Special Visits

“The heart, like the mind, has a memory.

And in it are kept the most precious keepsakes.” 

― Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

While exploring my NYC is a favorite thing of mine, sharing it with special people is even better!  In-between my Food Film Festivals, two very special visitors came to play, Mom and her best Friend!  Upon arriving at Penn Station, we got them settled in their lovely very conveniently located hotel, The Roosevelt.  Then, we hit the ground running.  Heading Downtown to check out Ground Zero area, I took them to my favorite places there, St. Paul’s Chapel and the 9-11 Memorial site.  Both are steeped in history and are beautiful.   We had a lite bite, and settled into the Lobby Bar of the Roosevelt where Kristi met us for a visit.

Saturday was a beautiful fall one, so we headed to a favorite for lunch, the Loeb Boathouse in Central Park.  We weren’t alone, and the restaurant does not take reservations on weekends.  Another lesson learned in simply being nice (and perhaps traveling with “beautiful mature Ladies”).  When I asked the Host apologetically how long we should expect to wait, he looked at me, my Visitors, and said, not too long.  It wasn’t, and he gave us one of the best tables in the house, right by the Lake!   It was, as usual, wonderful    

Then we walked and walked with me taking my Ladies along one of my favorite walks in my Central Park.  I believe I overdid it.  After leaving them at the hotel for a couple of hours to rest, I was back to head to Carnegie Hall to see an American icon, Bill Cosby.  It was a wonderful evening, only to have Mr. Cosby’s “indiscretions” hit the fan, literally, the very next week.  So sad and frustrating.  Not to get sexist?!, but why do so many with the y chromosome feel this type of behavior is okay?

Putting my fun and wonderful visitors on their train Sunday (after they had thoroughly enjoyed a packed St. Patrick’s for Mass), I then jumped on a Bolt Bus myself to Boston.  I felt a real need to just “be” with Katie before she left on her amazing adventure to Sierra Leone.

 

Spending a couple of perfect days with Katie (weather and and every other way), having lovely meals: an amazing breakfast at Sofra and dinners at Tony Maw’s Kirkland Tap & Trotter on the Cambridge/ Somerville line and Ribelle in Brookline with she and some friends, and just walking.  For the first time I finally saw the beautiful, historical Mt Auburn Cemetery.  Mt Auburn is America’s first garden or rural cemetery, as it was concluded that having cemeteries around and under churches was not really healthy.  As a final resting place, it is filled with a who’s who of notable Bostonians, many of the Brahmin families, the Cabots , Cabot Lodges, Lowells.  One of my personal heroes, Isabella Stewart Gardiner rests here, as does Fannie Farmer.  Artists, architects, and authors who have made indelible contributions to the fabric of America rest here, such as Winslow Homer, Charles Bullfinch, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.  Oliver Wendell Holmes also lays here for eternity.  Funny, sometimes one must move away, to see the treasures in one’s “backyard”.  Now I’m getting deep!  (I honestly considered taking over Katie’s apartment while she was in Africa.  It would have made her life easier..and other things..But, I am simply not “done” with NYC.)

 

Favorite Fall Festivals

"Know what you love, and do what you love.  If you don't do what you love, you're just wasting your time."    Billy Joel

Finally, time for my favorite of the Festival Season, “my” Food Film Festival!    I believe I have I have shared my enthusiasm, and passion, for the FFF.  I am so truly grateful, grateful, and feel so blessed, to have been embraced into this “Family."  And, a family it feels like.  We work hard, play a bit, and even travel together!

Our final production meeting for New York’s Festival began at a very cool event: Brooklyn Bounty, The King’s County Agricultural Fair hosted by the Brooklyn Historical Society.  What made it even more enjoyable was seeing Ben Flanner, Head Farmer of the Brooklyn Grange Farm win the Pioneer Award from the Historical Society.  The Brooklyn Grange Rooftop Farm at the Brooklyn Navy Yard was perhaps my favorite venue of Rooftop Films last summer!

Well, the weekend of NYC’s Food Film Festival was wonderful, crazy, fun, successful and we rocked!  I could go on and on (as you well know).  Our Executive Director was very happy as he commented many times that this year’s team was one he’d been hoping to gather for years.  We worked very well together, no drama and trauma.   Five events in four days: Cocina Peruana opening night; Edible Adventure #011: Just Add Sriracha; The Food Porn Party: Halloween Balls (In the spirit of the day, we were all Pirates!); Brewmore + More on Saturday afternoon; and finally The Night Aquatic.  We sold out all weekend!

Seth, our Executive Director, sent us a thank you after that weekend, I used this in my thank you to all of "my" amazing volunteers: “….You probably overheard guests talking, but if you missed it...Everyone had a great time. And while every event had its own special moments, each day, it was taken to the next level. The Night Aquatic ended up as a perfect closer. And the energy in that shrimp boil was epic...a room full of 300 NYC strangers all eating with their hands, shoulder to shoulder, quickly becoming friends. You turned the windowless basement of a movie theatre into a beautiful night on the river.”

The Skyline Room @ Kendall

A couple of weeks later, a core group of us headed to Chicago for the Fifth Annual Chicago Food Film Festival.  We were happy to be back at Kendall College.  It is a wonderful venue to hold the Festival.  The culinary students and events staff are a joy to work with, be with.

Billy carving his BBQ

Five more events in four more days.  Same themes except for The Chicken Wing Hunt for opening night.  Also joining us in Chicago, and to cook for us, was awesome Billy Durning owner of Hometown BBQ in Red Hook Brooklyn.  We were able to connect and work with some of the Festival’s faves in Chicago, especially Akiko Moorman and her partner in life and work, Philip Foss, taking time away from their Michelin starred restaurant, El Ideas.

It was truly a pleasure and joy to spend time, and work hard, with this amazing group of people, my FFF family.  We went to a couple of old haunts while in Chicago: our first family dinner at The Old Jerusalem again.  And, a visit to Chicago wouldn’t be complete without a visit to The Weiner Circle (to get abused by the lovely hostess/cashier), and Billy Goat Tavern.  But honestly, a couple of the nights, we simply went home, had a glass of wine, or beer, and “chilled” together.  Perfect.  Actually many of my favorite moments were actually in our little “home."   Another instance was on our first evening, making a gingerbread house (kit bought while food shopping at Trader Joe’s), which became a focal point on my “merch” table.  It was awesome, perfect.  (We even started out own little group on GroupMe where we still visit 'cause we miss each other!)

First Fall Festival

“This time, like all times, is a good one, if we but know what to do with it.”

                                                                                Ralph Waldo Emerson

Wew…The Autumn was a whirlwind and busier than I had even anticipated.  (Hence the two months between blog posts!)  One special night I forgot to mention at the end of September was having my Ladies with me.  Katie had come down for a job interview at Columbia Presbyterian Hospital.  Coming home from Go Orange a NYC Food Bank sponsored Scavenger Hunt in Midtown (a wonderful way to spend a gorgeous Sunday afternoon with strangers), my heart sang as I walked into my Hx3 to find my “Girls” cuddled on my bed eating frosting from a can (found at the back on my cupboard) and watching stupid tv!  We enjoyed a wonderful restorative yoga class at Yogaworks in my neighborhood and a lovely dinner salad, if I say so myself, while watching more silly tv together.  A few days after that 6 hour interview, Katie was offered an amazing job with the HIV clinic.  For 24 hours I thought I would have both Ladies in NYC with me.  Then, Katie called her grad school mentor who is the nursing director for Paul Farmer’s Partners in Health.  Two days after that, Katie officially accepted a job with Partners in Health to go to Sierra Leone to help with the Ebola crisis.  OMG, what a roller coaster of emotions..

Sunset on the Pier

So, with that nut to chew and swallow, “my” Festival season began in earnest.  I spent four wonderful, interesting, and fun nights on the Rooftop of a Pier on the Hudson River working with the Sponsor Activation Team for the Food Network’s NYC Wine & Food Festival.  It’s funny, the celebs that I got to “see” (Jon Bon Jovi, Rachel Ray, and many other “famous” chefs) didn’t thrill me as much as the great people I got to work with and for.  As with all the events I have been blessed to work at, I learned a lot.  I love what I am learning.  In this case in particular, I learned a tremendous amount from the Women who were my “Bosses” about working with true grace under pressure.

Not shirking other duties, responsibilities and friends, in between all that fun on the Pier’s Rooftop were CPR classes, all-you can eat amazing sushi dinners at a new place in my ‘hood (Sushi Para on 3^rd Avenue between 81^st & 82^nd Streets), and doing my production assignments for the Food Film Festival.

And, of course, spending time in my Central Park; enjoying a wonderful Sunday afternoon up at the Dana Center with a new friend from Greeter Guide training helping out at the Halloween
Parade and Pumpkin Float was truly special.