Often, just before I leave work, I email my husband and ask, “Want to meet me at a bar?” And 99.9 percent of the time, he shoots back an email: “Sure!” (Any wonder I married the man?)
We meet at our usual place—a cavernous, wood-paneled bar with high bar stools and high-def TV (which we ignore). Over drinks—me, a glass of white wine; he a dirty martini—we go over our day. And? What a stress-buster! Yes, I know, we could meet at home and I could pour myself a glass of wine and he could shake, not stir, his martini, but, hey, we all know it would not be anywhere near the same experience. There’s just something about being out, being surrounded by others, being served a cocktail, that feels terrific—calming yet exciting at the same time. Which is why we sent freelance writer Jeanne Muchnick to search for the county’s best watering holes.
Jeanne,a mother of two who lives in Larchmont, unearthed 31 (turn to page 66), which she admits was a lot of fun. “I met different friends who live in different parts of the county, so it became a nonstop girlfriends’ night out.” She even met one friend she hadn’t planned on meeting, she reports—twice. “I bumped into an old friend at one bar and then saw him again the next week at another bar. I told him to stop following me.”
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Photo by John Bruno Turiano A behind-the-scenes gang pauses at the “People to Watch” photo shoot. Top row left to right: Photographer Cathy Pinsky, Photo Editor Marta Kujawa, Creative Director Aiko Masazumi-Carbone; bottom row left to right: Hairstylist Diane Mammana of Salon Posh, Makeup Artist Jill K. Imbrogno of JKFlashy Makeup Service, and Associate Editor Ben Brody |
Also in this issue: the county’s up-and-coming men and women whom we think you should know about before everyone else does. Associate Editor Ben Brody headed the project, assisted by Articles Editor Marisa LaScala and Features Editor Nancy Claus. Ben, a 24-year-old recently relocated Mount Vernon resident (his family hails from Tuckahoe) says the assignment was illuminating. “I’m hardly a futurist,” Ben admits. “I don’t think we’re going to have flying cars in 2015, and I’m skeptical of anyone who promises fast changes or revolutions. I don’t think there is an easy cure for a broken heart, and no amount of scientific discovery could ever improve on my mother’s pasta sauce. I’ve always assumed that the future would look basically like the present—a little good and a little bad, with probably a few more conveniences.
“As I started to gather names and background info for these stories, though, I found myself remembering how quickly the world can change. How quickly a sous chef can become the toast of a county of restaurateurs, how quickly a notion about sustainability can generate a whole new infrastructure, and just how recently some curable diseases had been so much more dangerous. So the experience gave me insight into how different the world—which I thought changed only slowly or superficially—could be by next New Year’s Day.”
It’s going to be interesting to find out.
Enjoy the issue.
