A Night in York in Three Acts
January 31, 2008
Today’s blog post comes in three acts (yes, I’ve been listening to some This American Life podcasts). These are all stories from our trip to New York City yesterday. Act One begins in a coffee shop.
Act One: Mud and Reconciliation
After Sarah and I got off the train, we headed over to the Lower East Side to meet Jina Moore at Mud Coffee House. Mud is a great little coffee shop and they also run the Mud Truck, which people in NYC like to photograph. Jina is one of Sarah’s best friends from college, was in our wedding and is a journalist. Jina is leaving for Rwanda in a few days and will be living there for about 5 months. She’s going there to do research with the hopes of writing a book on reconciliation. Jina’s been writing for Harper’s Magazine the past few months, and has just starting blogging here. We had a great time at Mud with Jina, and she’s going to be blogging a lot during her time in Rwanda. So, if you’re interested in Rwanda and reconciliation, I’d definitely keep her blog in mind. After hanging out with Jina, we stayed at Mud for awhile, doing some reading, before grabbing a cab and heading to dinner.
Photo courtesy of New York Times
Act Two: Downtown Chic, Hip and Fun
Act Two takes place at Buddakan, one of Stephen Starr’s newest restaurants. I ran across this restaurant while looking for places in the city. Buddakan is located in Chelsea, and is supposed to be one of the hippest/trendiest restaurants right now; it was the location for one of the VMA after parties a few years ago and Paris Hilton was there, so…anyway, we got there and had a table in the main hall of the restaurant. As you can see from the above photo (and these photos), the setting is pretty amazing. And perhaps that’s what you’re paying for. The food was good, although I definitely let myself get talked into ordering too much. It’s one of those restaurants where you order a lot of dishes, and they are all served in the middle (like tapas). But, we got too much food. We each had a glass of red wine, and our food consisted of the following: Cantonese Spring Rolls, Edamame Dumplings, Vegetable Rice, Charred Asparagus, Charred Filet of Beef and Cantonese Steamed Sole. It was definitely an experience, not something that we’ll probably do again anytime soon. We’ve eaten at a few really good restaurants in NYC, but never one that produced a $150.89 bill at the end of the evening. We walked out of the restaurant, headed to the subway, and tried not to think of how many families in Africa that money could have fed…
Act Three: Wicked - finally!
I tried to win Wicked tickets in the lottery once my first year of seminary, and Sarah and I have tried three times, and we’ve never won. After that much bad luck, we decided to go ahead and fork over the money and just buy tickets. Our seats were in the top mezzanine - pretty much in the center. The seats were great, and Wicked was absolutely amazing! I love the plot line, and just the idea of hearing the “other side” of the classic Wizard of Oz story. The cast was amazing; we had the understudy for Elphaba the Wicked Witch, Lisa Brescia, and her voice was just out of this world. The rest of the cast was fabulous as well and the set was really great too! I’ve been listening to “Defying Gravity” on repeat for the past hour or so - I’m looking forward to becoming more and more familiar with the music.
If you’ve been debating about seeing it, I recommend it very highly - it’s phenomenal. Sarah and I are very glad that we got to see it, and even more fun to see it on Broadway. After the show, we ran outside, caught a cab and made the earlier train back to Princeton. We got home around 12.30am, a long, fun, full day.
The Evening in Summary
- Train Tickets to City: $45.00
- Mud Coffee: $10
- Buddakan Dinner: $150.89
- Wicked Tickets: $172.10
- Taxis: $20
- Seeing Sarah use the men’s bathroom at the Gershwin Theatre because the women’s line was too long: Priceless.
Posted in 
Adam Walker Cleaveland: I am a 28 yr old 
January 31st, 2008 at 6:20 pm
Glad you enjoyed Wicked. A wonderful show!
We’ve eaten at a few really good restaurants in NYC, but never one that produced a $150.89 bill at the end of the evening. We walked out of the restaurant, headed to the subway, and tried not to think of how many families in Africa that money could have fed…
Is it ever ethical to spend money on yourself as a ‘middle-class’ American? I have struggled with this question for a while now, but I wonder what is really going on when we do fun things - even expensive things - as a way to celebrate our friends and loved ones, and in turn feel the need to “question” our activities - after the fact. I find myself thinking that I should either abstain from the act - whether it be renting a movie or purchasing a new computer or enjoying an outlandish dinner - or I should, in Luther’s words, sin boldly. To be sure, I think the ways we spend our money (and time!) are matters worth considering carefully. But it is a terrible life indeed that induces the suspicion of celebration at every turn.
January 31st, 2008 at 9:07 pm
Hi, glad you saw Wicked. I have seen it three times and am seeing it for my fourth on Broadway on 2-28. This will be my first on Broadway. I hope we get the standby Lisa Brescia to be honest. I have seen clips of her and she is fantastic. I do like to spend money for enjoyment and don’t question it at all. I don’t know if that makes me bad or not, but so be it. I was poor a a child and have worked hard all of my adult life. Now is the time! I hope to see Wicked many more times. Thanks for the review; I couldn’t agree more that it is phenomenal.
February 1st, 2008 at 1:12 am
@kp: I don’t think we were necessarily in a real existential crisis about the money we spent. It was just interesting to think about it in terms of how the money might have otherwise been spent. While I think it was probably too much, I did enjoy the time there - it was an incredibly unique experience and I’m glad we got a chance to experience it.
February 1st, 2008 at 10:53 am
Good. I’m sorry if I conveyed that I thought you were having a crisis - I meant to make clear that I have found myself having a crisis of sorts when it comes to these things.
February 1st, 2008 at 5:58 pm
Yay for Wicked! So glad you got to go! I listen to the soundtrack constantly and have found that I wake up with a different song from the list in my head each morning. Love it.
February 2nd, 2008 at 6:13 pm
Mud coffee. Good for you. There are a handful of places that visits to the city are almost not complete if you don’t stop there. Other coffee shops include La Colombe in Rittenhouse Square in Philly and of course Small World Coffee in your beloved Princeton. Good stuff.
Glad you enjoyed your time in NYC.