Also, in terms of places, I adore Smooch. Plus, I feel like Manhattan gets infested with seasonal shoppers this time in November….

Cheers, SR

The next time you are in the neighborhood, visit Choice Market (Lafayette and Grand) for simple, hearty French-influenced food and masterful takes on American clasics. The burger does not fool around and the roast chicken can make you weep. Lots of veg options abound so no worries there. The coffee is amazing and they make their own sweet everything, including totally amazing pain au chocolat (after 5 PM they are $1.00 each so you can stuff yourself silly or buy a bunch and make crazy delicious bread pudding with congac to serve w/creme anglais.)

FYI: Did I mention the proprietors/chefs and many of the staff are French and Diasporic French men who are very attractive, friendly, obviously good cooks and stunningly sexy? And, the music is varied and fantastic–everything from Salif Keita to Billy Idol to Manu Dibango to Studio One classics and covers.

I’ve been there (the last time I visited Brooklyn)! It really is lovely, and has the sweetest proprietors.

Even more reasons to be jealous of you east-coasters who get to meet up.

I promised myself I would no longer post on SM after 2am, which, apparently, is when my discretion abandons me until sunrise…

It especially sucks when one’s 2 a.m. is most other readers’ [relatively coherent] mid-afternoon…

And THAT is EXACTLY why I pick the locations I pick. Greco…Amma…there’s no pressure to leave those imperfect venues b/c they know me/us…and that’s important when a meetup is so sparkly-perfect that no one wants to go.

Mr. Mitter, ouch. But yes, true.

What about Smooch in Brooklyn (Carlton and Dekalb Aves. close to the Atlantic Ave nexus and the A/C Lafayette and G at Fulton)? It’s a smallish lounge with a mellow, relaxed atmosphere, very comfortable mismatched seating, tremendous music and a very tiny stage–a recitation, perhaps, Mr. Kobayashi? They have a few beers–Brahma, Peroni, etc.–delicious wine, great coffee/tea and tasty food.

The proprietor is mutinous and flexible.

We could take the place over and he’d be happy for it.

I’ve seen similar sentiments expressed for other SM meetups and am a bit [naively] puzzled. Is this analogous to scheduling a date for the daytime so one can split [exit stage left] relatively easily and quickly if things aren’t going well? Or, do you guys really have evening plans for then already? I thought the L.A. meetup was quite a success (from reading about it here) and lasted well into the night.

If only I was cool enough to live in a place that actually had other SM readers, much less host a meetup…