Dinner & a Show
And a date with a subway grate
I just had the most fabulous week of doing nothing. No plans over the weekend, no dinners or catchups during the week. I literally just existed and this downtime was sorely needed because my February calendar is already somehow full. I’m not complaining; I do this to myself because I don’t know how to say no when everything sounds fun and the world could basically end at any moment (increasingly so every day). February is delightfully full of a lot of friend hangs vs solo hangs and I love that for me and my friends.
As a mini aside - yesterday I discovered something that I thought was lost - the Anthony Bourdain mural by Bradley Theodore in the LES! Don’t worry it wasn’t destroyed or painted over or anything, it just lives in a random hallway in my dermatologist’s office. If you go see Dr Eldik (and I recommend him highly) then you’ll also have the opportunity to experience the doorman’s creepy flirting and hopefully catch a glimpse of the mural before you head up the elevator.
As a mini aside to the above mini aside, I will never figure out Substack’s Notes (or the internet at large) because why does this post of my sweet Mushu’s 13th birthday have 72 likes (and climbing)??? Like I love him more than the world but it’s literally just 6 pictures of him sitting like a doofus, I don’t understand you all but thank you for showing my little boy lots of love (I told him you all love him).
This week I’m recounting a lovely friend hang I had last week at Sardi’s - a place that was new to me but that apparently everyone else in NYC knows about. But that’s the whole point of BCLF - to get out of my bubble and explore what’s out there, even if “out there” is Times Square. Never one to waste an opportunity, I also made a quick detour after dinner to a little known art installation right in the middle of the butt crack of NYC.
Sardi's 234 W 44th St, New York, NY 10036 Neighborhood: Times Square Open: Tue-Sat, 12-11pm Order: Spinach cannelloni, cheese and crackers
Let me begin this by reminding you that I am not a theater person. I’ve only seen 2 shows on Broadway - Cats and The Lion King - and that was when I was about 8 years old. I’ve since become more open to exploring the theater world to see if I can find something I enjoy (I’m seeing Oh Mary next week), but as it stands, theater is just not my vibe. So it should come as no surprise that I had never heard of Sardi’s, despite it being a Times Square institution for over 100 years. What can I say - I go to Times Square for the giant peanut butter cups, not the culture. Please enjoy the following account of me Christopher Columbusing my way around a new to me space that is already quite known and loved by many.
I was invited to “dinner and a show” at Sardi’s by
and her friend Michael. Michael wrote about Broadway shows for years and currently reviews affordably priced Off-Off Broadway shows by artists of underrepresented groups for TalkinBroadway.com. When I told Michael I wasn’t a musical person, he asked if there were any I did like. I said I like Nightmare Before Christmas and Josie and the Pussycats. He said that’s not what he meant. I said I know, but that’s all I had to offer. I said I was open to learning more and we agreed that that’s all that matters. Rounding out our little quartet was Susannah, fellow cat mom and another person who knows a ton more about Broadway than I do; her dad used to play violin for a bunch of shows. The takeaway here is that everyone I was with is much cooler than me and I’m just happy to be surrounded by cool people.
Sardi’s is probably most famous for being the birthplace of the Tony Award and for the hundreds (thousands?) of caricatures that adorn the walls. In 1921, Vincent Sardi, Sr. and his wife Eugenia opened “The Little Restaurant” in the basement of a brownstone at 246 West 44th Street. Six years later, however, they had to move as their little restaurant was bulldozed to make way for the St James Theater. Luckily, the Sardis were friendly with the Shuberts, who happened to own a building down the block and agreed to let the Sardis reopen their restaurant there. On March 5, 1927 the Sardis opened a larger restaurant at 234 West 44th Street and it went by the name that everyone was calling them anyways - Sardi’s.
Unfortunately, business slowed down after the move and Sardi Sr sought a gimmick to get folks back in the door. Remembering a visit to Joe Zelli’s restaurant in Paris, Sardi dreamt of a space filled with caricatures of the actors who frequented his restaurant. One night, he saw Russian immigrant Alex Gard sketching at one of his tables and the two struck a deal; Gard would draw caricatures to decorate the restaurant walls and Sardi would provide him with one (or two, I kept seeing different accounts) meals a day as payment. The only catch was that Sardi couldn’t complain about the drawings and Gard couldn’t complain about the food; hands were shook and a partnership was born (I would also happily doodle for anyone in exchange for snacks). Gard’s first caricature was of Ted Healy (of Three Stooges fame) and he would go on to create over 720 caricatures during his tenure. Gard’s drawings were quite cartoonish and apparently he had a reputation of drawing big schnozzes on folks; some actors would actually steal their portraits off of the wall because they hated it so much, but I guess that was just sort of the fun. After Gard’s death, he would be succeeded by John Mackey, then Donald Bevan, and finally Richard Baratz who continues the tradition today and you can see how the styles of the drawings have morphed over the years (they’re less goofy and more portrait now). 227 caricatures (mostly Gard originals) now live in the NYPL archives and are apparently viewable by appointment.
Sardi’s has been a pre and post theater meeting spot since its inception and that’s mostly due to Sardi Sr and Jr’s amazing attention to detail when it came to knowing their clientele. The Sardis attended every show and encouraged their head waiters to do the same that way they could recognize background actors just as well as the stars. Sardi exercised a “fine Italian hand” and would purposefully sit down-on-their-luck actors next to producers looking to fill a role. Sardi would stay open late to host opening night parties and celebrate good reviews and he would also commiserate when a show received bad reviews. At the time of Sardi Sr’s death, quite a few unpaid IOUs were found in his desk from actors who had run up tabs over the years; Sardi’s is one of the few places to this day that’ll keep open house accounts for folks. The Sardis were true patrons and supporters of the theater community and, despite a brief decline in the 90s, Sardi’s seems to be back and better than ever.
The menu at Sardi’s is described as “Continental,” which I can only imagine means “whatever random shit we feel like making.” The bar menu appeared to skew vaguely Italian when I was there, featuring items like prosciutto wrapped melon, cannelloni, and meatballs. Apparently the meat cannelloni has been on the menu since the place opened, and Jeremy the bartender told me it only disappeared for a brief time during WWII when it was replaced with a spinach version. Lucky for me, the spinach version remained and that’s the one I got since the meat one comes with a mushroom sauce and my tummy hates mushrooms (☠️). Michael also insisted that we get the cheese and crackers, which is quite literally a handful of individually wrapped Ritz crackers (frequently replenished by Jeremy) served with a little tub of cheese. Apparently the bar used to have a large communal tub of cheese available for dipping, but the health department shut that shit down sometime in the 90s because of germs or whatever. The cannelloni was very tasty and I could probably have snacked on the cheese and crackers all night, but at around 8:40pm our show was about to begin.
Sunset Blvd is playing across the street at the St James Theatre and it features a pretty unique scene in which the actor playing Joe Gillis is filmed live while walking around backstage and eventually exiting the theater, all the while singing the title song “Sunset Boulevard.” Crew close off a section of 44th St as the actor walks down the block doing his little singy song and eventually returns to the theater, all while the audience watches a live feed inside. If you’re lucky enough to get a seat near the windows at the bar upstairs, you’ll be treated to a front row view of this whole thing. Pretty cool!
After our free show, we decided to walk around Sardi’s and explore the caricatures more since the dining room had emptied out. I quickly learned that bartender Jeremy, like most of the staff, have all been working at Sardi’s for something like 20+ years and could literally tell you where any caricature was located. Looking for Tim Curry? Back of the dining room. Lucille Ball? On a column in the middle of the dining room. Barbra Streisand is near the host stand, John Stamos is upstairs next to Bob Saget, and unfortunately James Franco exists. Tara ended up being our guide extraordinaire though, identifying countless portraits and receiving a “wow that girl knows her stuff” from one of the waiters.
I don’t think you necessarily go to Sardi’s for the food, but you absolutely go there for the vibe. Despite the place being a go to pre-theater spot, we were able to easily grab a table at 6:30pm on a Thursday night without a reservation and the staff at Sardi’s absolutely knows their shit and will make you feel right at home. If you sit at the bar upstairs, talk to Jeremy about the history of the place. If you go to the restroom, don’t be alarmed (as I was) at the nice woman in there who will tell you which stall to use; I just don’t go to nice places often.
Times Square Hum West Side of 7th ave & W 46th St, New York, NY 10036 Neighborhood: Times Square Open: 24 hours
Times Square is known for many things: tourists, giant M&Ms, tons of lights, ripoff Elmos, and noise. Times Square is one of the most chaotic places in NYC, but it’s also home to an art installation that few know about even though they’ve probably walked on top of it; Times Square, or the Times Square Hum. So after leaving Sardi’s, I headed a few blocks east to find a very specific sidewalk grate in the middle of Times Square. This should be fine.
Max Neuhaus (1939–2009) was a musician, composer, and artist, and he actually coined a the term "sound installation" to describe his site specific pieces, which were neither strictly music nor events. Bushwick hipsters are shook. His first work as an independent artist was a series of aural walks called Listen that he ran from 1966-1976. In a move that feels very reminiscent of the artsy shit I did in college, he invited audiences to walk with him through the streets of New York City with the word ‘listen’ stamped on their hand and, well, listen. There’s definitely something to be said of walking around the city and really taking in the sounds of each neighborhood; it’s something I’ve been trying to do more and more rather than walking around with my airpods always in.
“As a percussionist I had been directly involved in the gradual insertion of everyday sounds into the concert hall…I saw these activities as a way of giving aesthetic credence to these sounds - something I was all for. I began to question the effectiveness of the method, though…I became interested in going a step further. Why limit listening to the concert hall? Instead of bringing these sounds into the hall, why not simply take the audience outside?” -Max Neuhaus
Neuhaus took that thought further when creating the Times Square Hum. Emanating beneath a grate on a traffic island is a low undulating tone that sounds slightly different depending on the time of day and the individual listening. In all actuality, it’s a single tone played on repeat and the wah-wah-ness of it is due to it echoing in the chamber underneath the street. When it was installed in 1977, the sound installation was unlabeled and meant to be simply happened upon as a sort of social experiment. In a city of a thousand noises, would anyone notice this one? Would they surmise that it’s been placed there on purpose, or would they think it’s just one more random sound in the cacophony of the city? Neuhaus’ installation reminds me a bit of Masstransiscope - it’s one of those “blink and you’ll miss it” things that you would sort of just happen upon and wonder if you actually saw (or heard) what you saw (or heard). If NYC was a video game, this would be an easter egg folks would brag about finding on Reddit.
"The work is an invisible unmarked block of sound," the artist described in a brochure about the work…”Many who pass through it, however, can dismiss it as an unusual machinery sound from below ground. For those who find and accept the sound’s impossibility though, the island becomes a different place, separate, but including its surroundings. These people, having no way of knowing that it has been deliberately made, usually claim the work as a place of their own discovering."
Times Square Hum remained in place from 1977-1992, at which time Neuhaus moved to Italy and dismantled the installation lest it fell into disrepair without him living locally. Luckily, the hum returned 10 years later when it was revived by Dia, who also happen to have a really nice video about the work on their website. The hum took on a new air after its reinstall since a lot had changed in those 10 years - now folks had iPods and cell phones and they were even less likely to listen to their surroundings. In a world of TikToks asking you to “follow for more NYC gems,” the Hum still manages to fly somewhat below the radar simply because we don’t fucking listen to what’s going on around us anymore! That, and it’s basically just a subway grate.
I’ve still been thinking about David Lynch a lot and I can’t help but think him and Neuhaus would have been homies. A lot of the sound in Lynch’s films could be described as “noise,” but to Lynch that noise isn’t less than the film score - it’s equally important. If you watch any of David Lynch’s early shorts, and especially his first feature Eraserhead, you’ll notice how Lynch uses sound to create environments buzzing with emotion. When I was my most insufferable while taking a David Lynch film course in college, I would frequently listen intently to the screeching and whooshing of the subway train I was in. One time, a door was stuck open and I remember being absolutely thrilled that I could hear the screeching so clearly (and apparently not being worried about how unsafe that was?). Anyways, try tuning into the sounds around you here and there and try to notice if you hear anything unusual.
“I hope that the work tunes people into their environment,” Dia Art Foundation Curator Alexis Lowry says, “and maybe they pause for a moment and put their phone down and look around.”
The City just released Part 1 and Part 2 of a series on recycling in NYC! As a recycling nerd, it was very heartening to read that our facilities are better at separating materials than I thought. As an office manager, I now need to update all of the trash signage that I literally just created.
Back 2 The Video Store feels like a nostalgia-induced cash grab, but if you want to drink cocktails in a pretend video rental store, go off king! Instead of choosing a movie while browsing the shelves, you’ll choose a genre-inspired cocktail. Tickets are about $20 and include 90-minute reserved seating + 1 throwback cocktail (or mocktail) with food also available for purchase. The popup is located in NoMad and runs through March 8.
The Governor’s Island Ice Sculpture Show is this Saturday Feb 8. Ten artists will be paired with a professional ice carver from Okamoto Studio with the goal of creating a sick ass ice sculpture. The event is free, but make sure you check on the ferry schedule beforehand.
Ceramic studios are taking a page out of Ghost’s playbook and offering couple’s ceramic classes for Valentine’s Day. Clayspace BK has multiple wheel throwing sessions available on Feb 14 and Centerpoint Ceramics has both Couples Classes and Galentine’s Classes available next weekend.
If you’re still looking for that special person (to possibly create a ceramic vase with one day), pop into Land to Sea Feb 16 and 17 for their Speed Dating sessions. Registration is open til Feb 10, so get your application in! If you want to keep things more platonic, Lazy Sundaes of offering Speed Friending on Feb 14. Tickets include bottomless boba!!!
If ceramics are a bit out of your price/skill range, try your hand at some Origami at Soft Butch in Bed-Stuy on Feb 9. They’ll provide colorful paper and step by step guides to get you folding!
There’s a Tea Festival at South Street Seaport every weekend in February!! Cha Cha Festival has a literal ton of events every Sat/Sun this month and I will absolutely be trying to squeeze in a visit.
There’s a new Kenny Scharf exhibit in town through Feb 28! I wasn’t really familiar with Scharf’s work before seeing it at Luna Luna but I absolutely fell in love with his style. You can see this exhibit at The Brant Foundation in the East Village. Pro Tip from Uncovermore - admission is 50% off on Wednesdays!
The NYC Dept of Cultural Affairs just released an updated list of NYC Cultural Institutions with Free or Suggested Admission! I’m always on the lookout for ways to do stuff for low/no cost and this list is immediately getting bookmarked.
Not all news is good news, though. NY-Presbyterian and NYU Langone hospitals have both removed Transgender Care from their offerings. Props to Letitia James for saying “not in my house” and reminding health care providers that “New York’s non-discrimination laws require them to provide gender-affirming care, regardless of the executive order.” And in other bad news, 100 immigrants in NYC were arrested last week in ICE raids and immigration lawyers have stated that they’re having difficulty tracking down where their clients are being detained. The ACLU has resources on what to do if you’re stopped by ICE and with Trump issuing fucking quotas for ICE agents to hit, more folks are bound to get arrested in the coming weeks. Welcome to the bad place, sorry to end on a downer!
this is like a very specific atlas obscura with a personal flair and I love it
I used to frequent a place where a lady told you which bathroom stall to use, and it was called the Boardy Barn!
Also: tell me all about Oh Mary! I meant to tell you I did look for tickets, but I got scared off the price when they said Cole was leaving. Tell me if it's worth it!!