Days of Bread N Wine

And all that jazz - Come one come all, the streets are alive with the sights and sounds of restaurants! Thanks to our good Guv and the powers that be, we’ve made it to this stage of comeback. One of my favorite go to’s during the grisly days and nights was Bread N Wine on Lex and 93rd half a block up from the Y and one of the several storefronts alongside the West Side Market. Like all businesses during those days, BnW, as the regulars say, was up and running, sometimes at a snail’s pace, but now all tables - indoors, in the outside structure, on the street - are alive with dining NYers sipping wine, drinking coffee, and enjoying the casual eclectic menu - from sandwiches and salads like a Mediterranean falafel, Tuna Nicoise or soups like chicken noodle or French Onion or Hungarian Chicken Paprikash. I’d advise skipping the French lentil soup if you’re big on seeing and tasting lentils.There’s a kids menu with Mac and Cheese, grilled cheese and chicken tenders. For dinner or lunch there’s chicken stew and a Persian meatball dish called Kofteh Tabrizi served with basmati rice. It’s really the kind of place you can be casual and enjoy really fine attentive service or just while away your time. And, if you really want to feel the joys of what I’ll call open restaurants, come by when they have a jazz group. On a recent Wednesday night, Butterfly Blue, a three-piece band, played from 6:30 to 9:30. On voice, Gizem Gokoglu, Linus Wyrsch on clarinet and tenor sax, David Pearl on keyboard. It was delightful, uplifting, and a great NY night. Word is that there will be more Jazz nights at BnW, perhaps other trios, on Weds, Fridays and weekends. Best to call ahead to be sure. 646-861-0115 or 646-861-0070.

For the restaurant record - All restaurant openings, re-openings, returns are welcome, doesn’t mean, at least to me, that I can’t bring up a no-no - like why are bills pre-printed with a credit card fee add-on. Some customers pay cash and don’t use credit cards, so shouldn’t have to pay a credit card fee, right? It’s not the kind of fee that should be passed along to those not paying with a credit card. Paying a fee in the first place is for another day.

You’ve got no mail - After months of campaigning and promoting and encouraging voters to vote and rank candidates, Primary Day has come and gone. We’ve all gotten and maybe paid attention to the innumerable mailings that flooded our mailboxes. Now, no more glossies, flyers, letters asking for our vote or at least our attention in learning how to rank or just plain old vote. Once we vote and the results come in, however long that may be, we’ll be on to the November election. And NY being NY, the Democrat candidates will invariably win. But, at least in the mayoral race, whether the winner of the Republican primary is Curtis Sliwa or Fernando Mateo, we know that the November election will be feisty and contentious. If Mateo’s the winner, I’m wondering how his Trump-centric campaign will play. During the primary, he criticized Sliwa for being anti-Trump, a sentiment that could work in Sliwa’s favor in November. Since the other races will also go to Democrats, I’m guessing that most media attention will be on the Democratic mayoral candidate vs. Sliwa or Mateo. If past is prologue, it’s sure to be a knock-down/drag-out race, at least audibly.