D U E T O C O V I D – 1 9 , restaurants had to either close their doors “temporarily” or reinvent themselves as take-out joints. Third party apps are thriving these days, becoming agents, facilitators, filtering evils. I usually don’t have food apps in my phone but they seem necessary now. You log in > choose > order. If you get your meal delivered, you eat it at home and you hardly see the messenger who risked his life for you. If you pick it up, you wait outside the premises. No contact. Then the question is: Do you carry it back home or do you eat it on the go, as they say? If so, where?!? On a stoop?!?
I spent last weekend in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, house sitting for a friend. As I usually do when I’m in foreign territory —I have been to Williams-
burg probably four times in my 38 years in NYC— I like to explore, go with the flow. As Cat Stevens sings in The Wind: “Where I’ll end up where I think, only God really knows.”
It was unusually cold, I was hungry, and I had left my phone at home so I was app-less.When I found Shelter (Shelter in Place?) just a block away, I was delighted to see a bell, concierge style, ready for my finger to ring happily bypassing virtual intermediaries. I ordered a Negroni (delicious, albeit in a plastic cup) and two corn empanadas. Had to wait very little. Luck was on my side. Not wanting to go back to the apartment, I found a shelf nearby, anchored to the wall and painted bright red. That became my cocktail lounge. Let’s have more shelves like this all over the city for POST-COV® happy hours.
—Williamsburg, Brooklyn, NY, 5/12/2020