A couple of Fridays ago, a girlfriend and I enjoyed happy hour on the East Side. She proposed the idea of going to Bemelman’s Bar at the Carlyle Hotel. “It’s famous and expensive,” she said.
Famous, sounded good. Expensive, didn’t sound so good. But then I thought about it a little more…
“If we go,” I replied, “we will always be able to offhandedly say in conversations, “Oh, the Carlyle? Yes, yes, I’ve been there.”
“And,” she continued, “we might see Barbara Walters since it’s one of her favorite spots.”
I immediately saw images of myself nudged on the couch between the women from The View debating ‘hot topics’ and pop culture. Barbara would quickly recognize my raw talent and put my journalistic skills to use on 20/20 to grill celebrities, politicians, and world leaders.
“The Carlyle sounds great,” I said.
We weren’t even sure that we would get into The Carlyle because of our casual attire. We arrived in an air of we’re-supposed-to-be-here-don’t-you-recognize-us-fingers-crossed and hopeful looks. To our delight, the doorman ushered us in without question and a hotel employee escorted us to the restaurant. We knew we were in the right place with service like that.
The host first sat us outside the restaurant at a little table. I ordered the cheapest drink on the menu – a $14 glass of wine. Quite a steep price when compared to the $2.99 bottle of wine from Trader Joe’s grocery store that sat on our countertop.
The host then scooted us inside the restaurant and sat us next to three men in their mid-forties who proclaimed to be self-made CEOs. Each claimed to have a net worth of several million dollars, and they were celebrating a deal they cinched earlier that day. Would we like to join? “Everything,” they added, “is on us.”
Free drinks and free food? Oh, yeah! Barbara would just have to wait.
They bought drinks and food for everyone to share. They ordered steaks, three platters of oysters (at $4 an oyster), crab cakes, shrimp cocktail, mini burgers, and a silver bowl of $325 caviar. We had entered a world of no limits and it was pretty, pretty fun.
I stuffed my mouth with caviar and mused about the New York moment we were having. Legendary hotel, fancy restaurant, random people, free food… only here, I thought. Nowhere else in the world would this happen to me. My girlfriend and I partook happily for about two hours and then hopped into cabs, stuffed and excited to have shared another awesome New York experience.
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