New York City 2014 - Day Two

We have truly lucked out weather wise on this trip.  Yesterday was sunny and beautiful and today is headed in the same direction.  After a lazy morning - not have dogs that want to go out at 6:00AM makes a difference - we headed up to the Theater District and bought tickets to Phantom of the Opera.  I have never seen the stage version and we will be going to a matinee today.  That was followed by lunch at Roxy's Deli and then more window shopping and visits to our favorite vintage clothing shops just to the north of the West Village.

For dinner before seeing Beautiful we went to Chez Josephine which is owned by the son of the legendary Josephine Baker who took Paris by storm in the 1920's as a dancer, singer, and actress, and who came to be known in various circles as the "Black Pearl," "Bronze Venus" and even the "Creole Goddess".  The restaurant is elegant and a virtual museum to Baker.  The food was wonderful and we treated ourselves to champagne and French 75's - a drink originating in Paris in 1915 which was said (quite accurately) to have such a kick that it felt like being shelled with the powerful French 75mm field guns of WWI.  The image at top is of the door to the men's room and another scene is below.

Beautiful was wonderful - especially for those of us who grew up with Carole King's music - and our seats compliments of the husband's clients could not have been better.  As a crazy coincidence, during intermission, I ran into a friend from Virginia Beach who was at the show as part of his amazing wife's birthday weekend. 

After Beautiful, we opted not to go to a dance club on West 42nd Street and instead ended up at the Monster Bar (less than a block from the apartment) where we used a bit more discretion on the cocktails than had been the case the evening before. 

One thing is certain - the city is thronged with tourists and, as usual, beautiful men are seemingly everywhere.  It will be a harsh reality to return to Hampton Roads which seems at times so distant from the cultural and social universe that is New York City.