In praise of the three-martini lunch
Photos of the library, building and cafe from themorgan.org.
Carmen invited me to a three-martini lunch at the Morgan Library. A year like this calls for regular doses of alcohol as a survival mechanism, so I said yes.
The Morgan Library houses the impressive collection of Pierpont Morgan. Listen, if you’re going to be a robber baron, the least you can do is leave a spectacular library.
The library is pretty much the way it was in Morgan’s time, but the building has been renovated by Renzo Piano.
It feels a little jarring to step out of the exhibit of Charlotte Bronte’s papers and into this. One is expecting Thornfield Hall, mud and howling wind.
Carmen, a tech consultant, started Whisky and Books, which pairs books with whisky and meets every month to discuss. This month’s pairing: All The Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr and Bruichladdich X4+3. What a great idea, we should do this in Manila. Noel and I have long planned a Silence of the Lambs dinner with a good chianti (and fava beans).
I associate martini lunches with this scene from Mad Men. (Coincidentally, I have a ticket to The Front Page starring Nathan Lane and John Slattery.) We did not remake this, probably because I did not eat a bucket of oysters.
As long as we were pleasantly tipsy we visited an altar to literature and drink: The Algonquin Hotel, where Dorothy Parker et al held court at the Round Table.
The Algonquin is now ruled by the imperious Matilda, third of her name.
Answers to questions you might be asking, unless you wandered onto this site purely by accident >>>
November 29th, 2016 at 08:22
It was great to meet you. I wish my days are always literary-inspired. Looking forward to another martini-fueled afternoon whether in NY or Manila. I also hope to join the Manila version of Whisky + Books!
November 29th, 2016 at 10:42
nybisdak: We picked the last nice weather to have lunch, because it got so cold the following day and by the weekend it was freezing. I’ll look into the whisky situation.