{"id":465,"date":"2011-11-07T14:25:19","date_gmt":"2011-11-07T18:25:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/gastropoda.com\/trails\/?p=465"},"modified":"2011-11-15T16:48:31","modified_gmt":"2011-11-15T20:48:31","slug":"new-york-minutes-147","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gastropoda.com\/trails\/2011\/11\/new-york-minutes-147\/","title":{"rendered":"New York minutes\/Early November 2011"},"content":{"rendered":"

The good: Loi, next door to Cafe Luxembourg, where attention-paying friends suggested we meet before the snooze-inducing \u201cIdes of March\u201d nearby and where the only off notes were the beginning and the end. Those first: I walked in, gave our friends\u2019 name, the \u201chostess\u201d said they had already arrived . . . and then picked up the phone for a protracted call. (One thing I learned while working as a shoe dog in my downtime as a bookkeeper was that the customer in front of you always takes precedence.) And although our desserts were comped, none of them impressed us. But everything else did, especially grilled calamari with parsley-pistachio sauce, the \u201cmeat\u201d in thin, tender twirls; a green salad with a great smoked cheese, and amazingly delicate moussaka. Service was top-level, the sound level low. WIGB? Absolutely. The celeb chef herself came by to answer questions (like how she got the eggplant so light: soaked it in milk first) and say we would be getting desserts. The curse of Compass may finally be vanquished. 208 West 70th Street, 212 875 8600. <\/strong><\/p>\n

The impressive: The Foundry<\/a> in Long Island City, where I schlepped for an event I stupidly assumed was promoting salmon but was really about saving Bristol Bay in Alaska<\/a> from greedy mining polluters. (As one of several excellent speakers said: \u201cYou can\u2019t eat gold.\u201d) I know the owners and had been to a private party there, but by car; like several other guests, I almost didn\u2019t go because it seemed kinda scary to walk to alone from the subway. But it was not at all unnerving, and what a perfect space, with plenty of room for the bar, a separate room for the chefs\u2019 stations, an ideal noise level etc. etc. The next organizer thinking of cramming a promo party into a Manhattan shoebox should consider crossing the water. I had a third glass of wine to soak up all the salmon and good hors d\u2019, knowing I would be fine getting home.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The good: Loi, next door to Cafe Luxembourg, where attention-paying friends suggested we meet before the snooze-inducing \u201cIdes of March\u201d nearby and where the only off notes were the beginning and the end. Those first: I walked in, gave our friends\u2019 name, the \u201chostess\u201d said they had already arrived . . . and then picked… Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[64,69,121,8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-465","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-feting-it-right","category-greek","category-queens","category-upper-west-side"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gastropoda.com\/trails\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/465","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gastropoda.com\/trails\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gastropoda.com\/trails\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gastropoda.com\/trails\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gastropoda.com\/trails\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=465"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/gastropoda.com\/trails\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/465\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":468,"href":"https:\/\/gastropoda.com\/trails\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/465\/revisions\/468"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gastropoda.com\/trails\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=465"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gastropoda.com\/trails\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=465"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gastropoda.com\/trails\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=465"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}