“It’s not something you eat every day.” —Julia Child
Last Saturday night my wife took me out for dinner and a show for my 60th birthday. “But wait a minute,” careful readers will say, “I thought your birthday was in September, no?”
It was. But the present from my wife were tickets (6 months hence) to see Paula Poundstone, stand-up comedian and frequent panelist on NPR’s news quiz show “Wait, Wait, Don’t Tell Me.” Ms. Poundstone, who once said that she eats a box of Pop-Tarts every day, was performing at the beautiful Weinberg Center for the Arts in Frederick Md. The Weinberg is a beautiful old theater built in 1926. It’s a venue straight out of The Great Gatsby.
Before the show, we decided to have an honesttogod sit-down meal in a restaurant. Not take out, not eating from a bag in the car, and certainly not dining outside! (What happened to spring?). This was easier said than done. We had allowed enough time to dine but not enough time for the wait at most of the restaurants we tried (30 minutes or more). Finally, we found success at a cute little Thai restaurant. It was packed but they seated us immediately. There was not a mask in sight among the patrons but most of the servers seemed to be wearing one. The vegetarian options were plentiful, the food was delicious, and the service speedy.
Nothing is far in downtown Frederick and moments after leaving the restaurant we were seated in our 3rd row seats at the Weinberg. Paula’s audience has, I think, aged along with her. In videos of her from the 1980s and 1990s that I previewed online, her audience is made up of people in their 20s and 30s. At last week’s show, Barbara and I felt that we were on the younger end of the audience age spectrum. Definitely an “NPR” crowd. Even here, however, masks were not the rule. There were some but I’d say less than 30 percent. The theater was as packed as the restaurants on the main street.
Paula was hilarious. She has a very wry, self-deprecating kind of humor that is at once very smart and very down-to-earth. There is always a part of her show that is extemporaneous banter with members of the audience. It’s always different and it’s always funny. I don’t know how she thinks so quickly in the moment. It’s a pretty long show. Somewhere between an hour and 90 minutes. That’s a long time to just stand in front of a few hundred people and just talk. But she had a receptive crowd and folks were ready to laugh and be among people.
Then on Wednesday, I had lunch in Bethesda with a friend from my days at the Hillel International Center. The scene couldn’t have been more different. Bethesda can be a nightmare for parking, so I took Metro. The metro lot was more than half empty and the train cars were empty. But it was the middle of the day. Bethesda was very quiet and though it was prime lunch time, the many restaurants were open but empty.
My friend and I met at the new José Andres restaurant called Spanish Diner. I think there might have been one other party of two in the restaurant. (The service was VERY good!).
I am a huge fan of Chef Andres´ and have eaten many times at all of his DC restaurants, most often at Zaytinia, his middle-eastern small plates place. (It was there many years ago that a waiter shared with me the secret to making perfectly smooth hummus. No, I am not going to tell you right now what it is). In addition, to being an incredible chef presiding over a restaurant empire with unique restaurants in major cities all over the US, Andres´ is also a remarkable human being, leading the nonprofit World Central Kitchen which feeds people in disaster zones all over the world. Right now, they are doing amazing work feeding refugees from Ukraine.
Spanish Diner is, just as you might imagine, the intersection of the piquant flavors of Spain with an American Diner. There is even a section of the menu that offers, ‘Breakfast Served All Day.”
I didn’t have breakfast but rather selected the menú del día, which offered the opportunity to pick one appetizer, one main course, and one dessert. I had a lovely, creamy gazpacho, a grilled cheese made with a very strong bleu cheese that was super funky, and a beautiful flan for dessert that tasted like it was made of pure cream. The flan was served as is traditional in its own caramel sauce and in case the flan wasn’t rich enough on its own, with a dollop of whipped cream on the side. As Julia Child would have said, “It’s not something you eat every day!”
After lunch, I walked back through deserted Bethesda to the deserted Metro and headed home.
So is Covid over? Yes and no. I think for some people in some places, it is mostly over and for other people in other places it is not. For a few, I suspect, it never will be. That’s ok. As the horribly overused expression (especially by me) goes, “You do you!” It goes without saying that the death toll of this thing has been incomprehensible. It is not at all unreasonable to be skittish about returning to public life in a whole-hearted way. Each person has to decide what is right for them and their immune system.
In a few days, I’ll be eligible for my 4th vaccine. I am waiting for the email from Safeway. By chance I got my first shot at the grocery store pharmacy and they have been fantastic at follow up. Emailing me when I am eligible for my next one, making it easy to book an appointment online and giving me with each shot, a coupon for 5% off groceries! Last time I grabbed a flu shot at the same time (sorry, just one coupon per visit). Get the sore arm thing out of the way in one go, I figured. They even sent me a link to add an electronic vaccine card to the Apple Wallet on my phone. I don’t shop at Safeway as a regular thing but just maybe the future of health care is there. They have the right name for it. You feel way safe just going in.
Unlike some, I won’t have to return to an office and a long commute. Nor did I mind the quiet life or even most of the restrictions that went along with the pandemic. I was happy to putter around at home trying to fix things visiting people over zoom or online. Having said that, there was something nice this week being out and about, eating in restaurants, going to a show, and hearing others laugh in a public space. There is an energy we get from seeing others about the business of living their tiny lives at the same time that we are living ours.
And if by some good fortune, that life occasionally includes lunch with a friend and flan in caramel sauce that life is as good as it gets.