Lunch With Perry

          Home after over a week away on the road to New York City and New Jersey. It is so good to be back in my own home. Poor Stumpy needed a LOT of loving down. Just as I typed out that last line my “little boy” came in meowing for more food! I can’t deny him anything! It can take forever to type out an entry with my boy on my lap. This photo shows the white hairs invading Stumpy’s once jet black coat of fur.

Let me start documenting my trip with Wednesday the 16th.

The day started out with drama. I had to get on line to print out my boarding pass at 7:40 a.m. My room was on the 9th floor. The nearest computer was on the 7th floor. Put in the $2.00 minimum and the screen lit up. That is all it ever did.. I was never able to access the internet! Damn. I hurried down to the 5th floor to the computer there. I got signed onto the internet and onto the Southewest site. Then I realized I left my flight information back at the room. I had grabbed the wrong envelope on the way out! The elevator was right at the floor so I was able to get to my room very fast, and then ran down the steps back to the terminal. I was right on time to get my boarding pass by seconds and was in the A boarding group.

With my boarding pass taken care of, I took a nice hot shower and got ready for a good breakfast at the Plaza Diner.

Spiro was at the counter. He shook my hand and we exchanged news of the day. My breakfast was a cheese omlette, homefries, OJ, rye toast, and lots of coffee. What a great way to start the day.

I had to stop back at the “Y” to get my stuff together for the day. I had plans to meet author Perry Brass for lunch. This is another example how the internet has had such a profound influence upon my life. I was reading a post of Perry’s on line and in the comments section there was a reference to a good friend of mine, another author, Gene Kahn.  I contacted Perry and we struck up a correspondence. Being on his “home turf” we had to connect. We had lunch planned at an old standby Bleeker St restaurant…Manatus at 1:30.

I headed uptown on Lexington Ave and then walked over 57th St towards 5th Ave. What store is on this corner?? Tiffanys! It was still kind of early so the main floor was not too crowded. I went right to the elevators. I had the “information lady” laughing saying how I was never able to remember the floor the flatware was located at since the remodeling that occurred too many years back!

Once on the 4th floor I talked to the nicest sales lady. She loved my Utilikilt. I explained to her I needed to just get one desert fork in the Audubon pattern. She got kind of a funny look and then I told her the story how I’ve been building up my silver service for over 25 years. I needed four forks last year when I was shopping, but they only had three in stock. I saved that fork for this trip! Along with my stories I said how whenever friends are over and open up the flatware drawer in my kitchen they are amazed to see it filled with Tiffany Silver!

She said, “So you don’t just use it for special occasions and good?” I had to reply, “I use that silver every day; it is not going to do me any good when I’m gone,

I’m enjoying it while I can!”  I then told the story how I used to use the silver Turkey Stuffing Spoon to dish up Chloe’s dry food! I really think I struck a nerve with her as she said she had never thought about that aspect.

The latest desert fork.

As I was leaving the 4th floor the “information lady” was on the elevator. I had her and the elevator operator laughing with my Utilikilt stories.

Walked down 5th Ave to 22nd St. Over 22nd St to 7th avenue to Christopher St over to Bleeker St and then up a block to the restaurant.

I was a little bit early so I waited at the bar right by the door. The hostess got me a glass of water, which I really needed after the walk. I hate people talking on their cell phones in restaurants. This rude guy was yapping on his phone as he was checking out. I had to chuckle as he was bitching about getting a dish he never had before and how horrible it was. It was a gyro sandwich, which unless you get it from a REAL Greek place most chances are it will be all dried out.  

Perry showed up right on time. I recognized him right away from his picture, and he knew me as I was in my Utiliklt! We “clicked” on so many levels. What a great lunch we had. I followed Perry’s lead with the chicken salad sandwich which was wonderful. We spent over an hour just talking after the meal. We headed out so Perry could get some tea at McNulty’s on Christopher St. This is one of the rare places that has been pretty much unchanged since I first discovered Christopher St 40+ years ago.

We headed towards Union Square making a stop at Jacks Coffee.Perry treated me to coffee. This is a REAL New York place. I felt like such a native enjoying a cup of coffee sitting in the window. Truly one of those magical moments which is what travelling is all about.

View from the window:

Inside the restaurant:

Perry told me across the street was the location of the infamous Ninth Circle bar. This place legendary back in the late 1970’s and early 1980’s when I was just emerging from my closet. It was a bit to scary for me at that time. I’ve read enough about the place to wish I had experienced just a bit of it. That was my mission to dig up that blog post which went into such great detail of that time. The link I had to this page was dead in my bookmarks. It was an ordeal to retrace the steps to stumbling upon this blog, but I did it! http://themantisproject.org/a-day-in-the-life/ This is history for better or worse of an aspect of society which has been looked over and ignored. Thanks to the “innertubes” this information can be on hand at the click of a mouse.  

 

Perry and I separated at Union Square. He had to catch a train and I needed to get a bit more chocolate at Trader Joe’s before heading uptown.

What a perfect “New York City” afternoon.