Day 3: NY

Day 3:   New York

Weather:   Hot and mildly humid and windy at times

QOTD: How many bakeries are you taking me to today?

Fitness center (DB rides alongside THB today), granola and nice berries off the buffet, with coffee in the “other” restaurant in the lobby (included); special party again taking over Oscar’s. Could they tell us? We’re starting to get the gist of the place: a great room at a high price and almost no service, and NO service with any sense off friendliness. Example: today when we got back to the room at 7pm, DB had to call down and get more plates and silverware. They remove them each day if they’re dirty (which they were) and don’t replace them. And, you have to call Room Service, not Housekeeping, to get fresh ones. Fascinating…welcome to NY!

THB and DB walk over to MAD (Museum of Art and Design): nothing special, unless you think making manikins is either art or design worth showing, and a guy that basically paints exactly what you see in a photograph.

Subway downtown ($5.50), and head to lunch. Well, we head to the Lafayette Bakery and decide to eat in their café. Good decision!! Excellent salads (roti chicken with faro for DB, nicoise for THB), Arnold Palmers, terrific sourdough Campagne, and THB buys a loaf of walnut/raisin bread (which we sample with lunch, also excellent) and four macaroons, total of $100. Hmmm…seems high for what started out to be a loaf of bread. So it goes when you roll with THB!

Lafayette Bakery (and Cafe)

Raisin/Walnut loaf missing a slice

Pain de Campagne that comes with meal; ranked #1 in this category by NYT in 4/14

Nicoise

Hustle across the street for another recommended loaf, focaccia fino, at Il Buco Alimentari y Vineria. $4.50, a model of the greasy style of focaccia, perfect for mopping up.

Missing one end, and also ranked #1 in its category

From lunch and Il Buco (what could that mean? Ailing bull?), a short walk back to the Judd House, and an hour and half visit (remember, yesterday Donny invited us to his place, and the guy leading us around said to think of it as a visit, not a tour). Don was a minimalist, and his kids kept the refurbishment of the 5 story building in that style. A few very nice pieces of art (no pics, you’ll have to take THB’s word for it that the Carl Andre was a nice stack of 8 bricks), including a big Flavin and two smaller ones, Oldenburg, a big Chamberlain hanging on the wall, and some wall art and notable furniture. On one of the floors (4^th?), the ceiling matched the floor. Oh, and several iconic Judd pieces and one that was so un-Juddian that THB asked the "visit" guide who made it.

From Judd to Collective, a group of galleries showing design (mostly mid-century) and three art jewelry galleries (current stuff, though even they brought mostly older work). A dud of a design show, we use the VIP lounge (everyone paid extra to get in on the first day) to rest up and chat with one of the two Bay Area couples we run into at the show.

Another short walk to dinner, at Bar Bolonat, a Jerusalem (the cookbook) style spot. Excellent, and the warm bread bagel loaded with sesame seeds and dipped in olive oil and za’atar gets us off to a fast start. Deep-fried olives, salad with avocado, cucumber and cheese, kibbeh (spiced beef wrapped in rice and deep-fried) and ravioli with cream, spinach and za’atar all good, two cocktails and He’brew Ale, $120.

Reasonable cab ride back to WT ($21 at end of rush hour traffic) and a chance to rest up before we do our theater doubleheader tomorrow. Yep, let's play two!!