Models, drinks, seasoned fries and a movie
My friend Tara and I had been planning–along with her friend Shumsa–to finally go see Juno. Amazingly we all agreed on the first date chosen. Now, since this flick has already garnered mass kudos including an Oscar for the screenplay, there’s no real point in me reviewing it. I’ll just say that, other than the first several moments of inane, unrealistic and annoying teen speak overkill (i.e. ‘honest to blog’), I thoroughly enjoyed watching and laughing along with it.
Let’s stick to the Coffee Shop Bar (29 Union Sq W, NYC) with its model-wannabe staff and see-and-be-seen patrons. I normally end up here as a last resort, very late at night. After all the food is decent enough, the drinks are (usually) strong and prices are average for a hipster spot. But as the hours tick into the night, the place tends to cater to a pretentious, velvet-rope mentality.
This was my first time here for an early dinner rendezvous and right away I noticed a difference. As I stood at the over-crowded, amorphic bar where orders are rarely taken with anything resembling a sense of urgency (or even interest), my drink came swiftly and with a smile. For a moment I thought I was in the wrong place. Adding to the atypical nature of this night, when Tara and Shumsa arrived, we were seated right away. This despite the line before us. Sweet.
We sat down and our runway waitress was quick to attend to our needs. Another oddity. We all enjoyed our food, but the hit of the table was the seasoned fries. I swear I could have chewed thru the plate they were so tasty. As the time drew closer to us having to get to the movie, we reluctantly bid farewell to the fries and out the door we went with plenty of time left. Well, so we thought.
Like a something out of Seinfeld, we stood in front of a theater, noticing that Juno was not on the marquis. So out came the trusty iPhone only to discover that the theater we wanted was actually on the other side of Union Square. Thanks to the inevitable multitude of previews, we still had plenty of time on our side. Finally at the right place, we settled in for the movie. A good movie. Honest to blog.
