On Wednesday evening, my son, Joe, arrived at JFK from the UK. I picked him up at the airport. I did one of my very loud (legendary) sneezes into my elbow – heads turned.
We went out to a local bar, watched Trump at 9pm, and celebrated that Joe had beaten the European travel ban (we didn’t realize at that point that countries with Trump golf courses were excluded). We bought a round of Corona for our new-made friends at the bar, chinked bottles, and hugged.
Joe and I were celebrating the end of an isolation. Last year we had two short days together – in the company of others. We both were sad about our quality of connection in 2019 and agreed that was not enough for a father and son. We were back together – no longer isolated. If the two-week vacation turned into 30 days, so what!?
Thursday came – and it was no longer “so what!?”. Ruth and I had lunch in PS Kitchen – they are an amazing partner for our business (and a wonderful asset to Hell’s Kitchen and Broadway). We debated “what next?”. Despite my entrepreneurial nature, I’m often the more “doomsday” of our partnership. At the point Ruth said: “Well, as long as Broadway is still open” … the people on the next table told us: “Broadway just closed…”
What?!
On the way out, we chatted to Jeff – one of the managers at PS Kitchen. He was in shock. There were so many whats! Without pre-theater in that area, what is there?
Joe and I met up yesterday evening, had a beer at Scruffy Duffy’s, then headed to see Nicki at Domus to buy a couple of fun games. We are preparing for isolation – not from an ocean this time, but from a virus. (Go buy some games from the ladies at Domus and we can compare notes.)
Last night, as I skimmed the W42ST Instagram feed, Matt and Enrique at Fine & Dandy captured the moment. This time is going to be so tough.
I’m writing this while Ruth is busily completing our Best of 2020 Awards Issue. Once it’s been published – and after we’re through these trying times – we will be hosting the BIGGEST and BEST celebration Hell’s Kitchen has ever seen. It will be a time to restart – we all hope that it’s soon.
What are you doing to stay calm/sane in these uncertain times? What can we help you with? Email me – let’s do a virtual coffee? We need to talk to each other. Even if we’re isolated physically, that doesn’t mean we should be isolated emotionally.
From tomorrow (Saturday), we will be publishing a daily newsletter at around 8am each morning. We aim to give you a calm five minutes each day to connect with us (and other members of the W42ST community).
As a member of this weekly list, you’ll receive the first one tomorrow. If you want to continue receiving them after that, please subscribe at w42st.com. We promise you a drama-free release from information overload and a connection to other New Yorkers trying not to go stir crazy. We’ll work through this together – you are not alone.