Cafeteria | 119 7th Avenue (17th Street and 7th Avenue)
The best day in New York began at Cafeteria, a white, trendy restaurant in Chelsea I found through minimum New York magazine searching in summer 2011. My two middle school best friends, Matt (of the wild hipster, Alice's Tea Cup fame) and Nicole (one of the two friends staying with me who went to OTTO and Soy and Sake) had come up for the day. We went to the restaurant, the three of us, to get lunch. Matt ordered lemon ricotta pancakes; Nicole and I got a heirloom tomato-mozzarella salad. We spent the day after wandering all over New York, walking from Chelsea to the Village, from the Village to SoHo and Chinatown. We rode up to Rockefeller Center, walked up to the Upper East Side along Fifth Avenue gazing at designer stores, crossed the park to the west side and had dinner at my favorite Italian restaurant that evening. It was a day where the only thing that went wrong, I'd realize at the end up by Columbia, sitting in the Hungarian Pastry Shop, was that it was ending. I had no worries that day, and I spent the time with my two best friends laughing and just soaking up the city. My internship was almost over, and I had done well; I was going back to school, but I wasn't graduating for another year. There was nothing to immediately worry about, and it was beautiful.
The second year, I had my first dinner back in the city at Cafeteria. I rode down and met two friends in a bit of ecstacy at being back after a year. I had just come back from Paris, but New York was always in my heart. I was afraid I wouldn't love it as much, the city I had decided I'd make my life in. But my fears were wrong: I loved it all the more and the rush consumed me. It fit like a glove, New York, and I fell back naturally into the old swing of things, a swing and comfort it took me months to earn that first summer. I hit resume on our relationship, and I couldn't be giddier it wasn't a restart.
I had a grilled peach salad sprinkled with arugula and goat cheese that night. After, my two friends and I wandered to the Chelsea High Line. Smiled for a picture signaling the start of the summer, the greatest summer I'd ever had.
I had a brunch for my Ed2010 chapter at Cafeteria a couple weeks later. And I sat there at a white, long table at one of my most successful Ed2010 events, chatting with friends and waving to others at the end of the table who couldn't quite see me. That day (and night) became an adventure, kicked off with a plate of lemon ricotta pancakes.
Cafeteria was one of the restaurants that remains on my shortlist of places to take people. The breakfast and lunch menu is infinitely better than the dinner menu still, but the prices were solid nonetheless no matter which one you ordered from. But Cafeteria wasn't only my shortlist restaurant, it was Nicole's too.
On Nicole and her friend's last day, the Monday after St. Patrick's Day, we made plans to get our final meal together there. We sat at the restaurant, and the two discussed how during their day trips to New York City, Cafeteria had always been the place they made a point to eat in. The lemon ricotta pancakes were just that good. So we sat there and talked about people, talked about friend conflicts and the fact that as seniors, would it be worth it in the long run to let drama like that ruin our year? No one ever wants to let go and give up on relationships. It looks like the selfish route when they're backed by years of history. But sometimes, we all agreed, when a friend is nothing but toxic, it's right to take ownership and not give them the pleasure of tainting our memories. Sometimes you have to let go in order to ensure the best path forward.
I slowly ate my pancakes during the discussion. It was real, and it was quality. Cafeteria had always been a spot of good memories for me — and for others. Some of my best days in the city started at that open 24/7 restaurant. Nicole and her roommate raved about Cafeteria the entire trip, and it didn't disappoint them. And that morning, as we left to head off to SoHo after, it didn't disappoint me.
Cafeteria's food is great, but it isn't superlative. The restaurant is a wonderful place for company, but it isn't number one on my list. Still, some top events and most of my top days started there, and for that good luck, Cafeteria will always remain a favorite and good spot in my heart and others', too.