
Friendships can start in the darnedest ways. This one began with a t-shirt. Actually two t-shirts. In September, M was in Hong Kong with u.e. feasting on Chinese food, so I took J to EMP for lunch. As we were finishing our meal (photos here), one of the dining room managers, Robert Kihlstrom, strode towards our table carrying an EMP bag. What was this all about? While I’ve occasional taken home leftovers, this time, I’d devoured every delicious morsel, so it couldn’t hold a doggie box. A take-home treat from the kitchen, perhaps? No, he said with a twinkle in his eye and a Cheshire-cat-like smile, then went on to explain. In honor of the restaurant’s being awarded its fourth star by the NY Times a few weeks prior, a woman who is, as we are, a foodie and a huge EMP fan, had made up a batch of specially inscribed t-shirts for the staff. According to Robert, she told him that if there were any remaining, he should give them to any patrons who loved EMP as much as she did.* And, he continued, he couldn’t think of two more enthusiastically vocal supporters than M and me. Well, I certainly couldn’t argue with that! He then pulled out one of the shirts on the front was emblazoned the words you see in the photo.
Thanking Robert for the thoughtful gesture, I asked him for the woman’s e-mail address so I could thank her as well. Back in our apartment, I promptly wrote a short note and sent it off, hoping it would not land in her spam box. A few days later, I received a reply. (Sigh of relief!) What followed was a flurry of back and forth e-mails. Things clicked between us, and the bud of a friendship took root.
When I learned that she has a blog, where her nom de plume is Family of One, I immediately checked it out. What a delight! A gifted writer, she relates the stories of her life, including her dining adventures, wittily and with engaging details. I urge you to go there and be entertained.
We hatched plans to meet. She lives in Miami but comes to NYC several times a year. Her next visit would be just before Christmas. We decided that we would meet for lunch. I’m sure I don’t have to tell you where! She told me that while she’d had many dinners at EMP, she had never had lunch there and was eager to experience it during the daytime, especially when I described how magical it was to sit in that gorgeous space with the light streaming in through the enormous windows. This would also allow Family of One to continue her tradition of having her pre-Christmas dinner at EMP solo.
The weekend she would be arriving, I had a packed schedule: our traditional Chanukah dinner in our apartment on Friday evening, a family get-together at a restaurant on Saturday evening, and theater tickets for M and me on Sunday. Lunch with Family of One would be Monday. But as the time for her visit drew closer, and we grew more and more excited, we agreed there was no way we could be in the same city and, in fact, be so near each other since her hotel was only blocks from our apartment, and wait until Monday to see each other. So, we decided to meet for drinks on Sunday evening in the Rose Bar at the Gramercy Park Hotel – conveniently located a few short blocks from our apartment, and where she had reservations for dinner that evening at Maialino.
Then, for some added drama, along came the big snowstorm of December ’09. I hadn’t checked the weather on Friday, so I found out about it that afternoon when my brother called about our Saturday plans. Snowstorm? What snowstorm? When we left NJ on Thursday, none of the weather reports on “NJ Traffic & Weather Together” or on the Weather Channel had mentioned a major storm coming our way. The snow would be arriving on Saturday, so we cancelled dinner with the family because my brother and other relatives were coming in from L.I., and it was looking as though they could be getting 16 to 20 inches! But our area in NJ was not going to be any better off. A call to the guys who plow our driveway assured us that it would be taken care of so that we would be able to get into our house when we returned on Monday night.. (They were true to their word, which was a good thing because there was a foot-and-a-half of the white stuff.)
When we finally met in person, it was almost more like a reunion than a first time. The three of us spent a lovely hour together before she went into Maialino for dinner, and we went back to our apartment. Tomorrow couldn’t come soon enough for me!
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