Thursday Night Date Night

After a short hiatus, Carl and I resumed Thursday night date night last week. The goal of Thursday night dates, according to me, is to transport us out of our normal routine of work, home and family. This can be very stressful for Carl as he believes that one can rarely escape the routine of life. Much to his surprise, he has begun to enjoy these evenings. He is generally game to accompany me unless a major sports event is going on. In the past months, I stopped picking places for wine and cheese which has significantly impacted his motivation to join me. Not only does he find such places annoying, he complains that wine makes him sleepy -which is actually true. Last week, we ended up at Spitzer's Corner, (located at the corner of Rivington and Ludlow Streets). I walked by Spitzer's Corner several times in prior months, and also read about it but wasn't drawn to it. Initially, I visited them out of guilt because the week before, on the Friday after New Year's Day, little one and Carl stayed home and we made plans to meet for lunch. We planned to meet at Shopsins (now located adjacent to Saxelby's Cheese in the Essex Market) but it was closed. For some odd reason, whenever I try to visit Shopsins it's always closed -this is at least my third attempt. I saw a chalkboard in front of Spitzer's Corner that said something about brunch so we went in and checked it out. Carl is always great for that, he has no problem walking into empty spaces that look closed and asking questions. I have a thing about going into places that look closed, I just can't do it. Carl thinks that's ridiculous. Anyway, after we walked into Spitzer's Corner, little one began wailing,saying "no, no, not here." She's known to get in this kind of state for no discernible reason. The hostess was slightly perplexed but gamely told us the lunch specials. I apologized to the hostess, because little one had increased the volume of her wails. Under the threat of death by wailing, we reluctantly opted for Inoteca (which is directly across the street). Carl made a vain attempt to go to some Turkish place on the corner but I wasn't having it -falafel and coca cola was not cutting it. I think little one found Spitzer's Corner a bit plain. It was completely empty when we walked in, with the wooden picnic tables, backless benches and wooden walls creating the feeling of being in a cabin in the Northwoods. Maybe that's why I went back, because I've spent some time in the Northwoods and it's beautiful and isolated at the same time. The only difference is that outside of Spitzer's floor-to-ceiling windows a big, bustling city is meandering by so the effect is a bit surreal. Little one is extremely attuned to how places and things feel. It runs in the family. I have been known to leave a place because the chairs look funny. At Spitzer's Corner, I was intrigued as I read the list of ales/beers on the blackboard. A while back their pork fat popcorn was featured in a piece in the NY Post about the exotic popcorn wave hitting NYC - so I decided Carl and I would try Spitzer's Corner Thursday night. Little one, in fact, encouraged us to go there without her. On a side note, lunch at Inoteca turned out perfect sans meltdowns. I've had lunch at Inoteca several times in the past 6 months, and dinner once or twice in the past year. The quality of the food at Inoteca is outstanding. I talked Carl into the butternut squash because I ordered it for lunch on one of the last warm fall days. It was accompanied by polenta and tasted so naturally sweet, creamy and soothing that nothing else was needed. At our recent lunch, the waitress was very sweet to little one. She admired her new markers-we always bring paper and markers or coloring books. I was proud of Carl. He had a plastic bag of white paper and little one had her new colored markers. The friendly waitress brought her mini grilled paninis with a tomato dipping sauce. I had the meatballs and they were just what I wanted. But back to Thursday evening at Spitzer's Corner; I was surprised to have so much fun while I was there. There was a mixed crowd, and it was a bit noisy but the overall vibe was relaxed. The appetizers were presented in a way that made us eat them all. The pickle plate wasn't too salty or too sour and was a nod to the Jewish roots of the Lower East Side. The shrimp was served in a tall beer glass and accompanied by tartar sauce and cocktail sauce. They were pretty filling. I selected a winter wheat ale that was described has having hints of vanilla and citrus. I normally can't drink beer, but this one went down pretty easily. At the end of the meal, we ordered the bag of just-made donuts. They were warm, and covered with cinnamon and brown sugar. As I sat and looked out the floor-to-ceiling windows, I thought about how much the Lower east side has changed since the mid-1980s. Not too long ago, walking around Stanton, Rivington and Essex streets was like being in the Wild West. I started out in NYC at the corner of Suffolk and Delancey with my college boyfriend, Michael and his cousin John. We stayed for a few weeks with Michael's sister. In my minds eye, I can still see her sitting on the fire escape in a man's white t-shirt wearing vivid red lipstick and looking very French, with her-then boyfriend James. He later found us apartments in his building at E. 12th street. James had a pit bull before everyone and their grandmother had one. Michael, John and I were so poor then that we would gather our pennies and dollars and go down to Ratner's on Essex Street and eat soup and challah bread. When Ratner's closed several years ago, I was heartbroken. On our road trips back to see Michael and John's family in the Midwest, we would stop in the early morning at the Bialy place on Essex and Grand and buy a big, warm fragrant brown paper bag filled with Bialys. We would eat them in the car as we drove out of NYC and across Pennsylvania and Ohio to Indiana. I watched the stream of people walking by the window of Spitzer's Corner and I was nostalgic for those gritty, heady days when we listened to David Bowie, Iggy Pop, Prince and Bryan Ferry. I remembered the flea markets on Canal Street where I bought a leather mini-skirt and a green, oversize wool sweater and thought I was so cool. Untitled, a great postcard store, was still on Spring Street in Soho and all the great galleries were still there too. My first job was in Soho and I made $150/week. During my lunch break, it was a thrill to go to Untitled and pick out postcards. Afterwards, I would eat at Food, a collective restaurant with great big slices of homemade bread. Then I would visit galleries and view the work of up and coming artists who are now mainstream - Peter Halley, Jeff Koons, and Richard Tuttle among others. Being at Spitzer's Corner melded the past and the present in a way that left me feeling young despite the memories evoked.