Come From Away


So, there we were, my beloved and myself, sitting in the lobby of our favorite New York City hotel, each of us reading a section of the Times while we waited to be hungry enough for lunch. And suddenly, there's this fellow kneeling on the floor to my left, and saying, "Excuse me." Well, you know, it is always wonderful when a fellow kneels at one's feet, and this one was young and handsome, and I thought it best to indulge him. "Yesterday was my birthday," he said. "And the hotel gave me this bottle of wine. But we are flying home today and we can't take it with us. I wonder if you would like to have it." In fact, I would. And I accepted with pleasure, wishing him and his wife safe travels.

And that was how I knew our mini-vacation was going to be even better than I'd imagined.

Himself and I had decided to buy only token gifts for each other for Christmas and to go up to New York to see Come From Away. Ever since we'd read the book The Day the World Came to Town and heard that there was a show based on it, we thought we'd like to check it out. So we bought matinee tickets and booked a room for the night and thought that was that.

But, of course, it wasn't. Because once our offspring got wind of our plan, nothing would do but that we have an elegant dinner on them! Their Christmas gift to us was a card for a wonderful, wonderful restaurant not far from the hotel, not far from the theater.




We've liked The Algonquin Hotel ever since we discovered it via The New Yorker magazine many, many years ago. We've stayed there just a handful of times, but always have felt comfortable and at home. We like the restaurant with the famous Round Table and the excellent Caesar Salad. We like the wallpaper of Thurber cartoons on some of the floors. We like the resident cat (used to be Matilda, now Hamlet). We just like it there.

We lunched on the salad (preceded in Himself's case by some truly delicious corn chowder) and soon it was time to make our way over to The Schoenfeld.


The show was superb. The cast was brilliant, the music exciting, the choreography fascinating, and the story -- well, as Marsha would say, "what can I tell you?" I laughed, I cried, I loved every single minute of it. The 90 minutes of performance passed in a flash. Especially today, when there is so much ugliness in the world, so much me-ness, it was inspiring to watch how a small town responded to an international tragedy thrust upon them. There are touring companies -- if one comes your way, please don't miss this show.



Oceana, the restaurant Andrew had chosen for us, was a nine-minute walk from The Algonquin. It is spacious and not too noisy. We were seated promptly and handed menus. In addition to the regular wonderful offerings, there was a pre fixe menu for early diners, which we were. So with glasses of pinot noir and chardonnay respectively, we perused the options.


He started with oysters. I went with the calamari. Usually our experience has been that pre fixe selections provide smaller portions than the regular menu. Not this time! Take a look at that calamari! Even with Joe's help, I was unable to eat more than half of it. The trout with the spinach salad was the same situation; I was able to eat about half. I thought about taking my uneaten fish back to Hamlet, but then had second thoughts. The lemon meringue parfait was a delicious finale.





This morning, after indulging in The Algonquin's french toast and Eggs Benedict respectively, we checked out. It seemed that the right thing to do after having seen Come From Away would be to go down to the 9/11 Memorial and Museum. But the temperature was 4 degrees and we hadn't had the foresight to buy tickets ahead of time, so we decided to save that for another time and just drove down to the area on our way to the Holland Tunnel.

And now Christmas comes to an end.

Comments

Susan said…
Sounds like a great weekend. So glad you liked Oceana. It’s a favorite of ours.
Anonymous said…
That does sound like a wonderful weekend. You had a great weekend planned, then received not only the gift of a dinner, but a bottle of wine from a young, handsome stranger.
Karen said…
What a wonderful trip. I did not know about the musical based on the book, which I loved.

Like you, we have been only a handful of times. NYC is magical. I love it!
Janet said…
So glad you enjoyed this phenomenal show. It truly does show the best of us .....all of us....a blog reader and a fan from Canada 😊😊😊
Janet O. said…
What a lovely getaway. I've never been to NYC, though my son lived there briefly, and a nephew still lives there. Maybe one day.
Sounds like everything was going your way for this tail end of Christmas experience.
Quiltdivajulie said…
Such an excellent plan for your shared Christmas gift! Much better than more stuff to dust, maintain, and manage. Love the bottle of wine story!
Barbara Anne said…
What a magical get-away and how marvelous that you and your beloved could have such fun - and miss the horrid Arctic freeze. What a wizard Christmas gift to yourselves and from your children!

Stay cozy.

Hugs!
Sounds like an excellent adventure all around. And you have a reason to go back.
Brenda said…
I loved that show! It toured Canada last year and opened in my city of Winnipeg and it was sold out every night. Some of the real life characters came up for the opening. I've since downloaded the sound track and replayed it because I knew I missed lots of the words in the meaning.
Mrs. Goodneedle said…
What a wonderful adventure and a perfect way to wrap up the holidays!