Not too cold, but cooler; still, warm for mid-November. Quiet and relaxing for the city.

Last Thursday afternoon I was walking up Madison Avenue when I ran into Dayssi Olarte de Kanavos who asked if I were going to join them at dinner that night. I’d mislaid, misplaced or never saw the envelope with her invitation which is typical.

It was a special dinner, she said; a kind of celebration at David Bouley’s private work kitchen downtown, to mark the upcoming opening of Evolution, Bouley’s first restaurant outside of New York, in South Beach, at the Ritz-Carlton, which is a Kanavos property. The hotel has been there for two years. It took some time for Paul Kanavos to persuade Mr. Bouley to take on the venture.

Dinner at David Bouley’s work kitchen. I’m not a “foodie.” (the Kanavoses are). I even cook and use cookbooks (because they work and produce results) but I’m not a foodie. I like restaurants mainly for the atmosphere, camaraderie, maybe décor, but mainly for the company, even if I’m dining alone. So I didn’t know what a work kitchen was. Quite.

It was a very rainy night. Everything and everyone was running late. Dinner was called for 8:30 (7:30 cocktails). It’s located in an office Building in SoHo. And it’s a loft. You go up one of those old clickclack-and-screechy industrial elevators and walk out into a large space that has been partitioned off according to needs. You walk through what looks like an office area, the old wood floors, walls and ceiling freshly painted white, and then you come to The Kitchen, a very large, long loft space set up in areas. There is the sitting, with sofas, chairs, shelves lined with cookbooks, very classy audio system (for the constant music). It’s very downtown in look by which I mean state-of-the-art, laid back comfy cozy. Beyond in the center of the room is the actual kitchen. One whole wall on one side of the “kitchen” is blocks of chalkboard, covered with notes, illustrations, directions of “the work” or, I suppose, the menu.

The blackboard is fascinating. Your eye keeps returning to it, as if to see what you might have missed. It has the quality of Art about it, as if it were, indeed, a large piece of art. It’s very goodlooking too, kinda chic and smart. But laid back. Because the whole place is very laid back.

There must have been twenty or thirty of us. It started with a sangria cocktail “evoluton sangria” (Fresh Pineapples ad Oranges with a Grand Marnier Sauce) in a martini glass and Danube Elderflower Champagne (Elderflower Juice and Champagne), as well as the passing of the hors d’oeuvres which were both tasty and surprising little morsels. What looks like a little cheeseball, burst in your mouth with a rich and warm truffle flavor. That kind of surprise.

The atmosphere was as good as any great restaurant because the Master Chef’s style of entertaining is relaxed and casually impeccable. The first course was already laid out, ready to be served (see photo). I went around with my handy digital trying to capture the sight of it. About nine o’clock we took our seats.

Perhaps because the space is so spacious, accommodating thirty or more people comfortably, I hadn’t realized the Mr. Bouley had a rather large staff on hand, both chefs, captains, servers so that once the meal began, the service moved as smoothly (and time appropriately) as in a five star restaurant.

Wait at the table was Organic Pink Grapefruit, Three Ways. Then Tuna Sashimi with a Julienne of Asian Pear, Garlic Chips, Kaffir Lime, Rocket Salad with a Miso Dressing and Dover Scallop Carpaccio with Marinated Elf Mushrooms. Tasmanian Mustard and Fresh Italian Truffles. Served with Tement, Sauvignon Blanc, Styria, Austria 2005.

And from there five more courses, each served with their own wine. The best? Which? Although I could have checked out the menu at the time, I didn’t. I just et (as the Brits would say) what was put before me. I was a very finicky eater throughout childhood and youth. Or rather, uneducated and limited. I eventually learned to try it (you’ll like it). And while that does not always hold, and I don’t always do, most times I do and the results are usually interesting and often delicious. Everything was wonderful on Thursday night. A man like David Bouley who was one of the founders of the world that draws the “foodies,” knows how to charm and thrill the palette.

Seven courses and I ate everything including the tuna (which I never eat) because it all looked so good. It was never too little nor too much although by the time dessert was being presented, I was beginning to feel as if I’d had quite a bit to eat.

It was a very chatty dinner table(s). On my left was Dana Hammond Stubgen who eventually got up and rhapsodized in a toast to our host and hostess and the Master. I think she may have called it the most fabulous dinner party she’d ever been to, or something like that, because of the menu (and the guests too of course). But she was expressing what many, maybe all of us were feeling about this extraordinary dinner.

Art Basel Miami will be arriving to the newly opened doors of David Bouley’s Evolution at the Ritz Carlton in South Beach. This is a major move in the evolution, as it were, of the matter of haute (while laid back) cuisine in South Florida.

Friday at noontime in the Rainbow Room, they held the 20th annual CityMeals-on-Wheels Power lunch for women. Meryl Streep, Iman and Broadway producer Fran Weissler were co-chairs. Cathleen Black, Sallie Krawcheck and Doreen Toben were honored and they raised a record-breaking $1.1 million which will provided 220,000 meals for New York’s frail homebound elderly.

You must know the story by now. One of those quiet hero/heroine stories where a couple of people working in the kitchen got the bright idea one day of feeding some people who didn’t have access or advantage (or finances) for a kitchen. That was Gael Greene, the food critic and James Beard the chef. The first year on Christmas Day they delivered what now must seem like a handful of meals. Because this year, celebrating their 25th anniversary at Christmas, they will have served 2.5 million meals to more than 17,500 seniors in New York City. They will also have served their 34 millionth meal by the end of 2006.

Think about it.

All from an idea borne by two individuals out of concern and consideraton for others’ needs.

Anyway, it’s a women’s lunch (I’d never call it a Ladies Lunch, although god knows there were a lot of ladies in the room). It was a women’s lunch. A power lunch; some of the most prominent women in the city, notably professional women, as well as the philanthropy brigade and the culture crowd. And a few men. The men have to pay more for their place at the table at this lunch: $10,000 a clip. Who? Henry Buhl, Jeffrey Chodorow, Joseph Cohen, Bill Fischer, Victor Ganzi, Michael Lynne, Dennis Riese, Rusty Staub (who didn’t make it to the table this year), Donald Tober and Steven Zavagli.

Among the distinguished guests were Meryl Streep of course. Ms. Streep gets the NYSD Most Gracious Star award. Maybe forever. Lifetime achievement. Whenever we’ve run into her at a function (and we don’t know her), she’s always just so ... gracious. I mean really nice. A big smile, a firm handshake. Once I was covering dinner after a screening at the old Le Cirque. I was going around the room looking for famous faces to photograph and I spotted Ms. Streep, and just as I was asking her if I could take a picture, she happened to be putting a roll in her mouth. (You could have waited, David). Hearing my question, she smiled (mouth full) and pointed to her bulging cheek. Then she held her index finger up, requesting a moment. And when she finished she smiled again for the camera. Just think, and she’s a brilliant actress too, almost without peer.

Also in the room, Anne Hathaway, Blythe Danner, Silda Wall Spitzer, the new First Lady of the State of New York, Michelle Paige Paterson, Diane Sawyer, Kathleen Turner, Ivana Trump, Bobbi Brown, Christine Quinn, Barbara Taylor Bradford, Patricia Wexler, Stephanie Seymour Brant, the organizations witty and wise founder Gael Greene, Linda Silverman, Christine Baranski, Beth DeWoody, Catherine Saxton, Cindy Adams, Judy Blume, Tovah Feldshuh, Denise Rich, Alexandra Lebenthal, Susan Zises Green, Liz Lange and on and on…there were hundreds. It was very successful and everyone. The high point of the luncheon was Meryl Streep, Marian Seldes and Iman reading excerpts of letters from CityMeals recipients.

More meals. Saturday night I went to dinner at Le Cirque with my old friend Heather Cohane. For those who asked how I got started in the business of social chronicling I always refer to Heather who gave me my first gig. Heather founded Quest magazine (now owned and published by Chris Meigher) 20 years ago next year, and the time of our meeting (at a cocktail party at Chanel – one of those store parties that were unfamiliar to me, newly arrived from a long residence in Los Angeles), she was running it with a staff of three sometimes four in a charming little office on the second floor above what is now the l”Occitane store on Madison Avenue and 80th Street.

I wrote one piece for her about a woman named Gloria Etting who lived in Philadelphia and knew the world. After that I wrote 20 or more and she asked me one day if I’d like to write a “column.” And thatta, as Larry Hart once wrote, was thatta.

Le Cirque was bustling on Saturday night, as always. At the table across from us Bob and Barbara Taylor Bradford were entertaining Phyllis George who has been in town for the Rita Hayworth Alzheimers gala which raised more than $3 million. Phyllis now lives most of her time in L.A. in Westwood. Also at another table Marty and Cornelia Bregman were entertaining Allison Mazzlola, Christina and Alex Papachristidis. And beyond them Jordana Zizmor who is about to launch an NYSD restaurant review was entertaining her mother Wendy and her brother Adam Zizmor.

At our table, I ordered the Dover Sole meuniere, preceded by Le Cirque’s excellent vegetable salad. As I was taking a picture of my dish, someone at the table to the right of me remarked about my photographic skills. I know it probably looks nuts to see some guy photographing his plate before diving in. So naturally Heather and I struck up a conversation with the two couples. Something inane probably. When I learned that the woman on my right, Michelle Schwarzman read NYSD, (way-da-go Michelle!) I turned my digital on them. A good time was had by all. And delicious too.