Places to be Curious About

[small h]

I haven't been for ages, 'cause I guess I'm seeing different shows these days. It was so nice to come back.

[Wilfrid]

Well I have never been there, as far as I recall, despite many shows at Theater Row and visits to Chez Josephine across the street. 

[small h]

15 hours ago, Steve R. said:

Ginny directed some shows downstairs

I didn't even know there was a downstairs. I knew there was an upstairs. I've seen a couple of things there.

[Steve R.]

Are you sure that there's an upstairs from the bar/restaurant?  I just went to their website & the "our story" section (see below link) says the theater is downstairs (& talks a little about the Lewis Black days - "playwright in residence"?!).  https://www.westbankcafe.com/our_story  Maybe you walked backwards on the stairway?  I've done that.  Especially back in those days.

On the "learn something new" front, I didn't know until I read that section that The Who played the restaurant while the 1st staging of Tommy was on Bdway.  We went to that production & have now gone to the new one (currently in previews).  We sure as hell would've found a way to see The Who when they were there had we known.

Edited March 24, 2024 by Steve R.

[small h]

OMG it is downstairs. I have no idea where I got the idea it wasn't.

[small h]

1 hour ago, Steve R. said:

to the new one

How was it? We're going in July.

[Steve R.]

Reasonably good.  It's in previews and we expect there to be quite a bit of "tightening up" (as Ginny puts it) before the opening date.  I liked the 1st production better, but it had more of an audience memory to work with.  Here, they have to assume that they may be playing to an audience who isn't very familiar with the history and context (or fans).  And, they aren't totally going for the same "take away" in this one either (as Townsend pretty much said in his NYT interview).  For me, on the other hand, well I had immediately bought the album when released (I was a huge "The Who Sell Out" fan), saw The Who perform Tommy in its entirety in 1970, then saw the movie, then the 1st Broadway production.  So, I was doing more of a comparison than an "in its own right" viewing.  And I still liked it well enough.

[small h]

Thanks! I did not see it in 1970, as that would have meant staying up past my bedtime. But I've seen the movie many times - I used to teach a course in adaptation, and Tommy was two of the texts. I have such a strong attachment to certain sequences that I wonder if I'm going to be able to connect to the new production.

14 minutes ago, Steve R. said:

they aren't totally going for the same "take away" in this one either

 Now I'm very curious as to the new one's "take away." I should probably just read the interview.

[Steve R.]

Yeah, read the interview and we'll talk.  And, when you go, count the # of people around you who may not know what pinball was (is?).  Luckily, acid hasn't lost its reference point.  (or, unfortunately, pedaphilia or post-traumatic injury for that matter) 

[Wilfrid]

Nobody done Cafe Carmellini yet? Looks like my kind of old school, stiff, snobbish place.

[Sneakeater]

https://ny.eater.com/2024/4/2/24118844/sammys-roumanian-opening-stanton-street

[Sneakeater]

(Of course, they're never gonna revive the original 1970s menu that made them so famous among food people, so fuck em.)

[small h]

4 hours ago, Sneakeater said:

(Of course, they're never gonna revive the original 1970s menu ..

You say this like it's a bad thing.

[Wilfrid]

Apparently everything will remain the same.

Oh god.

[Sneakeater]

5 hours ago, small h said:

You say this like it's a bad thing.

It totally is.  That menu was great.  All this organ meat and other hardcore Ashkenazi stuff you don't see anywhere.

This was one of the first great instances of a Restaurant's Regressing To The Mean.

[small h]

But were the renditions of those dishes actually edible? My recollection of Sammy's is a good time and a lousy meal. 

[Sneakeater]

They were fine.  The whole reason all that other stuff was classic Ashkenazi food is that (unlike steak) it was easy to get decent quality cheap (since contrary to libel most Ashkenazic Jews were POOR).

And yeah, early days the cooking was fine. (Mind you, I only experienced that ONCE, the first time I went in the early ‘80s.  After that it was like, where’d it go ?)

Edited April 3, 2024 by Sneakeater

[small h]

I must've gone in the early '90s, for an office holiday party. The food reminded me of my grandmother's cooking, which is not a compliment.

[Wilfrid]

Oh I was there in the late 90s or whenever eGullet was a thing and it was dreadful.

If we had the old site, you would have my demonstration that its cost overlapped with Lespinasse. Marginally, but disgracefully. 

[Sneakeater]

What I’m saying is that it turned by 1983. 

[Sneakeater]

For all I know in 1982 I got one of the very last dinners of the original program. 

Edited April 4, 2024 by Sneakeater

[Sneakeater]

Cuz it certainly wasn’t like that any more when we went back the next year.  (Although it was still spectacularly entertaining.)

[backyardchef]

I went around 2016 with a group, and some dishes were great and some were less than good. The atmosphere and schmaltz (including the 'entertainment') were there. It's a worthwhile NYC experience, but the food is only part of the reason to go there, and probably not the top of that list.  

[MitchW]

I was curious about Kono, but won't be after tonight.

[Simon]

1 hour ago, MitchW said:

I was curious about Kono, but won't be after tonight.

Try to request the main artery.  And he's been serving the tenderloin rare recently, which may or may not be your thing.