Blues in Harlem

Because I am an uptown girl (no, Billy, thank YOU) and not a downtown girl, I get my jazz n' blues in Harlem. We had been frequenting places on the West side - Smoke and Cleopatras. these places are mostly full of white people, which is okay.

Today we rolled over to check out the Lenox lounge in Harlem (Lenox @125th). It was not full of white people. There weren't many people at all, actually, perhaps because it was an early set ??? I don't know; we never go to the early sets. Those are for people who get up before noon.

Tonight was not jazz, but blues. Good ole Chicago blues. And silly blues, too, because man, you may as well have a good time. What impressed me was how chill it was. Most of New York is so crowded and hurried, everyone packed in like sardines, always rushing, and there's a continuous looming cloud of the extraordinary expenses, the weight of competition. But this was just some good music, some good food, some drinks, and a bunch of people grooving.

Purportedly there's a cover (there wasn't) and a minimum, but apparently that's only for Fridays and Saturdays. The food is soul, and it was fine, fine, fine. I tried hard to eat all of it, but thee was a lot and I couldn't make it. It was pretty oily too; perhaps not too much, but I usually eat nuts and leaves and twigs like a monkey.

Tomorrow I have a emergency outbreak training thingamajiggy and then My Very First Trapeze Lesson at the trapeze school of new york. Woot!!

Restaurants: La Caverna and Inoteca

Had dinner at a dumb Italian restaurant called La Caverna on the Lower East Side with my friend T. and his fab new British girlfriend. It's on Rivington between Essex and Norfolk, just a block from the Delancey stop on the F and the J.

We were suspicious immediately: we had to go down a long candle-lit hallway and take the stairs to the basement. It was done up like a cave; stalagmites, fake rock walls, a subterranean theme that might have been cool, but wasn't. Here's the thing : there was no one else in the restaurant. I DO NOT GO TO RESTAURANTS THAT ARE EMPTY AT DINNER TIME. That is a bad sign. The food was okay, overcooked but not bad. Whatever. It was just lame.

I would have preferred it if we'd gone to the Italian restaurant two blocks east on Rivington, Inoteca, where we'd had a drink before being enticed into the cave. It was small, cozy, full, and open to the street. The food looked great. Smelled great. The people looked happy. They had a terrific selection of Italian wines, but no cocktails. Here's the best thing : they serve food until three am.

Despite what people say, this city does sleep. It goes to bed at ten. If you are like me, and you go to bed at four am, you want dinner at midnight. If you're not, I don't care, you can just drink.