I needed a bit of restful alone time after all of the festivities of the last few days, so I slept in late and didn't rush anywhere particular. I took the subway down to 34th Street and made my way over to Lush for handmade soap and bubble bath. I first found out about Lush in London a few years ago and remember how psyched I was when they opened their first NYC store. I walked around my old neighborhood--the last apartment I had in the city was at 30th Street and 5th Ave. Surprisingly little had changed in 5 months. Same delis, same Turkish rug stores.
There is basically no Korean food in Ashland, Oregon or the surrounding area, so I figured I should have lunch in Koreatown. I went to one of my favorite 24-hour Korean restaurants in the city, Won Jo. It's not fancy, but they always have good food. I had tofu and seafood soup and mandoo. Yum!
After a bit more sightseeing, I walked up to Grand Central Terminal and hopped on a train to Goldens Bridge in Westchester for Phil's 40th birthday party. In attendance were Phil and Lisa's families, their friends, Creative Good employees and various business associates. One of the people who showed up was my old boss at A&E, Steve Ronson. What a surprise that was! It was lovely to catch up with him though.
Here's a pic of Steve (in the middle) and his wife with Mary Baumgartner's husband, Philip.
Some more party pics:
Marty Keane, SVP of e-commerce at Bluefly.com and Armen Chakmakian's brother.
The Birthday Boy with his honey.
Mary Baumgartner, VP of New Media at HBO with her son, Jack.
Got a ride back to the city from Mary and her family. They invited me over for drinks at their apartment in Tribeca. Then it was off to a quiet dinner alone, so I went to one of the places I love most in the city, a basement dive in Chinatown called Samar (formerly New Indonesian) on Doyers Street off Pell. They have the best Roti Canai--a little dish of chicken and potato curry with a flaky bread kind of like an Indian paratha. There are prettier, hipper places to eat in the city, but not many authentic Malaysian restaurants. This is one of the few. If you're looking more for fusion or at least something less... grungy, try Cafe Asean or Bali Nusa Indah.)
I was so busy eating, that I mis-timed my next to-do. I rushed over to the Film Forum to see a movie called 13 Tzameti, a French thriller that won prizes at the Venice and Sundance Film Festivals, but I got there too late, so I decided to go to Times Square, an area I used to avoid like the plague when I lived in NYC and see what's what.
It was worse than I remembered--a total zoo of tourists and teens. I must be getting old. I could barely stand it, so I got out of there quickly and walked up 9th Avenue through Hell's Kitchen. Mostly a quiet day today, but I needed it.
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