{"id":4594,"date":"2009-10-27T05:00:27","date_gmt":"2009-10-27T09:00:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/?p=4594"},"modified":"2009-10-26T09:42:37","modified_gmt":"2009-10-26T13:42:37","slug":"what-recession","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/what-recession","title":{"rendered":"What recession?"},"content":{"rendered":"

On Saturday, Amy & I met her pal Claudia<\/a> for dinner at Marea<\/a>. We knew going in that it’d be a pricey meal; after all, the restaurant is in the shadow of Masa<\/a>, the most expensive dinner in NYC (which has a $200 fee<\/em> if you don’t cancel your reservation with more than 48 hours’ notice(!)).<\/p>\n

The meal was phenomenal; I’ve learned to appreciate fine dining this past decade, and my Marea experience was easily a top 5. Both my dates were heavy-duty foodies, and they too were floored by the meal. You can go check out the dinner menu here<\/a>. For the record, I ordered:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Ricci (sea urchin, lardo, sea salt)<\/li>\n
  2. Sgombro (pacific jack mackerel, eggplant caponata)<\/li>\n
  3. Polipo (grilled octopus, insalata di riso, fava, yellow tomato)<\/li>\n
  4. Cotechino (not on the online version of the menu, but it was a pork, cod belly, wine sauce and maybe some cinnamon, in a mind-blowingly perfect risotto)<\/li>\n
  5. and a chocolate panna cotta for dessert.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    But as I said, it was a pricey meal. I won’t be so gauche as to discuss the final tab, but I will share with you the exchange I had with the Thomas the bartender when I was looking to get a gin & tonic before the meal.<\/p>\n

    GIL: I’d like a G&T. I notice you have Old Raj<\/a> back there.<\/p>\n

    [THOMAS reaches for bottle]<\/em><\/p>\n

    GIL: Hold on. I had a G&T with that at Tabla<\/a> once, and it cost $17. So, would you mind just ringing one up first, so I can see what it runs?<\/p>\n

    THOMAS: Sure! I’ve never served on with that gin before. [touch-pads for a few moments, then turns to look at GIL with shocked expression on face]<\/em> Uh . . .<\/p>\n

    GIL: Twenty-two dollars for a gin & tonic?!<\/em><\/p>\n

    THOMAS: That’s what it says . . .<\/p>\n

    GIL: I’ll have a Hendricks & tonic, thanks.<\/p>\n

    THOMAS: You want cucumber with that?<\/p>\n

    GIL: Slightly bruised, thanks.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

    I’ve never felt relieved to pay $12 for a G&T before. (But it was<\/em> the first bar I’ve been where they have Q Tonic<\/a> on hand.)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    On Saturday, Amy & I met her pal Claudia for dinner at Marea. We knew going in that it’d be a pricey meal; after all, the restaurant is in the shadow of Masa, the most expensive dinner in NYC (which has a $200 fee if you don’t cancel your reservation with more than 48 hours’ … <\/p>\n

    Continue reading “What recession?”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[34,27],"tags":[117,891,890,441],"class_list":["post-4594","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-adventures-in-gin","category-big-business","tag-gin","tag-marea","tag-old-raj","tag-q-tonic"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4C7K-1c6","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":4584,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/what-it-is-102609","url_meta":{"origin":4594,"position":0},"title":"What It Is: 10\/26\/09","author":"Gil","date":"October 26, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"What I'm reading: When The Shooting Stops . . . The Cutting Begins: A Film Editor's Story, by Ralph Rosenblum. It's a book about the art of film editing, with a ton of awesome anecdotes. I also bought a bunch of books off my Amazon wish list last week: Jamilti\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Comic books & strips"","block_context":{"text":"Comic books & strips","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/category\/literature\/comics"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"http:\/\/www.assoc-amazon.com\/e\/ir?t=virtualmemories-20&l=as2&o=1&a=0306802724","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":5063,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/what-it-is-3810","url_meta":{"origin":4594,"position":1},"title":"What It Is: 3\/8\/10","author":"Gil","date":"March 8, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"What I'm reading: Winesburg, Ohio, by Sherwood Anderson, and The Ask, by Sam Lipsyte. What I'm listening to: A new Mad Mix I'm finishing up. What I'm watching: Shopgirl, which felt like Steve Martin's poor attempt at being LA's Woody Allen. What I'm drinking: Death's Door Gin & Q-Tonic What\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Adventures in Rufus and\/or Otis"","block_context":{"text":"Adventures in Rufus and\/or Otis","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/category\/adventures-in-rufus-and-or-otis"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"http:\/\/www.assoc-amazon.com\/e\/ir?t=virtualmemories-20&l=as2&o=1&a=0451529952","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":704,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/sports-fans","url_meta":{"origin":4594,"position":2},"title":"Sports Fans","author":"Gil","date":"October 7, 2005","format":false,"excerpt":"Big rain here in northern NJ tonight, and the official VM fiancee and I found that our street was blacked out by the time we got home tonight. Fortunately, my dad and brother were willing to call my cell periodically to let me know that the Red Sox were just\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1339,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/in-n-out","url_meta":{"origin":4594,"position":3},"title":"In-N-Out","author":"Gil","date":"February 9, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"We're here for 44 hours in San Diego! Of course, I made a mess of the trip before it even started, by slicing a nice bit out of my finger last night, which led to nearly 3 hours in and around the emergency room of the hospital where I was\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Adventures in Gin"","block_context":{"text":"Adventures in Gin","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/category\/adventures-in-gin"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2884,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/what-it-is-111008","url_meta":{"origin":4594,"position":4},"title":"What It Is: 11\/10\/08","author":"Gil","date":"November 10, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"What I'm reading: Finished The Spy in the Ointment last week, and haven't started anything new, although I dip into \"Have You Seen . . . ?\" occasionally. What I'm listening to: Ten Short Songs About Love, by Gary Clark. What I'm watching: Tried Sweeney Todd, but got bored. What\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Adventures in Gin"","block_context":{"text":"Adventures in Gin","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/category\/adventures-in-gin"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"http:\/\/www.assoc-amazon.com\/e\/ir?t=virtualmemories-20&l=as2&o=1&a=0445408812","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":5251,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/geneva-conventional","url_meta":{"origin":4594,"position":5},"title":"Geneva Conventional","author":"Gil","date":"April 29, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"Here's an out-take from yesterday's insanely long rambling post. Which is to say, it could actually have been longer and ramblinger: On the last night of the conference, Amy & I went out to meet her pal Mike for ribs. He promised that the place \u00e2\u20ac\u201d a little hole-in-the-wall on\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Adventures in Gin"","block_context":{"text":"Adventures in Gin","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/category\/adventures-in-gin"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4594","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4594"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4594\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4600,"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4594\/revisions\/4600"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4594"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4594"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4594"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}