Saturday, July 20, 2002


desperately seeking spoons

mr. right and i were headed into downtown manhattan in a cab for brunch at 12:38pm today, when as the car came onto the brooklyn bridge, we saw the plume of deep black smoke.

as we continued over the bridge, it was clear to mr. right that the fire was on 14th street. you could tell that by seeing what buildings were behind and before the smoke. "what's on 14th st?" i asked. "the con ed plant," he said, his knowledge the benefit of having lived in new york for more than 30 years. immediately the cab driver pulled onto the fdr freeway. we thought we would abandon plans for lunch on the lower east side and instead get off the freeway on houston and go across to a cute village cafe on the west side. but as we began to cross the island on houston, we noticed the stoplights were all out.

then we began to hear the fire trucks. as we crossed third avenue it became clear there was no power downtown, so we bagged it. we were afraid of getting trapped on the island. so we had the cab driver get on the west side highway and take the tunnel back to brooklyn's atlantic avenue. a total round trip!

we paid the whopping fare, just pleased not to be part of the mess downtown, wished the cab driver, one tanvir chowdhry, a safe trip back to turn in his cab, and went off for a pleasant goat cheese omelet at that fun little nabe cafe named after what's basically the french equivalent of ovaltine -- la banania, where the majority of patrons had yet to realize that anything at all had occured. (ignore the reviews about the brunch; it's fabulous. i too am a bananiaphile!)

thus i ended up walking atlantic avenue this afternoon, hopping from antique shop to antique shop in search of charming ornate antique demitasse or egg spoons for my rancilio espresso cups. and let me tell you these are hard to find!

i came across a beautiful victorian set of 10 spoons, with gold-washed bowls and full silver handles in the form of vines. alas -- $125! and i didn't need 10 anyway. i also found the greatest commemorative spoons, in honor of a vaudeville house that opened in 1898. alas, even pricier!

still, my search continues. somewhere there must be a set of 4 antique silver demitasse spoons just wacky enough to be cute and yet somehow mysteriously affordable. . .

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