This week I attended an special benefit event hosted in a private home as a fund raiser for Blackbird Theatre's upcoming production of Samuel Beckett's "Waiting for Godot." Godot is scheduled to run from December 27 to January 21, 2012 at The Cultch.
Blackbird Theatre is a professional Vancouver theatre company that is dedicated to staging classic works. In their words, their mandate is "to present Canadian interpretations of classic plays to contemporary audiences." With over 2000 years of theatrical history to chose from, the range of plays produced so far has extended from Euripides' Hecuba (written around 428 BC) to a new adaptation by local prof, Errol Durbach, of Charles Dickens "Great Expectations" staged earlier this year. Their first production, Schiller's Mary Stuartin September 2005, introduced me to Schiller's work which I had neither read nor seen before. From 2006 onwards as a writer for Immediate Theatre, I reviewed several of Blackbird's early productions. I saw Pinter's The Birthday Party, Ibsen's Peer Gynt and Marivaux's The Triumph of Love and enjoyed them all immensely.
You may wonder why a story about a theatre company is illustrated by pictures of food but read on and all will become clear.
Diva Restaurant and Bar at the Metropolitan Hotel,
645 Howe Street, Vancouver
Phone (604) 602-7788 or Reserve Online
For our pre-show dinner, before seeing Bridge Mix 2011, a site specific theatre production at the Metro Parkade on West Pender, we went to Diva at the Met Restaurant.
It was a pleasant twenty minute walk to Granville and Howe, and we noticed that on a few of the boards covering broken windows from the previous evening's mayhem, people had written comments expressing the anger at the rioters and support for the city and our Canucks.
Hidden Tasting Bar and Social Lounge
433 Robson Street,
Vancouver.
Phone (604) 647-2520 or Reserve Online
Tucked away in the Westin Grand Hotel on Robson Street, is a little gem of a restaurant, appropriately named Hidden. Re-named form the original Aria restaurant, the menus and dining format were changed a while ago to reflect a lighter style of tasting menu and Tapas.
We were going to see Death of A Salesman at the Vancouver Playhouse, a couple of blocks away. It is a stunning production - do not miss it.
Reading the information on the Bar Harbor stop on our Autumn Escape dance cruise I learned that one of the things we had to do was indulge in lobster.
Lobster is BIG in Bar Harbor - at least all the restaurants catering for us hordes of tourists off the cruise ship were advertising lobster lunches. We decided to try the Fish House Grill which we walked past just after leaving the tender that brought us ashore from the Queen Mary 2.
Of several terrific meals I enjoyed on this annual visit to New York I must say that our dinner at Paradou stands out and the main reason is the sinfully delicious Carte de Foie Gras creations that we shared for appetizers.
I had selected Paradou for dinner after our matinee musical, Billy Elliott, partly because it was located in the Meatpacking District, an area that I had not visited on my previous trips to New York. As we approached the restaurant, I wondered about my choice because at first glance it seemed to be just a small storefront-type establishment with a bar and a few tables. But we followed the waiter through a narrow corridor and emerged in a delightful and spacious enclosed courtyard.
Sunday morning and my last day in New York for this visit. A relaxed morning with a late brunch was what I needed and Mike said he knew just the place for brunch. We meandered slowly through the narrow streets of Soho and the East Village and came up to a crowded JoeDoe restaurant.
There was one table free. After alerting us to the fact that there might be a lengthy wait for our meal as a large group had just been seated, we were led to a table against the wall. I was surprised that she would warn us about a wait but Mike pointed out that the place has a tiny kitchen with solo chef, Joe Dobias, working away at warp speed. It appeared that there were at least 26 seats so he must be an amazing multitasker to keep his customers happy and coming back.
Our server brought us menus, coffee and buttermilk biscuits with savory butter. The latter assuaged our hunger and we sipped contentedly on coffee and orange juice, while enjoying the delicious biscuits and considering our order. We actually enjoyed the opportunity to relax over our coffee rather than feeling rushed.
Quite out of character for me, I had not got round to researching and making a dinner reservation for the evening when we were going to see the musical, Fela at the Eugene O'Neill Theatre. I picked up my theatre tickets and then decided to wander around and spontaneously pick a restaurant that looked as if both Mike and I would enjoy it.
Early on Sunday morning I disembarked from the Queen Mary 2 after a 9 night Ballroom Dancing Cruise from Brooklyn to Quebec City and back. This was really my first chance during this New York visit to have a quiet dinner with my son, and for us to catch up on each other's news.
While I was picking up my tickets for The Screwtape Letters I asked the box-office person for a few suggestions for somewhere to have dinner. One recommendation was for the West Bank Cafe, a block away from the theatre, so I strolled back along 8th Avenue and turned west on 42nd Street to check it out.
On the Autumn East Coast Dance Cruise, our ship, the Queen Mary 2, called in at Boston harbour for a day. After taking one of the Boston Duck tours, a friend and I went shopping. I was hoping to find an elegant black and white dress for one of the formal nights on board.
I do not enjoy shopping but it certainly worked up my appetite so we wandered around to find somewhere for a light lunch.
This week I attended an special benefit event hosted in a private home as a fund raiser for Blackbird Theatre's upcoming production of Samuel Beckett's "Waiting for Godot." Godot is scheduled to run from December 27 to January 21, 2012 at The Cultch.
Diva Restaurant and Bar at the Metropolitan Hotel,
Hidden Tasting Bar and Social Lounge
Fish House Grill
Paradou
JoeDoe
There was one table free. After alerting us to the fact that there might be a lengthy wait for our meal as a large group had just been seated, we were led to a table against the wall. I was surprised that she would warn us about a wait but Mike pointed out that the place has a tiny kitchen with solo chef, Joe Dobias, working away at warp speed. It appeared that there were at least 26 seats so he must be an amazing multitasker to keep his customers happy and coming back.
Natsumi Restaurant
Double Crown
West Bank Cafe,
Vox Populi,
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