{"id":47,"date":"2008-03-10T12:58:30","date_gmt":"2008-03-10T16:58:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/gastropoda.com\/trails\/2008\/03\/new-york-minutes-22\/"},"modified":"2008-03-17T18:03:24","modified_gmt":"2008-03-17T22:03:24","slug":"new-york-minutes-22","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gastropoda.com\/trails\/2008\/03\/new-york-minutes-22\/","title":{"rendered":"New York minutes\/Middish March 2008"},"content":{"rendered":"

The not awful: Zipper Tavern, where we retreated in the sheeting rain after an excellent Camera Club opening upstairs of really evocative work<\/a> by one of my consort\u2019s students from Piemonte. The food was mostly just okay — a decent if odd salad of beets, peas, mizuna, hard-cooked eggs and corn offset by flavor-light empanadas filled with alleged duck confit — but the wineglasses were well-filled for $7 each (albarino, tempranillo). The waitress was harried but attentive, the noise level was less than abusive and it was the right place at the right time. The decor, however, reminded me of Grandma\u2019s Place in Tallinn, where the owner admitted every theatrical detail was bogus. WIGB? It\u2019s cheap, it\u2019s convenient. 336 West 37th Street, 212 695 4600. <\/strong><\/p>\n

The fading fast: Madaleine Mae, where it was hard to believe a kitchen could descend to slopping out food in so few weeks. I went alone for an early dinner while Bob was chained to his high-tech work station yet again, and it was light enough to read, quiet enough to think. The hostesses were certainly friendly, the busboys were solicitous, the waitress was not a \u2019tron and the room was as charming as always. I was even wishing I\u2019d ordered real food after finding the biscuit was improved if not perfect — it had the desired flakiness if not the airiness. But both my appetizers were huge letdowns. The thin johnnycake was overlaid with lots of smoked salmon, but the stingy schmear of creme fraiche or sour cream or whatever under it had melted away to grease. And the spinach salad came drenched in oily dressing, with a few flecks of bacon and only a handful of tiny roasted mushrooms to redeem it. I don\u2019t know why I was surprised when a friend told me P.J. Clarke\u2019s is behind the joint despite the Waxman connection. (I guess I gotta start trying to untangle the knotty prose crammed into DI\/DO\u2019s restaurant \u201ccolumn.\u201d) WIGB? Maybe. It\u2019s in the neighborhood, and said friend had a great time at the bar. But it says it all that the hand-dryer in the bathroom didn\u2019t even work, and the staff must have known it because there was a pile of paper towels under it. One month and the place is falling apart?<\/p>\n

The transporting: \u201cThe Grocer\u2019s Son\u201d at the Walter Reade Theater at Lincoln Center. I went to the God\u2019s-waiting-room showing at 3:15 and got to hear the filmmaker speak before and after (one question from the audience: \u201cSince it\u2019s a French film, why does it take the couple so long to get into bed?\u201d) He did his research by making three documentaries on mobile epiceries, and he really recreated a small world<\/a>. Of course what I liked best was buying popcorn beforehand and asking the counter clerk what was in the plastic bag lying on top of the kernels under the heat lamp. \u201cBrioche. They taste like nothing unless you heat them.\u201d Leached plastic notwithstanding, the popcorn was as satisfying as the movie. It opens in America in May.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The not awful: Zipper Tavern, where we retreated in the sheeting rain after an excellent Camera Club opening upstairs of really evocative work by one of my consort\u2019s students from Piemonte. The food was mostly just okay — a decent if odd salad of beets, peas, mizuna, hard-cooked eggs and corn offset by flavor-light empanadas… 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":[62,31,8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-47","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-celluloid-cuisine","category-theater-district","category-upper-west-side"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gastropoda.com\/trails\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47","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=47"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/gastropoda.com\/trails\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gastropoda.com\/trails\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=47"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gastropoda.com\/trails\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=47"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gastropoda.com\/trails\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=47"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}