This is Best of New York, a monthly recap of the city’s very best restaurants, bars, arts, culture, shopping, etc. etc. It’s not necessarily the latest, greatest, newest, hottest (but those spots find their way in, too); it’s simply the places that made the city sing every month that I think you might like, too.
On the Town
Bar Oliver (LES) – for perfectly delicious pintxos, tapas and bar steak, while sipping vermouth and sherry at the bustling zinc bar lit by dripping candles
Manhatta – for elegant, creative takes on classic cocktails, like a vodka negroni topped with a Champagne ricotta foam or a vesper spiced up with serrano pepper and fermented green tomato, 60 floors up in Lower Manhattan with transcendental skyline views that will have you reciting some of your favorite lines from the first chapter of Moby-Dick. Also, the buffalo duck wings and steakhouse fries au poivre are wow!
Bar Rocco – a perfectly nice modern Italian restaurant, ideal for pre-theater dinners, by celebrity chef Rocco DiSpirito inside a Kimpton near Rockefeller Center that opened in March
Walter’s, Grand Army – cute and easy places in/around Fort Greene/Boerum Hill for good cocktails and bites, the latter of which had a delightful martini made with carrot eau de vie named for an obscure Alaskan town on the menu when I last visited
Art & Theater
Death of a Salesman
I am not alone in my assertion that Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman is one of the greatest plays ever written. The proclamation is right there by critic Kenneth Tynan in bright lights on the marquee of the latest Broadway production at the Winter Garden Theatre (at top, through August 9). Directed by Joe Mantello and starring Nathan Lane as our tragic hero Willy Loman, and also Laurie Metcalf and Christopher Abbott, this production knocks it out of the park with performances that take the drama to the max and direction that properly amplifies the abstract, sometimes dreamlike quality of the play. A tale of the failed promise of the American dream, I’ve always been astounded by its ability to illuminate the inherent tragedy of what it means to be a man and the fraught relationship between fathers and sons.
I was lucky enough to go on opening night, thanks to a friend of a friend—and attend the cast party at Katz’s, which was one of the coolest experiences ever. It was filled with too many stars to name, but my personal favorite sightings had to be playwright Jeremy O. Harris and actor Ted McGinley (D’Arcy from Married with Children, currently in Shrinking) who is still so handsome!
What We Did Before Our Moth Days
There is a lot I didn’t know about Wallace Shawn before I started reading about his new off Broadway play What We Did Before Our Moth Days (through May 24). First, I didn’t know he was a playwright. I also didn’t know he was the son of legendary New Yorker editor William Shawn. The prolific character actor is perhaps best known by my generation for his roles in The Princess Bride and Clueless (and by me for a bit part in a late great episode of Sex and the City, the one where the party girl falls out the window).
Moth Days is a play in monologues simply staged with four characters sitting in chairs facing out to the audience: a man, his wife, his son and his longtime mistress. William Shawn famously carried on a secret decades-long affair with New Yorker staff writer Lillian Ross who wrote one of my favorite profiles ever on Ernest Hemingway, so I was fascinated that Shawn at 82 was tackling a subject with such autobiographical heft.
On the evening I arrived at the Greenwich House Theater, there were notices in the lobby that the two female characters would be played by understudies: the mistress by Shawn and the wife by celebrated short story writer Deborah Eisenberg (Shawn’s real life forever girlfriend; another thing I didn’t know about him), adding to the psychological torsion.
As someone primarily interested in the playwright and the writing, this was one of those rare theatrical experiences. (I also saw Michael R. Jackson step into the lead role of his autobiographical musical A Strange Loop, which was incredible and moving). Despite the seeming strangeness of Shawn playing the mistress, I was immediately reminded that he is an actor and a very good one. The only scene where actors interact with one another through dialogue is between the mistress and the son (played by a delightfully creepy John Early). Shawn’s performance was unforgettable and a reminder of what he does so well: infuse unexpected pathos into seemingly unsympathetic characters.
I found Moth Days completely engrossing, one of those plays that stays with you and keeps you thinking days later. I enjoyed it so much, I’d almost go back to see a performance with the entire actual cast.
Also, on Mondays and Tuesdays in the same theater, Shawn performs The Fever, his 1990 play, a 90-minute monologue, which I’m also tempted to go see.
Matisse’s “The Pursuit of Harmony” at Acquavella
While the new Matisse show at Acquavella (through May 22) largely focuses on a period when the artist explored portraiture and sculpture, my favorite piece was a simple still life of a geranium in a flower pot with the most amazing colors. The entire show is a delight and I was thrilled to see a couple of paintings I’d never seen before of his studio and flat on Paris’s quai Saint-Michel, where I also lived for a time.
Salad Restaurants (& Pizza)
Meadow Lane
When I visited Meadow Lane, the Tribeca gourmet grocery store that opened to much fanfare at the end of last year, I was surprised by how small and kinda random the selection and vibes were. Prepared foods are a cornerstone and I was there to grab a quick lunch. I honed in on the LA Chop salad, which was shockingly $25 and also shockingly delicious. It was all I could do to resist the $15 green or pink juice (I’d already had my green smoothie for the day!). What can I say? I’m a sucker for this shit.
Pura Vida Miami
It took me exactly one year and eight months since Pura Vida Miami launched in New York before I finally set foot inside one to give it a try—and it was a delightful, transporting experience. I popped into the UES location, which opened last September, where the signature baby blue and white decor, along with an enormous framed photo of Boucher Brothers umbrellas lining the beach was enough to make me wistful for South Beach. I had the Greek salad and a matcha latte—both absolutely delicious. The healthy fast-casual restaurant is a cornerstone of my diet and it’s a category that Miami (& LA) just does better. (Goop Kitchen UWS can’t open soon enough!)
La Pizza – Guess what? The new late night slice shop on my block is good.
