right coast softening?

We’ve been out in New York City the past few days (now we’re very briefly upstate) and I’ve been pretty surprised by what a nice city it’s become in the ten years since I really spent any time there. Some of this may be accounted for by the fact that I’m less of a scaredy-cat traveller than I used to be, but I think the psyche of the City has fundamentally changed since then, too. Some of my New York friends think it has to do largely with the shock of 9/11, and that makes sense to me. Whatever the cause, I actually think that New York is a warmer, friendlier place to visit than Portland. Why? It’s the small niceties for me: the thank you’s, excuse me’s and other formal expressions of politeness that Heather and I have encountered at virtually every turn while here. In Portland, it seems like people are much more insulated (ironically) from each other – they aren’t often forced to occupy close quarters, and deal with people at that level every day. So when you open a door for someone in Portland, nine out of ten times they will just walk through as if you weren’t even there – in NYC I was thanked every time.

I don’t think it’s a “big deal”, but it is a strong impression that I’ve gathered over time (mostly about the increasing rudeness of Portlanders – perhaps due to external influences, migrations?). Thoughts?

Wednesday night we spent a lovely evening with our friends Erin and Dan and their delightful daughter Elinor at Mario Batali’s Otto Pizzaria and Enoteca. It’s located down in Greenwich Village, just north of Washington Square Park on Fifth Avenue. What a delightful evening of great food and wine! We started with the full plate of meats – nice samplings of prosciutto, lonza, coppa, testa and salume. We got a couple pizzas for the table: an arugula and prosciutto, and the weekly special which had smoked ricotta, squash and pancetta (must stop to wipe drool away). We also got a couple pastas: the Rigatoni con Sausage, which had rainbow swiss chard, sweet italian sausage and garlic; and Penne con Noci e Zucca, which was heavenly with hazelnuts, butternut squash and smoked riccota cheese. The desserts were equally noteworthy: ours was an olive oil copetta: olive oil gelato topped with passionfruit granita, raspberries, basil syrup, and Maldon sea salt – divine! Our companions ordered the pumpkin copetta, which had pumpkin gelato, gingerbread, buttered pecans, coffee bourbon sauce and creme fraiche.

You may have noted that we did not attend any performances during our visit. First of all, we didn’t really have the time, and second, we didn’t have the inclination. The calendar was relatively quiet, though we could have gone to Carnegie Hall to see either the Orpheus chamber orchestra or Zankel Hall to see the Takacs Quartet with Phillip Seymour Hoffman, but this visit was more about seeing our friends in their New York (Flushing, Queens) home for the first time (long, long overdue) and unwinding during a fortuitous break in the orchestra’s season. We’ll be back and do more next time, maybe even planning a trip around certain performances.

More upon our return from the Right Coast…