AnthonyNapoli's blog

In the 1950's, when you walked into any tenement building in the Bronx, you were greeted by the rich aromas wafting from landing to landing of each family's Sunday afternoon feast: the fiery tomato sauces of the Sicilians; the beefy, peppery briskets of the Jews; the sweet potato pecan pies of the "Negroes"; the pungent cabbages of the Irish; the pulled; savory pork of the Puerto Ricans; and the garlicky kielbasas of the Poles. From the laundry rooms, filled with huge apothecary like bottles of bleach and bluing, pungent smells floated up of clean sheets that mixed in with sour/sweet rot of garbage left over night in the basement before the morning collection.

Perhaps it's just me, but all the restaurants that I have been to or strolled by on the Upper West Side seem to be full of drunken revelers.  The most popular spot is the bar area where cost conscious dinners drown their sorrows and order little plates or shared entrees.  They are squirreling away money from other luxury areas and scattering those hard earned nuts & berries, ironically, on a $10 glass of Pinot Grigio or a $15 Cosmo. It's a neat trick of self delusion that they think are spending less at the bar than if they sat down to a meal. But there is that human need to commiserate and smile through the tough times. Food and drink has always been a common leveling denominator. So eat drink and be merry at the bar for tomorrow we die. How true.