I could fall for it!
Prime time here in the Big Apple–Sunday brunch.
Today at Pain Quotidien (daily bread) on 2nd Avenue between 50th and 49th Streets, an international chain of restaurants where the service is so good and grounded you feel you are in the only one.
It is 12.30pm and the place is full to bursting.
Servers in light grey T-shirts glide calmly up and down the aisles, delivering delicious looking dishes of wholesome looking food.
Omelette with asparagus and goat’s cheese is a popular choice–I just finished mine.
Yesterday I had the Warm Moroccan Chicken Salad with chickpeas, harissa, olives and cucumber–so good I’m going to have a go at reproducing it when we get to Chicago later in the week.
We are sitting at a long scrubbed pine table made from–Rebecca, our waitress, tells us–reclaimed railway car wood. A small metal tray of three organic jam in jars tempt me to have a plate of rye toast–repeating the snack I had earlier at the apartment–I will resist–but they signal the generosity of spirit informing this place.
A mother and father (out-of-towners perhaps) engage in animated conversation with their two grown-up daughters–broad smiles on all their faces–the Big Apple version of family Sunday lunch!
We raise no eyebrows, sitting here working on our computers.
Now off across Central Park to the Pop-up event at Barnes and Noble’s Starbucks–82nd and Boadway.
I could definitely fall for it–but don’t tell the cats!
Robin Ellis 