Two For The Table : NYC 2012 : Monday

Monday, October 1, 2012

We started out Monday morning by walking to Morgenthal Frederics on Madison Avenue, where Marlene purchased a new pair of sunglasses and I purchased a funky pair of new everyday glasses. No picture of me in my new specs — you'll have to wait until they arrive in 5 to 7 business days!

And then it was time for Le Bernardin. We've eaten lunch at Le Bernardin almost every year we've come to New York and that's a lot of lunches; we've always had a superlative meal. However, because our lunch experience has been so special, we've never eaten dinner at the West 51st venue.

For those unfamiliar with Le Bernardin, it's a three star Michelin French restaurant specializing in seafood. For lunch, they offer a three course prix fixe menu — appetizer, entrée and dessert.

Our wine choice has traditionally been a Sancerre, but on this occasion we had an excellent white Burgundy. Then, as per script, came a wonderful salmon spread and then the bread tray, one loaf better than the next, with perfect butter.

We shared two starters, one of them, the tuna, a must for any first time diner at Le Bernardin.

Layers of Thinly Pounded Yellowfin Tuna, Foie Gras and Toasted Baguette Shaved Chives and Extra Virgin Olive Oil

Charred Octopus "a la plancha"; Green olive and Black Garlic Emulsion, Sundried Tomato Sauce Vierge

What can I say? Both were superb.

We both had the monkfish as our entrée. We often gravitate to the monkfish at Le Bernardin and, as usual, we weren't disappointed.

Roasted Monkfish; Wilted Mustard Greens-Daikon “Sandwich,” Adobo Sauce

The first time we dined at Le Bernardin (long ago), we didn't realize the dessert was included, and turned it down. Not this time. We both chose the banana selection. I'll let you judge from the photo and description if we enjoyed it!

Banana Bread, Caramel Sauce, Chocolate Mousse, Vietnamese Cinnamon Ice Cream

While sitting at lunch, I received a call from Playwrights Horizons that our 7:00 Tuesday performance of "Detroit," a play with David Schwimmer which had received very good reviews, had been cancelled due to an "actor conflict." So we were left with a "free" night in the Big Apple — time for another major dinner!

When I suggested Le Bernardin, Marlene thought I was crazy. There were thousands of restaurants in New York City; it made no sense to eat at the same one two days in a row. But it would be difficult getting a reservation at a top restaurant with so little notice, so why not give Le Bernardin a try?

I asked our waiter for a reservation; he asked the maitre d'. We were told they could take us at 5:15 or 10:15; too early and too late. Oh well, we had tried.

But as we got up from the table and thanked our waiter, he told us to check with the maitre d' on our way out. And as we approached, he told us our dinner reservation was confirmed for Tuesday evening at 7:30. One of the perks of being a frequent diner!

After lunch, we did some shopping and then headed back to our apartment. I had a date for drinks at 4:00 with Helene Montagna, a playwright I'd gotten to know via my O'Neill website. We met at Neary's Pub on 57th between 1st and 2nd, and enjoyed two hours of conversation about playwriting, theater and whatever.

Monday night we saw "Grace," the first of our (now) three scheduled plays. The cast included Paul Rudd and Ed Asner.

It was a ninety minute play, without intermission. One of us liked it and one of us pretty much hated it. One of us saw it as a morality play, who's message was that no matter what or how strong your beliefs, shit happens. One of us thought if that was indeed the message, it was poorly constructed and the characters were poorly drawn — particularly the Paul Rudd character. We'll wait for the reviews.

Have you heard that New York never sleeps? It's not true. We had a 10:00 reservation at Fishtail on the Upper East Side, a 30 minute walk, and our play ended 15 minutes late, at 9:45. I called to let them know we'd be late and was told they would hold our reservation, but that we should hurry.

We arrived at Fishtail at 10:20 and announced ourselves. The hostess told us they could no longer seat us upstairs in the dining room, but that we could eat in the bar, ordering off the bar menu.

And we did. We ordered wine, oysters, tuna tartar, tuna sashimi, spicy tuna rolls, and a selection of nigiri. It turned out to be a perfect "pace ourselves" meal.

Tuesday, October 2, 2012