Back to the goldang questions…

isitandlookout asks:

Do you have a favorite place to go in NYC? and if so – would you take a photograph of it – and post it along with an explanation of why it’s a favorite place?

It’s taken me a while to answer this in part because I wanted to go and take the picture – but I’ve finally admitted that I just don’t have time to get down there. So I managed to find one:

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Actually this combines two of my favorite places into on shot: Mamoun’s Falafel and the Cafe Reggio both on MacDougal Street below West 3rd. Mamoun’s I love because it’s the beast cheap food in the City: a Falfel runs you 2 dollars, and two of them make a full meal for me that is fresh and toothsome. their shwarma is made from fresh roasted cuts of lamb, not some pressed lamb log, and costs 4 bucks. Besides which there’s a guy who works the counter that I’ve nursed a crush on for at least ten years.

The Reggio is what I would consider a perfect cafe: small, with dark wood furniture and heavily varnished painntings. They serve itaian coffies in the old manner. The lay out is perfectly congenial to idling days away or to meeting friends. Getting a window seat there is perfect bliss. One of it’s best features is that there is a small booth where the pay phone is mounted. When I lived in San Francisco, I would make the Reggio my first stop from the airport, and once installed in the booth I would make all my phonecalls, in those heady pre-cellphone days. The experience always made me feel safe and cosmopolitian at once.

Thanks for asking – And if there is anyone who doesn’t know at this point, for the month of March I’ll be answering any questions you might have.

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