[Pink Pig Time Machine by Wilfrid: May 4, 2009]
Well, the week started in the Bronx, with dinner at a disappointing fish shack called Mariscos del Atlantico, and continued into the night with Cuba Libres at a dance club called Jet Set.
I was apparently so much younger then. Midweek saw me crawling around Third Avenues bar, such as Glocca Morra (now demolished) and Barfly, and eating offal at home. Chicken gizzards in red wine, blood sausage with yams.
Then a sudden step upmarket with a hideously short trip to London. I checked into the 22 Jermyn Street Hotel, then made a late supper at Quo Vadis: salmon ballotine followed by pot roast guinea-fowl, and cheeses described even ten years ago as "artisanal". A 1995 Savigny-les-Beaunes to put me to sleep.
I only hope the meeting which followed the next morning saw the best of me, because by evening I was flying home again, reading a joint biography of Damon Runyon and Walter Winchell (John Moseldale, The Men Who Invented Broadway).
I took the next day off, and it repaid me by raining. Nevertheless, I made it to a show of Lewis Carroll's rather unnerving photographs, and in the evening joined some friends to see "Annie Get Your Gun." This was the revival with Bernadette Peters, which over the months and years gradually dwindled into the rival with some vaguely familiar TV actress or other. Peters was good, and in fact much better than in "Gypsy" several years later.
Post-theater, I returned to my old hang-out, The Redeye Grill, which recommended itself mainly by its late hours. Seared beef rolls with hoisin sauce I don't remember at all, and I followed them with simply cooked mahi-mahi and mashed potato. Cloudy Bay Sauvignon Blanc, 1996.
Fortunately the sun came out on Saturday, and I wandered up to the Bronx to watch the Yankees beat the Blue Jays 7-4. And that pretty much did it for the week. Next, the story of a quiet Spring in Manhattan continues...
