Cool and green mid-Spring in New York with rains coming ...

Cool and green mid-Spring in New York with rains coming ...

A bride lifts her wedding gown to cross the street for the traditional wedding portrait in Central Park. 3:00 PM. Photo: JH.

May 18, 2009. Cool and green mid-Spring in New York with rains coming in late Saturday night, leaving a cool and breezy overcast Sunday afternoon. Snooze time; time to consider the considerable ...

Saturday night I went to dine with a friend at the new (sorta) Monkey Bar in the old Hotel Elysee on 54th Street between Park and Madison. The Monkey Bar has been there for years, as has the hotel. Back in the days of the original Mad Men in the 1950s it was known as the hotel easy-lay by its many patrons and denizens, referring to their late afternoon matinees to digest those martini lunches in the monkey business ... er, uh, I mean the Monkey Bar.


	The cover of the Monkey Bar menu by the artist Paul Cox.

It was a popular spot with the Mad Men, as you can imagine. And their favorite girls. And in its 21st century incarnation, under the management/aegis of Vanity Fair’s Man with the Midas Touch Graydon Carter (Waverly Inn), and West Coast peer and Noo Yawk transplant Jeff Klein (Sunset Tower Hotel in West Hollywood), it is a very popular spot once again.

This restaurant has had more publicity than any restaurant in a long time, thanks to its owners’ connections to the media and especially their existing high profile successes in what is known as The Restaurant and Hospitality business.

I’d never been there before this past Saturday night. Nothing I’d read about it conveyed the patina and the vibe and especially the space -- a spacious bar followed by a spacious diningroom set on two levels. The décor is a mélange of mid-20 century pastiche – El Morocco/Racquet and Tennis Club/Luxury oceanliner/Art Deco does the Stork-Goes-“21.”

If that makes no sense, it’s glamorous, darkish, sophisticated and relaxed. The menu is High Comfort Food, not at all unlike the Waverly’s. We both had the Roast Chicken which came with Asparagus, (my dinner partner ordered a side of Creamed Spinach) preceded by salads (Iceberg Wedge with Roquefort dressing and Goat Cheese and Beets with slices of fresh orange), wine and drinks (2 wines/3 vodkas) plus the I-really-shouldn’t-but-we’ll-split-it Red Velvet Cake. $170. plus tip. For what is basically a high-end restaurant highly popular with the boldfaced and the movie stars, that is -- in New York at least -- a bargain.

Oh, I also read somewhere that there is a certain section that is the “best” tables. That may be but I can’t remember which section that might be, nor could I figure it out. The room is so configured that no matter where you’re sitting, no matter which level, you can see the whole room. Although the lighting is intimate enough that the best view you have is of your own table.

Saturday night around the room I saw Sean Driscoll (Glorious Food) with Elizabeth Peabody; Bettina Zilkha and friends; Lee Radziwill, Kathy Steinberg, and Taki Theodoracopulus and a big party of friends. I noticed the younger clientele first seen at the bar moved into the dining room closer to nine and nine-thirty so that by the time we left at 11:30, the place was jumping.

Le Cirque’s Spaghetti Primavera in yesterday’s New York Times Sunday Magazine.

Which, speaking of restaurants – Yesterday’s New York Times Sunday Magazine’s food section had a full page photo on Le Cirque’s Spaghetti Primavera. I first learned of Sirio Maccioni’s signature primavera (which is not on the menu) several years ago when I went to lunch there with Alice Mason who’s a charter member of the restaurant’s clientele and never looked at the menu (as I was looking at it). She just ordered the Primavera. I love primavera. I love pasta and all those vegetables make me feel like I’m doing the right thing. So, I knew Alice knew and I got what she got.

What’s it’s like? It’s like this picture in the Times Magazine. As tasty as it looks. Totally satisfying. From the Times piece, I learned that back in the 80s and the first Le Cirque (where Restaurant Daniel stands today), Craig Claiborne and Pierre Franey declared the dish “by far, the most talked-about-dish in Manhattan.” No wonder.

The dish is still not on the menu. It’s prepared on cart close to your table. It’s a process to watch and probably an art to prepare. It’s served steaming hot so the veggies are still steaming yet crunchy fresh. I don’t order it every time I go to Le Cirque because there are so many other interesting choices on the menu. However, the Le Cirque Salad followed by the Le Cirque Primavera is just plain luxe vegetarian.


Liz Titus Putnam

Dr. Sylvia Earle

Sally Jewel

Honoring women. Tomorrow at the Plaza is the National Audubon Society’s Women in Conservation Rachel Carson Award luncheon honoring Liz Titus Putnam, Sally Jewel and Dr. Sylvia Earle. This year Audubon is also honoring an initiative: NBC Universal, “Green Is Universal.”

This is a great lunch. Allison Rockefeller is the Founding Chair of the Rachel Carson Awards. She is a wife and a mother and a passionate advocate of the work that Audubon does to improve Our environment.

This year’s proceeds from the Luncheon will go to support Audubon’s Long Island Sound Campaign. Why? Approximately 10% of the population of this country lives within 50 miles of the Sound. At this point, the Sound is wracked with unprecedented pollution, habitat loss and ecosystem disruption and deterioration.

We fix it or it will fix us. It’s that simple; Mother Nature does not let the dummies off. The problem with environmental issues is that they don’t become important to us until the damage is well on its way to death knells. This is what these women’s committees are working for.

Also: Audubon’s Women in Conservation Program along with the Awards Council supports the website: www.womeninconservation.org.

Dr. Earle is the oceanographer, author, lecturer and National Geographic Explorer in Residence. In the last few years Dr. Earle has been working with Google to create Google Oceans. Her research focuses on marine ecosystems in the deep sea and other remote environments.

Sally Jewell is a businesswoman -- president and CEO of recreational Equipment, Inc (REI), the national outdoor gear and apparel retailer. Ms. Jewell sits on the boards of the National Parks Conservation Association, Mountains to Sound Greenway Trust, Initiative for Global Development, and the University of Washington. She also serves on the National Forum on Children and Nature Advisory Board, and the National Parks Second Century Commission.

Ms. Putnam is president and Founder of the Student Conservation Association. Each year nearly 4000 students contribute more than 2 million hours of service to protecting and restoring America’s parks, forests, refuges, seashores and communities.

This is a rousing lunch. Several hundred attend, mostly women, and you can feel the energy in the room moving toward Do Something! and you can feel the power of their unity. Allison Rockefeller and her co-chairs and committeewomen really bring out a great crowd of New York women making it a great way to get involved with your community, your country and your environment. Last year Bette Midler was the honoree and she shed tears of humility at being honored by these women.

http://www.newyorksocialdiary.com/node/9543

Anne Thompson, NBC News’ Chief Environmental Affairs Correspondent will emcee. Carol Browner, the former Chair of the National Audubon Society and now head of the newly-created White House Office of Energy and Climate Change, will be a special guest. There are still some tickets available. Prices range from $200 to $2500. For info call Susan Bell at 212-874-5457.


	Naava Parker and Rochelle Hirsch with a copy of their book, Lumps and Bumps.

More Honoring Women: Just yesterday over at the Teaneck Marriott at Glenpointe in Teaneck, New Jersey, Sharsheret held its Honoring the Women Who Have Touched Our Lives: Annual Benefit Luncheon. They recognized Naava Parker of Englewood, and Rochelle Hirsch of Manhattan as Guests of Honor. Suffy Rudman Riverdale received the Lisa Altman Volunteer Tribute Award.

Mrs. Hirsch and Mrs. Parker are both breast cancer survivors. They met because of their diagnoses and they supported each other through treatment and beyond. The disease of breast cancer often evokes this sisterhood kind of solidarity. I have known several women, including Mrs. Hirsch, who have assisted other women (whom they meet through or are sent from friends) in their battle against Breast Cancer. This kind of support is a very strong and comforting medicine even for those who are initially disinclined to accept it.

Hirsch and Parker found that out themselves. They decided to do something positive with this shared experience. The upshot: Lumps and Bumps, a breast cancer story for children. Their hope is that this book will be helpful to many women and families facing the challenges of living with breast cancer. The book which they published themselves, can be purchased at their website: http://lumpsandbumps.org.

Now it happens that NYSD was privy to yesterday’s luncheon because Mrs. Hirsch’s son is known to NYSD as its co-founder, designer and roving photographer known at times as JH and the Digital. Yesterday noon he turned the vid camera on his honored ma for all the world to see another example of Setting a Good Example.

CLICK IMAGE TO PLAY VIDEO of Rochelle Hirsch's acceptance (rhyming) speech at Sharsheret's Honoring the Women Who Have Touched Our Lives: Annual Benefit Luncheon.

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