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.