My letter of thanks to Serendipity’s founder, Calvin Holt started my love affair with that remarkable city – and things haven’t changed a bit.
I returned to New York City in 1983, met Calvin and worked at Serendipity for pocket money. We became fast friends – he was 55 at the time. A socialite. A bon vivante. A raconteur tres extraordinaire.
He showed me a side of the city that few adults ever see, let alone a seventeen year old kid from the backwaters of Africa.All nighters at Studio 54. Harvey Wallbangers galore. Long lunches on Hester Street. Whole days at the Met. Dinners at Lutece.
Sadly, Calvin departed this world - May 14, 1994. I still speak to Serendipity’s co-founder and the-late Calvin’s best friend – my friend Steven.
New York City – there is no city like you. Not quite 23 square miles big, Manhattan is home to some 1.8 million people – it’s crowded, yet sublime. And so very cosmopolitan. Where else in the world can you blow almost $700 for 250g of Osetra caviar and seconds later scarf down a street dog for a buck-and-a-half?
It’s appealing - despite the fact that I’d eat neither.
Fifteen years ago on a visit to New York City I found myself taking a train from Grand Central Station to Connecticut on a bitterly-cold and snowy Sunday night in February. It was about 9:30pm, and the station for once was eerily quiet. Ten feet away, a lone woman in a wheelchair began the familiar refrain … “Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound, that saved a wretch like me.... I once was lost but now am found, Was blind, but now, I see.”
It was like she was singing for me. Just me. Twenty minutes and four songs later, I’d emptied my pockets. So had dozens of others. I’d also missed my train. It didn’t matter.
Only in New York.
Eight years ago, I took my grand-uncle, Herbie, (then in his late seventies) a retired gynecologist (and the doctor who delivered me, by the way) to watch a Sampras-Agassi tennis match at the U.S Open Tennis in Flushing Meadows. We’re both huge tennis fans. After the game we stopped at the Second Ave. Deli – a kosher, New York City culinary institution. Herbie had the smoked meat sandwich; I had the pastrami on rye. With a couple of scotch and sodas each (Herbie’s signature drink) to wash our dinner down, we rolled out of there, tipsy and content.
I’ve made innumerable trips to that city – and the love affair continues.
Last weekend I was there again. As they say in Paris (my second most-favorite city) --- “Plus ca change, plus c’est la meme chose.”
This time, I did not go to my many favorite haunts. Instead I spent ten fantastic hours alone - wandering. Wandering here. Wandering there. I discovered the Chelsea Market. I had cappuccino on Mulberry Street. I went to the Beacon Theatre and then to Mario Batali’s Eataly. I walked Times Square. I also spent a tremendously inspiring hour pondering social media with Peter Shankman. Most importantly, I went to Ground Zero where almost 11 years ago to the day, cowardly terrorists brought the World Trade Center down in a heinous act of crime against humanity. All humanity. And in doing so changed the world. I paused. I bowed my head. I paid my respects to the slain. The young. The innocent. The lost forever.
Then I moved on, bitter-sweet - blending in with the millions of New Yorkers hustling to get home for dinner.
Happy, sad, funny or bizarre experiences in New York City? Don't be shy! Write them below ---
5 comments:
I too cheated on my own favourite city Toronto , with an affair in New York .. I mean with New York and as the name is written twice so was my affair :)
However what happened in NY,NY must happily stay in MY NY ;)
..and they all lived ..
Happily Ever After :)
Ash Silva
Bruce Nagy -I expected them to toss us out, but instead after about a dozen Chivas' on the rocks and considerable disruption, the stiff-lipped waiter at Sardi's gave us a stern warning in a New York accent. Was there a bit of wink that went with it? Or is it just more colourful in my memory?
It was the end of 1987. We crawled out of the venerated diner and continued crawling for several days, culminating in a blowout in Times Square with three or four million others as the ball dropped and the police on horseback attempted to maintain order on New Year's Eve, during the dying decade of debauchery that was the 80s.
It was not all alcohol. There were many of those unique New York moments in book stores, cafés and music shops. We visited the World Trade Centre and shot comedy photos on the lower levels, approximately where some survivors were famously pulled out by firemen a dozen years later. There were the Broadway and off-Broadway shows and even a few off-off Broadway shows. It was formative for me. In the 90s I wrote and produced nine plays in several Canadian cities.
But this trip is most memorable because on Jan 02, head pounding from the night before, I met myself in the hotel bar, just before we were about to leave. Immersed myself in a bout of self loathing, reviewed the litany of failed relationships I had fashioned in the preceding years, quaffed two pints of draft and left New York. I have returned to that beloved city many times since. But I've never had a drink in my life since then.
Ahhh,NYC. What a great town. I too have been there many times. The first was when I was 14. Went with my family. Bright lights, big city. Saw my first broadway play - Cats. Don't remember too much more. Went again in my early 20's to visit my then girlfriend who was studying for the summer at Columbia University. Lost a few bucks to a duo working a shell game in Central Park. Didn't know initially there were two of them - one hustling tourists and the other looking out for cops. I remember visiting the dorms at Columbia. There was a guy whose room was covered floor to ceiling with record albums (LPs). There were hundreds if not thousands of them. It was a sickness. He said he often went without eating in order to buy more. He hadn't even listened to them all. I next went a few years later for my aunt's funeral. She and her husband lived in Washington Heights. I remember going to a corner pizza joint after the funeral with my cousin to pick up pizzas. It was truly an old-fashioned NY corner pizza joint where the Italian owner was tossing the dough in the air. You don't see too many of those any more. Went back with my wife (then fiancee). That's when I fell in love with Central Park. There's nothing like walking in the Park on a Sunday. You can get lost in the sights and sounds, not to mention literally lost - it's just so darn big. Next went back for a family Bat Mitzvah. My first introduction to animators at a simcha. We also saw the three peson play Art, on Broadway. It starred Wayne Knight. If the name is not familiar, he played Newman, the mailman on Seinfeld. What a terrific actor. You can certainly appreciate that sitting in the second row of the theatre. Went back to NYC a few times since. Spent a Shabbos in Boro Park - what an experience. Watched a Canada-U.S. 2010 Olympic hockey match on TV with my American cousins. We were both bloodied and bruised by the second period. Ahhh,NYC. What a great town.
I will write mine Jonny after I have visited New York New York next month :-D xx
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