by a chiffon floral fabric. He over did it on purpose and I had blast!!! He wanted to fight my husband for me. We both laughed a lot. He bought me a second cocktail, which I truly did not ask for or need. Once I started getting tipsy I stopped drinking but it was too late, when my husband picked me up I was drunk and uncomfortable. As soon as my husband called, I packed my belongings and started to say good bye, but my one night stand, whose name I do not know, had already turned to the woman on his other side As my husband says, "Easy come easy go"

Why we simply HAD to go to Browns

While we were in London we wanted to go to Brown's because we had, by accident, once before we started going to Paris.

It was a dark and stormy night in London (I know, I know, but it really was!!) And we were tired, uncomfortable. A restaurant's doorman heard me say how hungry I was and beckoned us inside. It was so lovely, very French bistro looking with beautiful crystal chandeliers, large mirrors deeply embellished mirrors all painted cream against dark grey walls. The tables were a rich, warm, dark wood as were the chairs. We sat down and were immediately greeted by Emily who introduced herself as our server. It was heavenly. The food was wonderful-the whole thing was so exactly what we needed at that moment, so perfect. Towards the end of our meal, Emily (a charmer, by the way) asked us if we minded if her colleague Olivia could end our meal for us. She explained, that while she had never left shift early before she actually (with a slightly sheepish look) had a date and she just had a "feeling", she thought this guy was "the one" and she begged for our indulgence. Of course we told her to go have a good time and wished her luck with "the one" part of it.

We went home told this adorable story and then 6 months later went back to London. We went right to Browns and as we walked in Olivia happened to be standing at the maitr'd stand. We all exclaimed and hugged! And then I asked her, I had to know-what happened to Emily???? Was he the one??? Yes, in fact she had taken a 2 week holiday and the wedding was in a few days. We were all so thrilled for her and we made Olivia promise to give Emily our best wishes.

We had another WONDERFUL dinner with Olivia. So much so that, though it was the early days of the internet, I was able to find out the President of Brown's name and wrote to him, telling him of our marvelous experiences. I got a letter back from him, he was so happy we were happy and he wanted to take us for drinks the next time we were in London.

Once we knew when we were going bacl, I called his office to make a plan but his assistant told us he'd be traveling to the North of the UK the week were in town but that he would send another letter offering us drinks on the company for whenever we were in Browns again. A few months later we were at the maitr'd stand once again. As soon as I started to say my name and show the letter the hostess, "oh, I know exactly who you are and you won't be paying for a thing tonight, order whatever you want!". It was fabulous and we have wonderful memories but after that trip we started going to Paris every year.

It was a fluke that we decided on London again this year and I'm glad we did! But no summertime trip this year. We had enough trouble with crowds in the tube, on the day of the Chinese New Year celebration, and that was just one afternoon. NOTHING would possess us to go to London during the Olympics!!!

Paris certainly calls to us this summer (besides we can't be away from our first love for too long).

Including Him

Yet another...

 

 

I've mentioned before that my husband hates to go out but I love it so I never force him to go anywhere and I try to go out when he's working and I do adore when he agrees to join me.  Last weekend while my glam BF was away I planned to meet 2 friends (women actually) for drinks on Sunday afternoon. I was dumb and I didn't look it up in time and at 3 when we were supposed to meet at 4 was the first time I looked up the fact that PDT didn't open until 6. Oops.  After much discussion, we decided upon Essex, a charming bar inside the Essex St Market.  I wasn't really impressed with the market, it felt dingy and unclean.  But the bar has an elegance to it that I liked.  I had an espresso martini and I liked that you could taste the coffee in it.  My friend had champagne and my other friend had a minty gingery muddled thing.  We had a fabulous afternoon!  They wanted to go for an early dinner to which I agreed immediately.  Somehow  Chinese (my favorite!) discussion led to a Chinese/Mexican plan- somehow I found myself in a charming tapas place, called the Ten Bells on the lower east side.   We shared a patatas bravas, an artichoke gratin, goat in a tortilla with blood sausage and onions though that part I refused to eat along with octopus, and a few other pork things.  My husband called to say he was on his way downtown, where did I want him to pick me up. I asked him to join us and as he so often does he said no.  I just handed the phone to my friend who somehow talked him into joining us.  We had a wonderful time and he added smoked duck slices to the mix of dishes and the restaurant's version of pigs in a blanket (handmade sausage wrapped in pastry with a sweet spicy mustard sauce baked inside). In fact we had such a fabulous time together that we decided on another date for the middle of November!!!   We're thinking about Tribeca restaurants next and one day soon I have to ask him what she said to convince him to join us at all...

Braeburn

Another I had never posted

 

 

There used to be an elegant, glamorous restaurant (but the glamour was subtle and low key) called Voyage in the west village, and it was fairly inexpensive with lovely food-it was one of the few places I could easily get my husband to go to.  One day a year or so ago, while walking by I noticed it was closed and sadly had to break the news to my husband.  About 6 months ago a new restaurant called Braeburn opened up, which I promptly put on my list of places to go. For one reason or another I wasn't able to get there until Wed night. As soon as I turned the corner onto Perry St I knew that I was walking to where Voyage used to be!! I hoped it was good. 

It is in that new farmhouse decor that seems to be taking the city by storm...sigh...do you get my air of resignation...? I  am not a fan of fancy restaurants being so casual and rustic, because I am neither casual or rustic and because the food still tends towards the high end precise high style food that I love. I hate that the food doesn't really go with the look of the place. Ah well, they didn't ask me before they opened so what can I do...

 The food and the service was just lovely. I sat at the bar while waiting for my glam best friend to arrive, chatting with the bartender about whiskey. He was knowledgeable and interested in discussing my whiskey choices and even looked through the list I keep of what I liked and didn't like. I was able to taste the Laguvullin that I had been wanting to taste for a few months. I liked it a lot but still the Glenmorangie Lasanta is my absolute favorite.  My friend had a martini which he enjoyed, saying the olives were really good-he is quite the critique of olives around the City.

 The  maitr'd led us to our table and the wait staff was in plaid flannel shirts, which frankly makes me ill. I want to dress in at least a cocktail frock for dinner and this farmhouse thing is just so not for me.

I started with the panko encrusted poached egg with roasted asparagus and parmesan foam.  All the flavors worked well together and were good, the parmesan foam was spectacular, though I thought the panko crumbs overpowered the egg a bit I enjoyed it over all and am fascinated by how they managed it.  I'm guessing they poach the egg and because it's quite wet they can roll it in the toasted bread crumbs. Then I had a cheesy black pepper linguine which I loved (and in the appetizer sized portion so-the perfect size) for its richness with the hit of spice at the end in the back of your throat. My friend had the scallops which were silky and delicious. He then had the lamb which was full of divine flavors and textures-warm chick peas against the gorgeous meatiness of the lamb.  Dessert we liked least, he had an apple tart that was somewhat soggy- and I had a sour cream chocolate cake that wasn't what I expected (I expected a version of warm chocolate tart) which would have been good if it wasn't a bit overcooked (but had good chocolate flavor). 

Overall, we enjoyed it and I would enjoy going back with my husband for the short ribs on the menu as short ribs are one of his favorite things in the world.

 As a follow up, sadly now Braeburn is closed.

More Boston Restaurants or Boston Restaurants Again

My husband and I went to Boston for Labor Day weekend. Have I mentioned how much we detest sitting on a beach doing nothing? We like cities and all that goes with them.

It turned out that Pop, restaurant highly recommended was closed for a private party Friday night, when we, sans reservation planned to go and was disappointing but since the menu sounds so good we'll go another time. We took our concierge's suggestion and ate in a terrific place tucked into an alley behind the hotel, Nine Zero. All black and white, it calls itself a French bistro but the food seems a combination of French and modern English. The bar tender is of the "modern mixology" school which was exciting and delicious; service was knowledgeable but friendly and casual. Some dishes were better than others-the Welsh Rarebit (fun to see on a menu!) was a little oily and the mac and cheese was a bit too al dente but my husband's roast chicken, he reports was wonderful-juicy and flavorful, and my salade Nicoise was amazing-presented in an ultra modern stylish way (long narrow plate, rectangles of raw tuna in a line down the plate with the various accouterments in perfect tiny forms on top) and delicious as well. Dessert was easy- 1 scoop each of handmade ice cream (a somewhat strange crumbly texture but not terrible) and the Ethiopian French press coffee we chose was terrific. Marliave was just fab.

Saturday night we went to O-YA which is always my favorite as I've mention before. We had some of usual dishes and some that were new for us but loved them all. I had my favorite salmon tataki, I ordered the tomago but they were out of it so they gave me the chive flower omelet (so delicious), I had warm just made tofu, and a scallops/truffles plate that was just lovely-summery, refreshing but a real surf and turf feeling of the sea and earth playing together. They were out of my husband's favorite, short ribs so he had the soy braised strip loin (a stew, actually) instead (wonderful) he had the smoked wagyu sashimi and the chopped tea brined chicken thighs-all incredible.

Sunday we planned to go to the John and Abigail Adams home but I have comet o understand that my husband doesn't really want to do that so he refused to get out of bed, we made new plans to go to the SOWA flea and farmer's market, which we've done before and loved but when we got there, to our great chagrin it was closed for the holiday weekend. We were a bit dejected but walked to our lunch reservation at Market in the new W Hotel because it's new, Jean-Georges, and we always go to Market for brunch in Paris and love it!!! They added a few New England touches to the menu over the Paris menu, which I thought was charming. We liked the Paris restaurant better-it is subtler. I ordered a bloody Mary as I love the play of tomato juice and horseradish-what I got was a glass so full of pepper my throat was on fire. The gazpacho, however, was glorious. A bowl of tiny chopped cucumbers, tomatoes, green peppers, almonds, and chilis over which the waiter poured the iced tomato soup.

Sunday night we went to Mooo which we liked a lot. Boston is where Parker House rolls were created and as soon as you order a steaming hot cast iron pan of 4 puffed heavy Parker House rolls are put in front of you. I had a wonderful and classically correct Caesar Salad which is so rare to find these days, and why I never order it. Crisp chopped Romaine lettuce hearts (not limp outer leaves) a dressing actually made from garlic, raw egg, and shredded Parmesean cheese, and anchovies that were real fish!! Then a beef carpaccio which was good with dried cherries and mild wasabi over it (the fruit was not my favorite, I wished it was more classic but the meat was good). My husband who likes to eat high quality excellent food but rarely seeks it out or is rarely this interested in food (!) wanted to taste the mac and cheese (mac & cheese seems to be very trendy in Boston and on every menu) AND the potato skins (which we didn't love-the cheese overpowered the potato). His filet mignon looked gorgeous and he mentioned it's flavor but he ordered it because it was one of only two steaks under 12 ounces, the only other one was a 6 oz kobe beef chopped sirloin and was $120. All the other meats were between 12 and 24 oz and just too much meat, I wish they had other, smaller options becasue ordering a dish for it's portion size is unfortunate, though don't get me worng, he likes filet mignon. The dessert, a chocolate stout cake was incredible but the hugest piece of cake I have ever seen. Deeply chocolatey and dense with chocolate buttercream in between 3 layers and on top-nothing was overly sweet or chemically tasting and like the rolls dense and heavy (which I love, I hate fluffy food).

Monday for lunch, again at the suggestion of our most fabulous concierge's suggestion, we went to the Back Bay Social Club which was really nice-lovely service, good food but again the bloody Mary was so full of pepper it was impossible and it was brownish not red, which I don't get at all. My husband had the chicken and waffles which was fun to order and good, I'm so proud of him for pulling the skin off the fried chicken!! I had the watermelon salad which I liked a lot but will sound strange to you because I don't like watermelon, balsamic vinegar, or even blue cheese that much but together there is something very powerful and quite delicious about them. Then I had the crab salad over avocado. Very pretty, set in a ring, but in desperate need of salt. The desserts weren't chocolate so we skipped it and went to Ben and Jerry's-YUM.

It's 18th Century history is all around you and very clear but there is nothing that compares to the elegance of Beacon Hill which is so well preserved that my hero Abigail Adams would easily recognize it. My mom called while I was wandering through and asked where I was, my reply, was, "I'm in the 18th Century" which is of course ironic given that she called me on my very 21st century BlackBerry.

My husband and I have been going for weekends away in Boston for a few years now and always enjoy it, it's a smaller city than Manhattan so feels different but still gives us everything we enjoy about cities but Boston has become quite cosmopolitan-more so with each trip.  To think that a W has opened and that Jean Georges is the chef at its restaurant is a pretty important step. Boston has always had it's own important chef's but a world class international chef opening a restaurant in Boston is impressive.

Overall, we had an absolutely marvelous time and look forward to going again. Possibly November because there are two exhibits I'd like to go see-one in the MFA (Arnold Scaasi: an American Couturier) and one in a gallery, Richard Avedon: Fashion Photography.

 

Madison Ave Day

My fashion friend and I went window shopping on Madison Ave on Saturday. More than just looking in the windows though, we go into all the stores and wander around passing judgment. It's one of our favorite ways to spend a day and the only thing that would have made it better would have been the actual purchase of something. Unfortunately though I can't buy full price things on Madison Ave so no matter how much I covet the deep purple car-paint patent leather Armani bag or the red sheared mink narrow wrap also from Armani, or the killer satin gladiator towering (but very comfortable) high heel Donna Karan sandals I cannot buy them now and will have to hope and pray they have the pieces when they're on sale at the end of the season. Oh, or the black Dior suede round toe ruffled pumps. That said we had a marvelous day meandering in and out of the various stores...at DKNY I showed him the red paillette dress I mentioned three blogs ago and he was quite impressed...we had a blast at Lanvin marveling at the exquisite clothes, shoes, and bags...we had quite a laugh at a navy sueded silk dress that was hung up sideways and inside out that took us 10 minutes to figure out-he managed to find one sleeve but there were so many folds and pleats that we couldn't find any way for your other arm to get out of the dress. We laughed over made up stories of being drunk and trying to get in or out of it. We admired and were jealous of the charming young woman trying on a Lanvin evening gown with seemingly every intention of buying it...

It all culminated with our going down to Maialino one of my absolute favorite restaurants in the city for coffee. We though about high tea at one of the fancy old world hotels but I was standing firm, I just wasn't in the mood. He works at Starbucks and has learned much about coffee while there so I knew he would love their coffee but also how knowledgable and interested the staff is. We each chose our coffee and were trying to decide on a little something to snack on but it was 5 and we really didn't want to eat dinner and really couldn't find anything to go with the coffee. I asked if there were biscotti and our waiter said yes, of course, and then I hit on the brilliant notion of asking if there were any breakfast pastries left hanging around. Lo and behold there were! We had a terrific little picnic of cheese straws, foccaccia slices, handmade of the season jams, delicious butter, olive oil, sea salt, and an olive oil muffin. I am going again next week and I am really looking forward to it.

My Husband's Birthday

I had quite the eventful day the day that was my husband's birthday. I wrapped his three presents-Alexander McQueen skeleton head T, vintage skeleton head swizzle sticks and a silver rectangular link with black leather inserted into the rectangular links-all wrapped in black paper with white, wait for it...skeleton heads. Do you notice a theme here? Yes, he loves them. Not the scary creepy kind but the sophisticated urban kind and yes there is a difference. :). (Interestingly, so does my glam best friend.) I left them on the bed for him before I left for work.

I have a few dresses that I can wear maybe 3 days out of the year-one of those rare days that it's summer but not so hot and humid so that linings or pencil dresses with boning don't stick to you. Since Friday was one of those days I wore my very narrow white linen shot with silver threads strapless lined in silk Ralph Lauren Purple Label dress. With it, I wore my new RL Purple Label ultra long white silk/linen cable knit cardigan over it to work, with my silver YSL cage shoes, thinking what a great date outfit this was.

There was a lunch event in my office so I waited for free lunch, when the meeting was over. I saw that whoever ordered the lunch did not use my caterer so I knew it wouldn't be good, but it was free. So I let it go. Let me remind you there is no such thing as a free lunch! I was eating a very bad mozzarella tomato wrap while chatting with the receptionist when it happened. I felt something cold and wet on my skin, I gasped and there it was-a jagged stripe of tomato oil dripped down the front of my white linen dress. I ran to my desk for Tide Stick but my friend assured me that baby wipes work better, that they are miracles so I ran to Duane Reade for some-but they didn't work, neither did the Tide or Oxy Clean. I could do nothing else so I was going SHOPPING! How could I take my husband out dressed in a tomato stripe?

There was a great dress in French Connection I wanted when we were in Boston but the store didn't have my size. I had been wanting to try the stores here but didn't seem to have time-I ran to Soho but they didn't have my size either.  I wandered into various stores in Soho but found nothing that fit me or worked with my accessories...I gave up. The belt of my white sweater, which that morning I had tied behind me was now tied in front, strategically placed over the stain and I could easily carry my handbag over it too. I went back to the office defeated. My glam best friend gave me much sympathy.

I left the office at 4:30 and went uptown to have coffee with my GBF and noticed a discreet sale sign in the Donna Karan window. I hung with him for a bit when, unfortunately he wasn't feeling well, so he left early and went home to bed. It was now 5:30 and I didn't have to meet my husband at 8:30. Hmmm...what to do, what to do...well I went in to Donna Karan for one thing! I tried on some things but nothing seemed to work, though there is a camisole I'm still thinking about and may go back for Sunday. I did buy a pair of red jelly sandals that are lined with the work of an artist that Donna likes. I wandered further downtown and saw that DKNY was also having a sale (FUN-huh???). I went in and saw my salesperson, perhaps new friend. I showed him my tomato stripe and we wandered around the sale section finding things that would go with my accessories. I actually saw "it" first. We gathered some cute things and I found a very cute grey pin stripe scoop neck dress on sale for so little money it would be a shame not to buy it-I did. I was looking for something black, white, grey or shockingly, red. I saw the cocktail dress made completely of red paillettes and grabbed it just for the fun of it. I tried on all the pieces, we had a lot of fun and then last, I tried on the red paillettes go-go dress and fell in love as soon as a I slipped it on. A simple tank dress in the front with a deep U and skinny crisscross straps in the back. It was perfect! It didn't go with my necklace and I wasn't sure about my cage shoes but I slipped them on and it was even more perfect with them! Other salespeople wandered into the dressing room area and stopped dead in their tracks. Compliments flew and I knew I would buy it. I called my husband to make sure I wouldn't be too dressed up for him and he had on one of his Paul Smith black suits. I called lots of friends to make sure I could wear a red spangly dress to dinner but men seem not to answer their phones-finally I got through to my GBF who said I simply had to wear it!!! That yes it went with my Valentino daytime bag and that I owed it to myself to wear it. I was walking towards H & M to try to find silver hoop earrings and a bra. I actually found red lacy lingerie! Unfortunately the bra had the wrong straps but the dress really didn't need one. Sadly by now I didn't have time to stop at my office to change so I changed in the ladies room at the Gramercy Park Hotel-where our restaurant lives. I had moved from my usual flapper self to being Holly Golightly. I saw many chic cocktail dressed women going in and out of the ladies room which was so exciting for me!! I met my husband at Maialino's entrance and we went in but I saw way too many kids and plaid shirt people for my comfort but as we went further back in the restaurant the other diners were more dressed up and as it got later too. It didn't really matter-I felt great!!!!!

Maialino is a fabulous restaurant that I go to all the time for breakfast so the staff has begun to know me-and it has the BEST coffee ever! The beans' country of origin change often and I am in love with tasting all of them. The service at the restaurant is comparable to that of Per Se and Picholine, which I think is the best in the city, but as I say Maialino is comparable, just much less formal; the food, of course is wonderful. My husband had a glass of prosecco and I had a negroni. I didn't get buzzy immediately (which I love) it snuck up on me (maybe not so much). I started with an heirloom tomato salad-different colors and styles but with real bufalo mozzarella torn over them and basil oil drizzled all around. Clever, modern, delicious. My husband started with a plate of lovely prosciutto di Parma and toasted foccaccia. I then had ravioli filled with corn and ricotta, drizzled with shredded cheese. He had the roast chicken with the most divine little roasted potatoes with rosemary. Since the manager I know was there that night he sent over a pot of delicious coffee-Ethiopian and decaf (!?!?!?). I had the affogato-chocolate gelato with espresso poured over it and my husband had a deeply flavorful bowl of chocolate gelato. The coffee took my alcohol induced exhaustion away which made me really happy-it was a wonderful wonderful dinner and evening.

As we walked back to the car people stopped me in the street to compliment my dress which was very exciting and special for me-funny though, no one noticed my cage shoes (which is what they have stopped me for before).

I wanted to make cocktails when we got home-to use the swizzle sticks and to get ready for my trip to the cleaners to beg him to get my white dress clean.  But my husband wanted to go upstairs and well... it was his birthday after all...

Boston Restaurants

We went to a couple of restaurants while we were in Boston, some better than others obviously.

The meeting then event I went for was in a restaurant that I had been before and had mixed feelings about so I went with no expectations. Mistral turned out to be lovely-a sun filled welcoming Mediterranean styled room with really nice food and a wonderful staff. There were personal pizzas cut into tiny wedges passed by waiters with tiny tongs, there was tuna tartar and many other lovely little bites. Tres charmant.

After that we went to my absolute favorite restaurant in Boston (and definitely on my top 5 favorite worldwide list-right up there with Per Se!), O-YA. It's on a tiny street that no one ever heard of, around the corner from South Station in what looks like a rough part of town and it's called The Leather District. Inside the restaurant is rustic Japanese. The first time we ate there we were put next to the kitchen as they were the only two seats left that evening and now we make a reservation requesting those two seats! Sitting at the sushi bar, the chairs are high bar stools so you can really watch the master sushi chef's at work, unlike at lesser Japanese places where you sit below the sushi bar and cannot see a thing. To our right is the grill, which we can also see quite clearly at work and then the kitchen. We go late, around 9ish and the restaurant closes at 10 so when we are about 1/2 way through dinner the chef is winding down his night and stands at the kitchen doorway watching...which the first time we went, for me meant I could chat! But it's his wife, the sommelier who is really our source! She and I are foodies and restaurant fanatics together and we are becoming friends!! The food at O-YA is beyond compare! A whole menu of tiny bites of the delicious yet innovative sushi (both fish and meats) and none of those silly American things, like the Philadelphia roll. My favorite piece is the salmon tataki, 2 pieces of salmon sushi over which has been passed, a tiny blowtorch for less than a second so it cooks some of the swirly lines of the salmon, then a tiny dollop of spiced mayonnaise and a slice of grape tomato all over a glorious rice. It's a mass of texture and flavor for which I could go on describing but you want to hear about the other places, right? My husband's favorite dish is the braised short ribs a 2-3 bites of perfectly tender-silky and juicy ultra rich meat braised in sake and soy and surrounded by several perfectly square cubes of potato. So you get the idea...tiny 2 bite dishes perfectly balanced flavors, textures, and colors throughout the whole glorious meal. Which also includes excited foodie chatter between the owner and me!!!

The next night we went to Clio on the recommendation of an important Manhattan chef and my CEO. I've begun to learn about important Boston chef's and apparently Ken Oringer is one. The restaurant is in a hotel built in 1925 so I was expecting greatness. The food was terrific-my husband had a terrific beef two ways type of dish-short ribs and beef cheeks. I had the marinated hamachi and yellow tail for a first course then the Cassoulet of sea urchin and lobster (delicious!!) the problem was the other diners were so blah-no buzz, no excitement, the decor equally so. Ok, we went, I'm glad we did but now it's off the list and we move on to the next one.

Time in Boston

I had the opportunity to fly to Boston last week and had an absolutely marvelous time. I haven't flown on the Delta Shuttle in many years, usually when my husband and I go we drive so that I don't have to worry about how much stuff I take. Or buy.

I left my office in my Saint Laurent jacket, Prada pencil skirt and Lanvin heels feeling exceedingly chic and that feeling didn't go away until I took off my ensemble at midnight.

Just outside my office, I got into a taxi and 35 mins later was in the fabulously art deco Marine Air Terminal. Still in heels I breezed through security, waited outside the gate, in a leather club chair and got on the plane, then again into a taxi. In the Marine Air Terminal the very senior executives were mostly men but they were all in suits-and expensive suits which brings me back several decades and makes me feel art deco. The one very sad social commentary is that there are still so many more men than women in this particular airport lounge.  I arrived looking terribly chic got into a taxi and arrived at the ultra glam hotel.

The decor at Nine Zero was crisp, urban, and deco though with a tres modern fillip.  Black and tan print carpets, black and tan furniture, deep tan walls, and crisp white sheets with a black and taupe fur throw over the bed.

My husband and I go to Boston fairly often but this was the first time in many years that I went on business. When we have gone personally the last year or two we have stayed at the Jury's Hotel which has now become the Back Bay Hotel. We loved the idea that it used to Boston's police headquarters turned into a hotel. But it's decor was a little rundown, a little suburban, not inelegant-the service was also just ok. We stayed there because it was inexpensive for a boutique hotel and it was incredibly convenient being just steps away from the beginning of Boylston St which we love.

The ultra chic Nine Zero isn't really near anything we want to be near but the service is so fabulous and the rooms so gorgeous that I believe we will make do with the extra inconvenience.

I made friends with the lead concierge who seems to know Boston like I know NY and that is what I look for in a concierge.

The restaurant and shopping stories are coming next...

Two Firsts

I have 2 firsts to tell you about. First, I was shopping last Sat afternoon, while waiting for a friend in the Time Warner Center-after all, what else does one do when waiting??? I wandered the floors but, since I am working very hard not to shop, I was very very careful, which, yes, is I suppose a 3rd first. I wandered into Benetton, I've been in the store before but I was never attracted to quite so many things in one, this time, I actually tried on several pieces (!!!!!!!) I was being careful so I decided on only one piece, the piece I truly loved, a brown and tan linen 18th Century frock coat-very military but very feminine. I was George Washington in disguise. There is an asymmetrical blouse with a ruffle I may yet go back for but I'm trying to hold out.

I insisted in my own head that I had to wear it to work the first day I could-last Monday, didn't we set a heat record on that day??? I always wear new things immediately unlike my husband who can keep something new in a bag for three months or more and then be surprised when he finds it. I wore the coat with a sand colored pencil skirt and a sand colored sleeveless T with gathers and ruffles down the front that I admit to buying from J Crew that day-to go with the coat, since I did not buy the top that Benetton showed (cream silk that was dry clean only does not seem like a good idea in this weather). It is now one of my favorite outfits and I wore it to many compliments but it was wasted on too hot a day in Manhattan. I'm sorry that I didn't wait to wear it later in the week to go out with my glam best friend. But it was the very first time I ever bought anything at Benetton.

I also went, last Monday evening with my charming adorable friend to a new Mexican restaurant-yes, willingly. Have I mentioned just how much I detest Mexican food before, I might not have. While it is the one cuisine I don't enjoy, I always keep an open mind and keep tasting it though in my own mind I am continually proved right. However, I have begun reading about more authentic high quality stylish places-the kind of places that don't just dump obscenely huge amounts of cheap cheese, dreadful fatty cuts of meat, and gummy grey beans onto a tortilla and call it Mexican and in these types of restaurants I believe I be able to come to enjoy the cuisine. Last night I went to Heche en Dumbo which has been getting marvelous reviews, the very first time I ever went willingly to a Mexican restaurant. I have also begun to wonder if it's really Tex-Mex I don't like.

We started with cocktails-she had an orange lollipop of a drink (too much cointreau for us) but was a most gorgeous cranberry color and I had, what I am calling a Mexican bloody mary-sipping tequila in one glass and spicy tomato juice in another. I had a two-glass, drink once before and I find it annoying, I really can't mix the two flavors in my mouth the first is swallowed and gone before the other arrives. So I tasted it the restaurant's way then poured my tequila into the tomato juice-YUM.

Then we shared everything-picaditas de jaiba (crab meat over avocado on a corn masa medallion), esquites (corn with lime juice epazote queso anejo and spicy chile piquin), tacos de costilla (short rib taco) and each dish was more delicious than the one that came before (though I liked the short ribs the least). We also shared dessert which was a warm chocolate torte but it was a bit over-cooked and not runny so not really my favorite. The waiter was adorable, the place was air-conditioned and lively. All the major publications are giving this restaurant excellent reviews and I can add my voice to theirs.