Back to School Nite

Had an excellent lunch today at The Four Seasons Restaurant -- the best restaurant in America.

I was talking to Jennifer Raiser, who knows a thing or two about toney NYC restaurants, and she gave me the lowdown on power seating at the Four Seasons.

First she asked me if I was sitting in the Grill Room. That's like asking someone who just returned from Washington, DC if they slept in the Lincoln Bedroom. There's no way I'm getting into the Grill Room unless I'm having lunch with Katie and Dianne to broker a peace in their early morning war.

But I did have a reservation for the Pool Room. Jennifer said you want to be seated immediately adjacent to the pool (it's a bubbling fountain) "close enough that you can dip your fingers in."

Well, I didn't make it there, but I was only one set of tables away. I got to observe two ladies of a certain age having lunch next to the pool. One was done-up entirely in white and the other was done-up entirely in pink. They seemed to exchange gifts throughout their lunch. (I couldn't see if the gifts were color coordinated with their outfits.) One more 'tini and they were going to dip more than their fingers in the pool.

The publisher of the New York Sun was at the table next to me. I'd never heard of his newspaper, but I know it exists because he was waving it all over.

Tonight it was only a coincidence that I attended the new Broadway musical, "The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee" on the same day as the real National Spelling Bee in Washington, DC.

It's a really fun musical. As you can see from the photo above, they did a good job of turning the theater lobby into a middle school look-alike. The writing is great and they even bring up some members of the audience to compete in the spelling bee. A good time was had by all.