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Hiding in Plain Sight
Stranger than Fiction’s Maggie Gyllenhaal
was overwhelmed by New York at first. But when she found the little
shops and cafés that led her into the world inside the city, that
changed. By Mark Seal. Photograph by Justin Stephens.
I like the edges of New York,” says Maggie Gyllenhaal, star of this month’s Stranger than Fiction,
a comedy about a novelist (played by Emma Thompson) who’s struggling to
complete her latest book — if only she can find a way to kill off her
main character, a supposedly fictional IRS agent named Harold Crick
(Will Ferrell). But Crick is actually alive and well in the real world
and suddenly aware of the author’s words and intentions. Fighting for
survival, he enters an unlikely romance with a wild and crazy tattooed
pastry chef, played by Gyllenhaal.
Though the part is a bit of a
stretch for the big-eyed, apple-cheeked Gyllenhaal, the fairy-tale
nature of the film isn’t that different from her reality: She lives
something of a storybook life amid the bakeries and bookstores of New
York City. We’re not talking about mainstream Manhattan but about what
she calls the unlikely yet fascinating “edges” of the metropolis. She
was born in NYC but moved at a young age to Los Angeles with her show
business family. Her mother, Naomi Foner, is a screenwriter who was
nominated for an Oscar for Running on Empty, and her father,
Stephen Gyllenhaal, is a much-lauded television and film director. Her
brother is, of course, Jake Gyllenhaal, who has starred in films like Jarhead, Donnie Darko, and last year’s Oscar contender Brokeback Mountain.
It wasn’t until college that Gyllenhaal was able to return to New York,
where she studied literature at Columbia University; she graduated in
1999.
But, Gyllenhaal says, “I always wanted to be an actress,
and I think I imagined I would stay in New York.” She’s done both,
starring in films ranging from her eye-opening breakthrough Secretary to Oliver Stone’s World Trade Center to the recent Sherrybaby
(where she plays an ex-con trying to reconnect with her daughter), all
while putting down roots in the city that has always felt like home to
her, even when it wasn’t. Here’s a glimpse of her New York City life,
on the edges.
Tell me about Columbia. Are there places around there where you liked to go and that you still return to?
It was a very different city to me than it is now. I live on the other
side of the city, and I almost never go up that far anymore, but there
is a great place near Columbia called the Hungarian Pastry Shop. My
mother actually went to Barnard College, and she told me about it.
There’s this delicious pastry called a rigo janci. It’s a rich, rich
chocolate thing. When I was in school, I went there all the time to
drink coffee and eat sweets and study. It’s really funky and looks like
it hasn’t changed much since 1975. There are always adorable girls
working there and people reading and a lot of college students. I would
mostly just sit in the café and read, and friends would come in, and
people would talk to you while you’d try to get some work done. I
really like that place. It’s across the street from Saint John the
Divine, where I actually once was almost arrested.
Okay, we’ll get to the arrest in a minute. What makes the city so special to you?
I’ve always felt more comfortable in New York than in California. But
it’s funny, because my feeling about New York is actually that it’s a
tough place to live. Things move so quickly and it can be very dirty
and crowded and rough, but what is so amazing about New York is that
you can go into a little restaurant or a little shop or a little
bookstore, and all of a sudden, you’re in a completely different place.
I think people create these environments in New York — these very
specific, eccentric environments. If you know of these little secret
spots, you can take a turn into one of them, and all of a sudden, it’s
calm and quiet. If you know enough places like that, New York becomes a
much more bearable place to live.
Tell me about some of these escapes. Let’s start with food.
I love this restaurant called Prune. It’s in the East Village, and it’s
just a teeny restaurant with incredibly good, unpretentious food, and
the people who work there are lovely. A lot of people know about it —
it’s not my secret. You have to wait an hour for brunch, but every meal
is delicious. They have this liver dish that’s really delicious. Across
the street from Prune is Russ & Daughters. It’s like an old market
on the Lower East Side, and it has incredibly delicious smoked fish,
salmon, herring, beautiful pickles, and beautiful dried fruit. It kind
of feels like it could be 1945 in there. There’s another one I like,
Café Sabarsky — it’s in the Neue Galerie, which is a beautiful old
building done in the style of turn-of-the-century Austria. I went there
on my birthday and had breakfast at the café, which has all Viennese
food, like sausages and warm potato salad and delicious coffee.
Everything is so thoughtful, and even the coffee cups look like
beautiful Viennese antiques.
Sounds like Breakfast at Tiffany’s. Where do you shop?
I like a shop in NoLita called Mayle, which is just a small boutique
shop. Usually the designer Jane Mayle is there, and she makes really
beautiful clothes. Right near there is A Détacher. A designer opened
the store, and it’s a small shop with really beautiful and interesting
clothes. I think it’s hard to find Jane Mayle or A Détacher at other
places. It’s part of what I like about New York. You couldn’t go to
just any city and find that shop. You have to go to New York.
Are there any bookstores as unique as those clothing shops?
I like a bookstore on Bleecker Street called the Biography Bookshop.
They don’t have only biographies, but I think they probably have a good
selection. I read mostly fiction, so I don’t even know how their
biography section is. They are so helpful there. If you look on the
shelf for something and you can’t find it, just ask the guy behind the
desk, and they will dig it up for you. I also like Three Lives &
Company bookshop. Three Lives is prettier, while the other is more
ramshackle, but they are both pleasant to be in.
Where do you typically spend your lunch hours?
The best pizza is Joe’s Pizza. It’s just great pizza, with a really
thin and crunchy crust. You can get either a regular slice or a slice
with fresh mozzarella, and either is delicious. And also the tomato
sauce is kind of light-colored and not sweet. You know how sometimes
bad tomato sauce is sweet? This is not sweet. It’s sort of salty,
light, fresh-tasting tomato sauce with cheese on a thin crust. It’s
really what I think pizza is meant to be. It’s not fancy at all, but
it’s really good. Oh, you know what’s a great place, a good
neighborhood place? Bonsignour Café. It’s like a takeout-food
neighborhood place. There are only four tables. You can’t sit down and
eat. It has really delicious food, really good coffee, and really great
people who work there.
What about dessert? Is there another neighborhood place you want to take us to?
On Ninth Avenue between 40th and 41st, there’s a place called the
Cupcake Café. It’s a little hole-in-the-wall place with incredibly good
cupcakes and cakes, and they’re beautifully decorated. They’re made
with butter-cream icing, so they’re not too sweet. I guess you have to
kind of know about it, because it really is a hole in the wall.
There’s no air conditioning. Nothing in there except beautiful
cupcakes. Whenever I find myself in that neighborhood, I always think
about going there and getting one of those cupcakes.
What are your favorite little pocket neighborhoods?
I like the far West Village, where it’s still, at least for the moment,
pretty quiet. When I was in college, I used to spend a lot of time on
the Lower East Side, although I don’t anymore. I remember feeling that
was an amazing place at that time. Everyone lived in such teeny-tiny
apartments, so there was one particular coffee shop called the Pink
Pony that everyone used as their living room. Union Square farmers’
market is great. It’s best on the weekends. It depends on the season,
but you can get really great local produce. There’s one stand that has
delicious grainy bread and granola and things like that. You can get
beautiful cheese and farm-raised meat. It’s a really good market.
Really far west in Chelsea is nice. Central Park really puts all the
other parks to shame. I like Prospect Park in Brooklyn too. It’s
really beautiful. The same person, Frederick Law Olmsted, designed
both of them.
Do you have a favorite museum? I have
never liked going to museums. I have always felt like they overwhelmed
me. I like smaller museums where you don’t feel like, Oh, there are three more floors, and if I don’t see them, maybe I’ve missed everything.
Actually, I really like the Guggenheim because you start at the top
and walk down, and by the time you’ve gotten down, you’ve looked at
everything. So it’s manageable. I actually really liked the temporary
Museum of Modern Art. When the new MoMA was being built, they had a
temporary one in Queens, and it was very small. Well, it was a big
warehouse, but you could walk through it in an hour. I think that’s why
I like the Neue Galerie too.
Besides walking, how else can one get some exercise in New York?
I do yoga mostly. I go to a place called the Shala, and I go to Om.
Basically, when you go to yoga in New York, it’s like, we’re up, we’re
down, we have an hour and a half. Let’s just start and do some yoga and
not talk too much. Let’s do what we’re here to do and give ourselves
the space to calm down a little bit.
Where would you send us for dinner?
I really like Il Buco, which is always beautifully lit. I think it’s on
Bond Street, between Bowery and Lafayette. Bowery and Lafayette are
huge, big streets. There are trucks going down them all the time; it’s
noisy. You turn down Bond Street, and then you turn into this
restaurant, and you could be in some other place. They have 20
different kinds of olive oil and really interesting, delicious, fresh,
and beautiful food. I love that place. I just love the food at Babbo.
It’s small, with a cozy atmosphere. My brother’s best friend used to be
a chef there, so I got to know a lot of the people who work there. I
love David Lynch, who is now the general manager; I learned a lot about
wine from him. I’ve gone in the summer, and it’s beautiful, too, but
somehow it really fits well in the winter. There isn’t a fireplace in
there, but it feels like you could be right next to the fire in some
place you’d found in Italy. In fact, I remember we went to Babbo in a
blizzard — my father, brother, a friend of ours, and I — and we ordered
pasta with butter and truffles. It was incredibly delicious. The next
day, there was still a blizzard, and my dad and my brother were trying
to figure out if there were some way they could get truffles so they
could make it. Gramercy Tavern is bigger, but it’s got delicious food.
I took my great aunt there when she turned 90, and we sat in the
corner, and we had this really great meal. What I remember most is this
incredible cheese plate we had that came on this huge wooden board, and
this really charming waiter who went through 30 cheeses with us while
we picked which cheeses we wanted. I always think of that place as kind
of a fall place, an autumn place.
Where should we go for theater?
New York Theatre Workshop is very small, so it doesn’t have to appeal
to as many people as Broadway does. I’ve seen some really fantastic
things there. I saw some great Caryl Churchill plays there. The Public
Theater on Lafayette is bigger. It’s where Shakespeare in the Park
comes from. I’ve seen great things there too. I’ve done a lot of
readings but never a play there. The Brooklyn Academy of Music is
great. I did a play there with Cate Blanchett, and I’ve seen a bunch of
stuff there. They’ve got a great movie theater, too, and there is
always interesting stuff happening — short runs and a lot of
international stuff. I also love Film Forum. It will be playing a
couple of interesting movies every time you go. They have really good
popcorn. They don’t put salt on it, so you have to put it on yourself.
It’s so different to see a movie there than it is to go and see it at a
big multiplex. It’s not quite a revival house because they also play
contemporary things, but they play very obscure contemporary things. It
always feels pleasant, even if the movie isn’t good. I saw La Dolce Vita there recently.
Tell me about your most memorable day in the city.
Getting arrested at Saint John the Divine! It’s across the street from
the Hungarian Pastry Shop, and it’s sort of known for its peacocks. You
can see these beautiful peacocks walking around. I believe it’s one of
the biggest Gothic Revival cathedrals in North America. I once went in
with a boyfriend and listened to people singing at mass. I’m half
Jewish and grew up as a Jew, so I’m not used to being in churches. We
listened to the choir, and we kind of hid in this corner. We were
hiding in a dark nook. I think we might have climbed up some stairs. We
went up there to listen to the music, and then we heard that they were
closing and locking up the church. I was probably 19. We looked at each
other and thought, Let’s just stay. We didn’t even know each
other that well. We got a little braver as the hours went by and
started to explore a little bit and accidentally set off an alarm or
something. It was about 10 at night, and then two cops showed up and
hassled us for a little while. They finally said, “All right, get out
of here.” They scared us appropriately — enough that I probably
wouldn’t wander in there at night by myself again.
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She Said...
Where Maggie Gyllenhaal lives on the edge in NYC
Dining
Babbo Ristorante e Enoteca, Italian, moderate to expensive, (212) 777-0303, www.babbonyc.com
Bonsignour Café, French, inexpensive to moderate, (212) 229-9700, www.bonsignourcafe.com
Café Sabarsky, Viennese, moderate, (212) 288-0665, www.neuegalerie.org
Cupcake Café, desserts, inexpensive, (212) 465-1530, www.cupcakecafe.com
Gramercy Tavern, American, expensive, (866) 749-4923, www.gramercytavern.com
Hungarian Pastry Shop, desserts, inexpensive, (212) 866-4230
Il Buco, Italian, expensive, (212) 533-1932, www.ilbuco.com
Joe’s Pizza, inexpensive, (212) 255-3946, www.famousjoespizza.com
Pink Pony, French, moderate, (212) 253-1922
Prune Restaurant, American, expensive, (212) 677-6221
Russ & Daughters, delicatessen, moderate, (212) 475-4880, www.russanddaughters.com
Shopping
A Détacher, (212) 625-3380
Biography Bookshop, (212) 807-8655
Mayle, (212) 625-0406
Three Lives & Company, (212) 741-2069, www.threelives.com
Union Square Greenmarket, (212) 788-7476, www.cenyc.org
Art
Guggenheim Museum, (212) 423-3500, www.guggenheim.org
The Museum of Modern Art, (212) 708-9400, www.moma.org
Neue Galerie, (212) 628-6200, www.neuegalerie.org
Theater/Film
Brooklyn Academy of Music, (718) 636-4100, www.bam.org
Film Forum, (212) 727-8110, www.filmforum.com
New York Theatre Workshop, (212) 460-5475, www.nytw.org
The Public Theater, (212) 539-8500, www.publictheater.org
Yoga
Om Yoga Center, (212) 254-9642, www.omyoga.com
The Shala Yoga House, (212) 979-9988, www.theshala.com
Elsewhere
The Cathedral Church of Saint John the Divine, (212) 316-7490, www.stjohndivine.org
Central Park, (212) 310-6600, www.centralparknyc.org
Columbia University, (212) 854-1754, www.columbia.edu
Prospect Park, (718) 965-8951, www.prospectpark.org
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We Said...
Where we live on the edge in NYC
Lodging
The Maritime Hotel, very expensive, (212) 242-4300, www.themaritimehotel.com. We first learned about this stylish spot on a website for the world’s more unusual hotels. And unique it is, for it sports a natty nautical theme throughout (it was built back in 1966 as the National Maritime Museum). What makes it even more popular are its trendy onsite restaurants and proximity to the happening Meatpacking District.
Dining
Panino’teca 275, inexpensive to moderate, (718) 237-2728, www.paninoteca275.com. Brooklyn’s picturesque Carroll Gardens is the new home of chef-owner India Ennis’s clever Italian-inspired cuisine. Take a seat outside and, surrounded by beautifully landscaped brownstones and some of the area’s most handsome churches, savor everything from the signature panini to an after-dinner glass of grappa.
Shows
Dr. Seuss’ How the Grinch Stole Christmas! (212) 556-4750. This family-friendly musical is making its debut, appropriately enough, in the Big Apple and, appropriately enough, just in time for the holidays. Showing at the Hilton Theatre November 8 through January 7.
Activities
NYC Run tours, (646) 649-5321, www.nycrun.com. After dining at all of the great restaurants Maggie Gyllenhaal suggested, you’re going to need to work off some calories, so why not combine a nice little jog with some sightseeing on one of this company’s numerous guided Gotham running tours. You decide where, how long, and how fast.
Sky Rink, (212) 336-6666, www.chelseapiers.com/sr01.htm. Everyone knows about gliding around the ice with your beloved at Rockefeller Center. But if you’ve been there, done that, and prefer to stay warm and cozy, a nice alternative is this indoor ice rink at Chelsea Piers, which offers ice skating year-round.
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