mb palaver

WebPalaver: Jabberjaw, or Lessons from an Urban Mom

Some time after my friend Jabber's baby was born, she (Jabber, that is, not the baby) took to the web and started sharing her experience raising a baby in Manhattan.  Eight months ago, to my great delight, Jabber and her family moved back down to Washington, where they belong, in my humble, self-interested opinion.  Now Jabber's focus is on life with her toddler in DC, as her blog, Jabberjaw, puts it.  But if you're a new mom you don't have to live in DC to benefit from Jabber's now DC-centric blog, any more than you had to live in New York to benefit from it before, because she also chronicles the place-transcendent experience of life with a youngster, and provides exhaustive reviews of baby products (for want of a better term).  And even if you don't have children, she's an entertaining writer who's always fun to read (and those baby product reviews come in mighty handy for baby showers).

BookPalaver: Happy Bloomsday!

It's Bloomsday again, and whether you're in New York or anywhere with an Internet connection, here are a few ways to mark the event:  attend a reading at Symphony Space in New York (95th and Broadway) at 7 pm, listen to its live webcast, tune in to WBAI (99.5 FM) in New York for its offering of Joyce readings, or listen to its live webcast, from 7 pm to 4 am.  This program will also be heard on many Pacifica-affiliated radio stations.  The New York Times describes the events as follows (read the full article for why the theater and radio productions are going their separate ways this year).

In the Symphony Space production Stephen Colbert and Frank and Malachy McCourt will read from the novel’s Ithaca episode. Then after a musical interlude by the soprano Judith Kellock, the event will conclude with a reading by Fionnula Flanagan of the book’s ending episode, Molly Bloom’s drifting nighttime thoughts.

WBAI’s broadcast will also feature the Molly Bloom monologue, read by the Irish actress Caraid O’Brien. Other performers will include Alec Baldwin and Anne Meara. The radio production will present a range of works by Joyce but concentrate on what its producers called “the holy trinity of characters in ‘Ulysses’: Stephen Dedalus, Leopold Bloom and his wife, Molly.”

Or watch the abbreviated version of Ulysses I wrote about last year and couldn't resist posting again.  To show Joyce in a rare moment of underconfidence, here's the note he wrote to Nora Barnacle, his future wife whom he first walked out with on July 16, 1904, after she had once stood him up:

60 Shelbourne Road

I may be blind.  I looked for a long time at a head of reddish-brown hair and decided it was not yours.  I went home quite dejected.  I would like to make an appointment but it might not suit you.  I hope you will be kind enough to make one with me — if you have not forgotten me!

James A Joyce

15 June 1904

RestaurantPalaver: The New Danal

My favorite brunch spot in New York has changed spots.  Danal, formerly on E. 10th Street, has moved to Fifth Ave. between 12th and 13th Streets.   From the outside it's less charming than before, and in fact barely noticeable, tucked in next to a building undergoing a face lift.  Inside it still has a French country vibe, but is a bit more upscale than it used to be. Part of me misses the hectic bustle of the old place, where the kitchen was basically in the dining room, but some will appreciate the more genteel atmosphere.  The brunch menu is the same mix of breakfasty and lunchy options that I described before.  Hectic bustle or not, the cafe au lait is still creamy, mysterywriter reports the hot chocolate is still delightful, and the tart I had on Saturday was just the ticket to fuel a shopping binge at Darryl's.

Danal
59 Fifth Ave. (between 12th and 13th Sts.)
New York NY 10003
(212) 982-6930

BarPalaver: Molly's Shebeen

Ten years ago or so on a wet November afternoon mysterywriter, Dubliner, and I ducked into the Union Square Barnes & Noble to get out of the rain and ended up frittering away a good three hours browsing books. (That was a record even for us.)  Afterward we wandered up Broadway and came upon a film shoot across from the Flatiron Building.  We waited an inordinately long time in the cold drizzle for what ended up being a disappointing payoff:  watching Vince Vaughn get into a limo and drive off (a scene, evidently, in "Return to Paradise").  Never linger at a film shoot with high hopes.

Fortunately, our dejected, aimless wandering afterward took us eastward to Third Avenue, where we happened upon Molly's Shebeen.  We couldn't see in and were dubious, but were so cold and wet that we figured we'd go in for a pint while we warmed up and figured out our dinner plans. Once in, we never wanted to leave (and didn't, for hours).  We found ourselves in a cozy, authentic, neighborhood Irish pub, with a fireplace, perfectly drawn Guinness, good Shepherd's pie, and an assortment of locals both behind and in front of the bar (including one patron with a little dog on his lap).  We've gone back many times.  One evening mysterywriter had to get up early for work the next day.  Every time the server came by and asked if we wanted another round mysterywriter would say "none for me, thanks," and the server would say, in her lovely, lilting accent, "how about a half pint?"  I don't remember how many half pints mw had that night.

I'm thinking of Molly's not just because it's St. Patrick's Day, but because it was featured in a New York Times article yesterday on Irish pubs in New York (including the photo above):

It is a place to have a pint by the fire or, even better, to have a meal in the back under the glow of warm orange lighting from chandelierlike fixtures, and walls with dusty memorabilia that the warm orange lighting doesn’t quite allow you to make out. Shepherd’s pie, fish and chips, chicken pot pie, lamb stew are all served in a homey style that even the most non-Irish person in the world (say, a Bangladeshi farmer) would recognize as comfort food.

TheaterPalaver: Rock n Roll, Czech Style

If I'm being honest, I have to admit that Rufus Sewell's name on the marquee caught my attention before Tom Stoppard's.  But Stoppard's brilliant writing, Rufus's swarthy good looks, a talented cast all around (including Brian Cox and Sinead Cusack), and classic rock and roll music could only add up to a great time at the theater.  And it was.  There's only a few days left to see Stoppard's Rock n Roll on Broadway -- it closes March 9.  You can still find discounted tickets at broadwaybox.com.  If you don't know much about the Prague Spring, Pink Floyd, or the Plastic People of the Universe, you might want to do a little homework first.  Even if you don't, just go with the flow -- so what if you don't get half of it?  Isn't that what Stoppard's all about?

TheaterPalaver: Discount Broadway Tickets

Thinking about seeing a show in New York this holiday season?  Here's a way to get discount tickets in advance and without standing in line in the cold in Times Square.  Broadwaybox.com offers discount codes for dozens of shows on Broadway and off.  They don't sell the tickets themselves -- in fact, they are just a clearinghouse for codes provided by members of the public.  But you can click through to the ticket agency to get the discount. Or if you live in New York and want to avoid the service charge, do like my neighbor, a former New Yorker who told me about the site, used to do:  bring the code to the the theater and buy the tickets there.

The site doesn't just offer discounts to long-running tourist attractions.  For example, the site says the codes will get you 40% or more off tickets to Conor McPherson's "The Seafarer" (which I highly recommend) or Aaron Sorkin's "The Farnsworth Invention," and up to 45% off Tom Stoppard's "Rock 'n' Roll."

TheaterPalaver: The Seafarer

If you're in the mood for a Christmas story with a supernatural element but want to branch out from "A Christmas Carol" and "It's a Wonderful Life," get yourself to the Booth Theatre in New York and see "The Seafarer."  Mysterywriter sold me and our friend Lynn on getting tickets to this some time ago on the grounds that it was written by Conor McPherson, one of our favorite contemporary Irish playwrights, and starred Ciarán Hinds, aka Persuasion's Captain Wentworth (pause for sigh).  Little did we know what a treat we were in for.  (Or how lucky we'd be that the stagehand strike settled just in the nick of time.)  According to the play's website, here's what it's about:

The Seafarer is a chilling new play about the sea, Ireland, and the power of myth. It's Christmas Eve and Sharky has returned to Dublin to look after his irascible, aging brother who's recently gone blind. Old drinking buddies Ivan and Nicky are holed up at the house too, hoping to play some cards. But with the arrival of a stranger from the distant past, the stakes are raised ever higher. In fact, Sharky may be playing for his very soul.

That sounds so dour. But it isn't.  After seeing McPherson's intense "Shining City" last month at the Studio Theatre in Washington, I wouldn't have imagined laughing myself silly to another of his plays a few weeks later.  When curmudgeonly, older brother Richard comes home drunk from getting some "bits" for Christmas dinner, he stumbles into the house singing his own Christmas medley (including "O come let us redore him" and "Oh the weather outside is frightening"); it's silly, but you can't help but laugh at the joy he takes in singing in the face of his miserable condition.  Or at the way Ivan nimbly picks his way around the house in a drink-induced and half-blinded stupor (he's lost his glasses).  Like "Shining City," "The Seafarer" deals with serious themes -- guilt, loneliness, faith -- and you're constantly bracing yourself for a tragic turn.  But the play is ultimately, and unexpectedly, uplifting.

Ciarán Hinds plays the dapper, mysterious stranger, Mr. Lockhart, who shows up Christmas Eve for a card game, and eventually reveals himself to be the devil himself.  Although this sounds hokey, it doesn't play hokey.  The devil hasn't appeared so tragic, or so human, since Milton's Paradise Lost. As Chris Jones of the Chicago Tribune said, "to understand hell, we're told, you just have to recall when 'you see all the people who seem to live in another world all snuggled up together in the warmth of a tavern or a cozy little house, and you just walk and walk and walk and you're on your own and nobody knows who you are.'"

And yet you don't walk out of the play slackjawed looking to drown your own sorrows.  As Ben Brantley put it in the New York Times last Friday,

in a season when many of the best new movies, like “No Country for Old Men” and “Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead,” are bare of any sense of salvation, Mr. McPherson’s allowance of a provisional, redeeming grace has its warming charm. You don’t have to believe in it to be moved by it. Besides, transporting acting like this has an amazing grace all its own.

If you live in New York, or you've heading up there to do a little Christmas shopping, tickets are still available at Telecharge.com

Booth Theatre

222 West 45th Street
Between Broadway and 8th Avenue
New York, NY 10036

ShoppingPalaver: If It Weren't for Darryl I'd Be Nude

Nine or so years ago I complimented a colleague on her suit, which paired a jacket with a skirt in an unorthodox but attractive combination.  She said she got it at a store on the Upper West Side of New York where the owner knows how to put outfits together.  Nine or so years and a decent condo down payment later, I don't know what I'd have been wearing all this time had I not learned about Darryl's.

Located between 83rd and 84th Streets on Amsterdam, Darryl's is a small shop packed with simple, beautiful clothing for women.  The merchandise ranges from casual sweaters and slacks, to stylish suits, to cocktail dresses.  It's not inexpensive (my mother says when I walk in the door Darryl hears "cha-ching!"), but it's not one of those stores where they sell only size 0 pants for $300 and up (how can 19 year olds who wear size 0 afford $300 pants -- by saving money on food?).  When I first started going to Darryl's he carried French and Italian designers I couldn't find elsewhere.  Sadly, given the poor value of the dollar against the Euro, those days are over.  Darryl's now carries such makes as Cyrus, Teenflo, & Trousers, and BCBG.  Though the selection doesn't seem as unusual as it once was, it's still worth piggybacking off Darryl's good taste.   Not to mention his judgment as to what will work for you -- by the time I've gone through the whole store and picked out what I want to try on, he'll have filled the fitting room with additional items he's picked out ("your assignment," as he puts it).

If you need a nosh before shopping, there's a Le Pain Quotidien next door.  If you want to forget how much you spent after shopping, have a chocolate malt at Homer's across the street or a drink at any number of local bars.  Or if you need to buy some goodwill from children in tow during your shopping spree, check out West Side Kids in the next block north.  If you're shopping for a gift, they'll ship for you; good news when mysterywriter bought a gigantic dog for our niece in Charlotte.  (I managed to convince my Charlotte sister (the mother of the aforementioned niece) and her family to make the trek to Darryl's from the Natural History Museum a few months ago based on the promise of a nearby toy store and malt shop.  There's something for everyone in this neighborhood.)  Check out the west side block by block here.

Darryl's
492 Amsterdam Ave. (between 83rd and 84th)
New York, NY  10024
(212) 874-6677

RestaurantPalaver: Danal

I can think of no better way to start a weekend morning in New York than with brunch at Danal.  The first time I went, many years ago, I had the tart, which, that morning, was made with roasted tomato and goat cheese.  It was possibly the best tart I've had there, or was it just that I was so taken with the place that it still sticks in my mind?  We were seated in the back of this slightly below-ground level French-country style restaurant in the east village, next to a woman loudly proclaiming to her dining companion that no great thinkers believe in God.

That's how every visit to Danal's has been:  a mix of good food, comfortable atmosphere, and interesting people watching/eavesdropping.  A guy used to always greet us there -- we thought he was Dan or Al (is that really the source of the name?) -- who looked like David Duchovny's artier brother.  One summer day MysteryWriter and I walked in and asked for a table and he said "Inside or outside?  Outside is full sun."  He looked at each of our pasty faces in turn and said, definitively, "Inside."  (We haven't seen him at Danal's in a while, though we did pass him on the street one Monday morning on our way to breakfast at Balthazar; I'm always running into people I know (or "know," in this case) in New York, in ways I'd find unrealistic if seen on an episode of Friends.)

The menu changes, but includes some standards, with variations.  As I mentioned, there's always a tart, with seasonal toppings.  There's usually an Eggs Benedict-like dish with chicken apple sausage -- even if I'm not in the mood for eggs this dish is tempting, the sausage is that good.  You can expect to find an omelet, a frittata, pancakes -- sometimes, decadently, with chocolate chips -- a couple of salads and sandwiches, and more substantial entrees.  And wonderful, creamy cafe au lait, served in large bowls, not to mention the unsweetened bowl of hot chocolate MysteryWriter is fond of and I always envy.  Coffee is served via French press.

The atmosphere is haphazard and cozy.  Potatoes and other produce are stored in baskets and servers retrieve the mismatched plates from rustic china cabinets.  When we first starting brunching there we often encountered a wait, at least once in cold rain on the sidewalk. In recent years -- after they opened a second floor -- we haven't had a problem getting a table on Saturday or Sunday morning.

[Edited 3/14/08 to add:  Danal's recently moved to 5th Avenue, so Sundaes & Cones and the Jillery are no longer its neighbors. I haven't been yet so can't comment on the new location first-hand, but mysterywriter and NorthernOutlaw came away happy from their first visit.]

After brunching at Danal's, you can satisfy your sweet tooth across the street at the newish location of Sundaes & Cones, an Asian-themed ice cream place (think lychee and ginger, as well as more common flavors) with benches out front that make you think you could be in Fairmont, West Virginia rather than the east village. 

Before or after, be sure to stop in the Jillery (see the purplish sign behind Danal's in the above photo) to shop for jewelry, retro handbags, housewares (including Judaica), and assorted tchotchkes.  The pill box in my purse is from the Jillery, as are the decorative magnetic clips that I use for appending mail and other important outgoing stuff to my (metal) door.  Pudding Man has been known to sport cufflinks from the Jillery -- though we're both Washingtonians, we independently found not only Danal's but the Jillery.  That's as random as running into David Duchovny on our way to Balthazar.

Danal
90 E 10th St. (between 3rd and 4th Ave.)
59 Fifth Ave. (between 12th and 13th Sts.)
New York NY 10003
(212) 982-6930

RestaurantPalaver: Bellavitæ

If you're in New York and have a hankering for Italian food, you have a few choices per city block. If you want simply prepared Italian food made from the most select ingredients in a casual but stylish atmosphere, you can't go wrong with Bellavitæ.  I learned about this small, Greenwich Village restaurant from the Washington Post restaurant critic, Tom Sietsema (whom you will find I refer to routinely as Tom, though I do not know him; see also my references to Bob (Ryan), the local NBC station's weatherman), who has recommended it on his weekly chats (always hastening to add that he knows the owner; lucky him!).  I haven't been since last summer, but am still reminiscing about my meals there.

You can figure out that Bellavitæ's emphasis is on the ingredients as soon as you walk in and notice pantry items -- olive oil, vinegar, arborio rice, etc. -- displayed on shelves lining the walls.  Although it serves pastas and main courses such as fish, steak, and a changing fritto misto, I prefer to graze among the antipasti, which combine those imported items with fresh ingredients at their seasonal peak.  Enoteca's and trattorias, focusing on Italian wine and small plates of simple ingredients, are trendy right now, but the success of such places depends upon the quality of the ingredients.  According to Adam Platt of New York magazine, the owner of Bellavitæ, Rolando Beramendi, supplies fancy important Italian products to many of the city’s leading Italian restaurants.  He knows his ingredients.

At my first meal last June one hit was a plate that was nothing more than cubes of pecorino cheese and fresh fava beans drizzled with olive oil and seasoned with salt and pepper.  This didn't appear on the menu the second time I visited.  One result of the restaurant using ingredients only when they are at their prime is that you cannot count on finding the same items time after time; a small price to pay for quality.  How's this for pickiness about seasonal ingredients?  From Frank Bruni's review in the NYT:

And then there was the fettunta, of which I have been dreaming ever since I tasted it. Fettunta more or less means "oily slice," and it's the fantabulous result of rubbing a piece of toasted peasant bread with garlic, drenching it in freshly pressed, spectacularly pungent olio nuovo, or new olive oil, and then showering it with rock salt.

The fettunta is off the menu now, because Bellavitae was using Capezzana olive oil from Tuscany that had been pressed in November and no longer boasts the electric green vividness that it did through the middle of February. But the fettunta will very likely return at the end of this year, when another batch of freshly pressed Capezzana oil makes its way to these shores.

How many restaurants do you know of that will take an item off its menu because the right olive oil isn't fresh enough?

One of the most memorable treats from our meals was the polpettine fritte or, as simply described on the menu, fried little meatballs.  They are marble sized nuggets, fried and salted. They are amazing.  In a perfect world every bar in the country would have these available for snacking instead of peanuts or pretzels or, more commonly, nothing.  If you go to Bellavitæ, you must get the meatballs.

Among the main courses, fritto misto is, as its name suggest, a mixed fry plate.  But in addition to whatever the main ingredient of the day is -- cod, chicken, rabbit, etc. -- the dish includes such treats as fried slices of Meyer lemon (fans of Palena's cafe in DC will find this familiar) and, if I didn't make this up, caperberries.

I would like to think if I lived in New York I'd stop by Bellavitæ frequently after work or running errands and sit at the back bar and enjoy a glass of wine with some meatballs and fava beans.  What a joy.  I'll have to content myself with my occasional trips north.  (Mysterywriter and NorthernOutlaw:  I'm due for a visit.)

Did I mention the meatballs?

Bellavitæ
24 Minetta Lane (near 6th & Bleeker)
New York, NY 10012
(212) 473-5121

(available on opentable)