Bleecker Night-Out

The high point of this week was Saturday night. Sandhya’s nieces, Smitu and Nitu, were in town with their husbands, and we left four kids with a babysitter and spent a lovely evening in the Bleecker Street area. But more about that later.

Dinner at Jaiya Thai
On Monday evening, Priya and Praful insisted on taking us out to dinner, and after walking a few blocks into town, we huddled and picked Jaiya Thai for dinner. The wonderful thing about living so close to so many options is that you’re never more than 4-5 blocks from really good eating places.

Dinner was excellent – keeping Jaiya high on our list of places that we wouldn’t mind going to again. The cocktails we had were also really good. On the way back, we stopped at a Baskin Robbins for ice-cream, and then walked home.

On our way to Jaiya, I had earlier noticed some rather shady-looking characters on the sidewalk around 26th and 2nd Avenue. The building there is being renovated, and the scaffolding makes for a rather dark sidewalk; ideal conditions for anti-social behavior. I have been reading Jane Jacob’s excellent book “The Death and Life of Great American Cities”. While it was written in the early 60s and highly influential in urban planning circles, its analysis of what makes for a safe and vibrant neighborhood is fascinating. While we were crossing this area on our way back, we saw two police cars suddenly pull up, their lights flashing, and few police officers jumped out and rounded up the people who were hanging out there. It was a bit like a scene out of “Cops” where the Cops were shouting at the people to sit down and put their hands behind their backs, while they were questioned. Scary, at one level, but reassuring at another, that someone was doing something to keep the area safe.

Returning the iPod
I have earlier written about the iPod I found on the sidewalk. I was on my way to lunch with an old childhood friend at Thalia’s – a restaurant just outside Times Square (50th and 8th Avenue). The place is supposed to get really crowded on Wednesdays because of the Matinee, so we got there early. I had the “special” – a Mushroom Ravioli, which is one of the best I’ve had in a long time.

On Friday afternoon, Craig Saltzman’s son stopped by to pick up his iPod. He asked me again whether he could give me something. I waved my hand dismissively “Don’t give it another thought. Do a good turn to somebody” I replied.

I really wonder how they’ll describe this incident to their friends. “Dumb Indian guy who actually returned it, and then didn’t take anything”? Or would it be “This is a better world than we thought it was”? I wonder. I hope it’s the latter.

School birthday and play-date
During the week, Dhruv was invited to a birthday party by one of his classmates, and Sandhya took him there. She met the parents of some of his classmates there, and fixed up a play-date for Dhruv later in the week. Since he goes by school bus, we don’t get much of an opportunity to meet with, and get to know, the other parents. We didn’t realize the diversity of ethnic backgrounds in our area. Perhaps due to the presence of the UN, there are people from all over in his class – it’s a little “UN” itself. There’s a Serbian kid, one from Kosovo, a Macedonian, Belgian, a couple of Russian / Ukrainians – the list goes on. The kids he plays with in the plaza are equally diverse – one of his good friends is Iranian, and another has a Sicilian Dad and a Ukrainian mom.

Dim Sum and Backfences on Saturday Night
Sandhya’s “nieces”, Smitu and Nitu, their husbands and kids, came in on Saturday afternoon. They’re slightly younger than us, but we get along well, and I thoroughly enjoy their company. One of them is moving to Singapore this summer, and we wanted them to visit before they left the country.

We took the kids down the play area downstairs, where we encountered an interesting couple – the gentleman is of Indian origin, an Assamese IFS officer who left the IFS to marry his Czech fiancé. He used to work for the UN, and is now retired. Waterside is full of UN or ex-UN folks, making it a fun place to stay.

After leaving four kids, ranging from 14 months to almost 6 (Dhruv) with the baby sitter, we headed out that night. We caught an M15 down to Chinatown, where we went to Dim Sum Go Go, a place that initially looks a bit out of place, with its contemporary look and name. We had been told that they had a good vegetarian selection, and we were not disappointed. We almost did a “one of everything, please!” order, and enjoyed what we got so much that we did a repeat of everything. Despite being quite inept at using Chopsticks, the Dim Sum was manageable enough that we didn’t need forks and spoons.

After dinner, we decided to walk the 1.3 miles or so to Backfences Bar, a place strongly recommended by Sonia and JV, in the Bleecker / MacDougall area. We arrived there 20-odd minutes later, and entered to find the place pretty crowded. We put our names down for a table, and sidled up to the bar, where the barman told us there was a one-drink minimum. We proceeded to order, and enjoyed some excellent music that was really “our generation” – CSNY, CCR, Dylan, Simon & Garfunkel, etc…

We were surprised to find we were the only ‘people of color’ in the entire place. It was exclusively full of White folk, generally in their mid-thirties. A couple of college kids lowered the average age, and they had their eyes trained on a large bevy of single women seated at one of the tables.

A little while later we got our table, right next to band. Rishi was so close to the drummer that he could’ve knocked the drum over if he hadn’t kept his elbows in. A waitress came over. “What are you drinking?” We had brought our drinks over from where we were standing, so we told he we were good for now. “I’m sorry, but there’s a two-drink minimum at the table.” She said. “We’ve already had two drinks each,” I replied. “The drinks at the bar don’t count. You have to order two drinks each here.” Between the six of us, that would’ve meant 12 drinks. There was no way we were going to be able to do that. “Thank you very much, but I don’t think we can do that,” I said, rising. We went back to where we were standing, finished our drinks, and then decided to head out.

We headed over to Mamoon’s Falafel, which was crowded as usual. We stood outside and shared four piping hot Falafel Sandwiches. Everyone wanted hot sauce, despite my warning that Mamoon’s hot sauce was really hot, and they really struggled after that. Rishi wanted a kathi roll, so he headed there to order, and we followed. An Anda-Aloo or Paneer roll later, we were suitably fortified to go someplace else.

Unfortunately, as we emerged, it began raining. After some deliberation, we realized that Backfences was probably the best place to hang out, and so we headed back there. We had been ‘stamped’, so we could enter again without paying the cover.

When we got back to Backfences, there was barely standing room. My wet jacket made people move out a bit and make way. The band had changed, but the ambience we enjoyed so much the first time had not. Smitu got Rishi to go and request the band to play Neil Diamond’s ‘Sweet Caroline’ and their version of it was a huge hit with the crowd.

At around a quarter to one, we decided it was time to head home, and went out, into pouring rain. After unsuccessfully trying several cabs, we finally walked a couple of blocks and got one – Rishi and the three girls went off and Ganesh and I tried for around 20 minutes before an India limo driver took pity on us and gave us a ride back.

Despite the unreasonable rules around drink minimums, Backfences was a great experience. Excellent music, reasonable prices, a good crowd – what more could one ask for? We chatted about how there weren’t any places quite like this in India – and I wonder why. I’m sure there is adequate demand for something like this, and enough bands wanting a paying gig. I really wonder why.

Waterside Brunch
A new café opened recently in the Plaza downstairs, and we decided to go there for brunch. Despite a slightly overcast day, it wasn’t too cold, and we enjoyed sitting outside in the Plaza and eating our breakfast. Smitu and Nitu left around Noon, and Dhruv and I went swimming thereafter.



Waterside is really growing on us – and the things we like – the pool + health club downstairs, almost-private Plaza by the river, the diversity of the neighborhood – are going to be difficult to find anywhere else. I keep getting asked the “so you’re going back after a year?” question and find it more difficult to answer with every passing week.