The birthday party

As we wrote earlier this week, the primary reason for this trip to New York was to celebrate the birthday of Greg’s mother Diana. That’s exactly what we did this weekend.

Diana loves opera, so the plan for her birthday was to attend a performance of the Metropolitan Opera, enjoy a few nice meals, and spend the night in a Manhattan hotel. Besides Amy, Greg and Diana, the party included Greg’s brother Matt, Matt’s family and a small group of Diana’s friends. Amy and Greg’s son Ari was unable to attend since the celebration was at the time of final exams.

Before the guests arrived on Saturday, Amy and Greg tried another bagel shop: Bagel Hole in Brooklyn. This is a legit bagel, New York attitude included. The bagel was crusty on the outside and chewy in the center, with good flavor. A bagel score of 9 out of 10.

We took the subway back to Manhattan, where we met Matt and his family for a walk along the High Line. We found lunch near Grand Central, then returned to the hotel to meet Diana and her friends when they arrived. At the time they arrived, a handful of extremely loud protestors were picketing the hotel, supposedly protesting how Marriott corporation treats chickens. It made no sense, considering the many restaurants around New York that serve far more chicken than the steakhouse at the JW Marriott Essex House. Let alone all the other political topics that one might pick for a protest. Nobody paid them any attention apart from shaking our heads at their foolishness.

After some down time in the afternoon, the group met at 5pm for dinner at Michael Mina’s Bourbon Steak, conveniently located in the lobby of the hotel. We have enjoyed Michael Mina restaurants going back to when we lived in San Francisco nearly 20 years ago. Greg told the staff that they had opera tickets so they needed dinner to finish by 7pm. Dinner was good, but 7pm approached without a birthday cake or check. After some words with the staff, they rushed the birthday cake to the table at 7pm. Immediately, a downpour started outside. Greg rushed the group to eat cake quickly while he settled the check. By 715pm, the group was at the hotel entrance, while the bell staff tried to flag some taxis to get our group to the opera. However, if you know anything about New York, it becomes nearly impossible to get a taxi when it’s raining. After a few minutes of waiting, half of the group walked to Lincoln Center while Greg waited with the rest to get a taxi. A few more minutes passed without a taxi. Eventually, Greg’s group agreed to walk in the rain to Lincoln Center. Although everyone in Greg’s group (besides Greg) was at least age 80, they got to Lincoln Center at 7:45, just enough time to get to our seats.

We saw a modern staging of Mozart’s Magic Flute. The music and lyrics were the same as usual, but the production included one person doing sound effects and another doing chalk doodles and titles that were projected behind the performers. The Magic Flute is a highly comic opera, and this added to the comedy. The group was split on whether they preferred this modern version or the traditional one, but everyone enjoyed the performance. We returned quite late and went straight to our rooms.

Following Greg’s morning run on Sunday, Amy and Greg met Diana’s friend Regina to walk to another bagel shop: Ess-a-Bagel. Since it was a Sunday morning, the line snaked around the shop and out the door. We waited and eventually got our bagels: a sesame without cream cheese for Amy, a plan bagel for Regina, and a sesame with a springtime special cream cheese flavor: dill and cucumber. Amy thinks it merited a Bagel Score of 6 out of 10, while Greg was more generous giving it a 7 out of 10. We agreed that the bagels were fine but not one of the best of the week.

A bit later, we met the group for brunch at the Russian Tea Room, a New York institution. This was a suggestion from one of Greg’s colleagues before he retired, and it was very conveniently located just 1 block from the hotel. It was an elegant place for brunch, with champagne, pastries, eggs and more. A perfect way to close the birthday celebration. Soon after lunch, Matt’s family and Diana and her friends returned home, leaving Amy and Greg alone again in New York.

We decided to explore a few things: the new Printemps department store, a Banksy art piece, and the special springtime flowers display at Macy’s. These were more miss-than-hit, though Greg did manage to find two new pairs of pajamas at Macy’s, which is no small feat considering Greg’s picky taste in pajamas. As a change of pace, we took the subway to Taverna Kyclades, a Greek restaurant in Queens. Another good choice in restaurants.