"The press gatherings before this fight sometimes resembled those highly intellectual pourparlers on a Mediterranean island; placed before typewriters, the accumulated novelists could have produced a copy of the Paris Review in forty-two minutes."
Daily Conversations
- A: i had something to complain about
- but i forgot what it was
Eating in New York
I was recently challenged to follow the lead of Kottke, following the lead of Serious Eats, and answer the question of our time, which is where one should eat while in New York. But I was hesitant at first. There are lots of places to eat in New York! And discovering a place on your own is one of the most delicious parts of eating in New York. ”It would be good Google bait for your site,” the person said. So that was very convincing.
One thing you should know is that I’m only including places where I have eaten more than once. This means that the next time I trick someone into taking me to Torrisi Italian Specialties, I’ll add it to the list, since Torrisi served the best meal I’ve eaten in New York, and if I ever write a romantic comedy, Torrisi will be the location of my couple’s first date. That’s my equivalent of four stars. And yet Torrisi is not on this list, because this list is very official, with rules and stuff. Also, if you’re wondering where you should eat in New York, and for some reason you’re asking me, you should know that all of these restaurants are very close to each other, and most of them are pretty cheap. Where should you eat in New York? You should eat at a lot of places! And any restaurant, shack, truck, stoop or window associated with names like Danny Meyer, David Chang, Keith McNally, etc.
But if you want to know where I like to eat in New York — in which case, sorry? — then here you go: Café Habana, Dos Toros Taqueria, Frankie’s (which is now Francesca’s but will always be Frankie’s to me), Lil’ Frankies, Mark, The Meatball Shop, Momofuku Noodle Bar, Parm (which I’m also counting as Torrisi’s lunch), Russ & Daughters, Schiller’s Liquor Bar, Souvlaki GR, Tacombi, Taqueria Lower East Side and Zucco: Le French Diner.
(Updated May 2012)
The best part of the bootleg draft of “Fuckbuddies,” the screenplay that would become “No Strings Attached.”
I spent the week in New Orleans.
A little profile of a former college volleyball player who the Kansas Jayhawks call their secret weapon. She’s their strength and conditioning coach—the only woman in all of college basketball to hold this position—and has authority in the one place on any college campus where testosterone flows more freely than a fraternity house: the weight room. Her methods include massage, yoga, boxing, mountain-biking, juggling and Dance Dance Revolution, part of the reason why the 25 players she’s sent to the NBA can’t stop raving about her.
Who says there’s no crying in college basketball? Here’s my A-hed in today’s Journal about the boohooing bawlers of this NCAA tournament. Everyone’s crying! It’s the best.
Then there’s the seminal bit of sobbing that took place 20 years ago to the day (if the day is yesterday). You might remember Christian Laettner’s buzzer-beating shot. You also might remember Thomas Hill crying on the sidelines afterward. Except you’re remembering wrong! Because Hill says now that he wasn’t actually crying. “Absolutely not! Not even close,” he said. He later added: “That was just an expression I’ve made my entire life when amazing things happen and especially if I’m apart of them.”
New Orleans
You can hop on a streetcar on St. Charles at Lee (yes, that Lee, and yes, he does have his back to the North for a reason) Circle, maybe ten minutes’ walk beyond the Dome. This will take you through crap, then the Garden District, then real uptown and Tulane and Audubon Park, and then the Riverbend and La Madelaine and the levy. This is an absolutely great route. Just take it and get out when it looks like the getting is good, which should start around the Garden District, but Audubon Park is probably the best. As to eating along the way, if you really knew what you were doing, which I suppose now you do, you’d make a reservation at Clancy’s in uptown. This is on my old block ([REDACTED] Annunciation—my old house—looks just as it did) and is without question the best neighborhood restaurant in the city. The oysters with brie for appetizer and the lemon icebox pie for dessert are out of the world. Seriously, you might want to do this, in which case I can give you more specific instructions. Also, though, closer to the Quarter, but still in uptown, are Casamento’s restaurant, Magazine Street as a whole, Tee-Eva’s pralines and pies, NEWMAN FUCKING SCHOOL (just across from the JCC, you’ll feel at home), the Frostop, Domilise’s (best po-boys, even better than Guy’s Po-Boys), and at the far other end, on Carrollton, are some great eating and music places around Maple Street (also, Maple Street books).
This was one small excerpt from a long email from John, the rest of which the world is just not ready to see, after I asked him where I’m going and what I’m doing from Friday through Tuesday between Final Four stuff on my first trip to New Orleans. So, help?
I once wrote this insane philosophical analysis of Don Draper. I have no idea what it means, either!
