I once read that the biggest audience for BMW print ads (remember those?) were current owners of BMW who needed reinforcement
for their six-figure purchase.
If this is true, then every New Yorker needs to read “Marvelous Manhattan,” Reggie Nadelson’s paean to the restaurants, bookstores, cinemas, and jazz clubs that continue to make New York City the capital of the world. (PS despite the pandemic, during which many of this type of New York businesses closed, all these places happily remain open.)
Nadelson, who writes the 212 column for the New York Times, doesn’t just write brochure-ish, Chamber-of-Commerce-type copy. Nope. She mixes in her own experiences as a native New Yorker, and writes lovingly and authoritatively about places like Il Buco (in the Village), Raoul’s (in Soho), and Donohue’s Steak House (Upper East Side). And she does so not only with affection but a deft turn of phrase. Here for example is what she said about Charles’ Country Pan-Fried Chicken in Harlem: “If you’ve been reading health columns that say fried chicken can kill you, anyhow this is the chicken I’d die for.”
As a public service, I’m including snaps of the content pages that list the 30 places (mostly in Manhattan) that made the cut for this book. Turns out that G and I have only been to 20 of them, even after a combined total of 92 years in the city. Time to get cracking. We aren’t getting any younger, and neither is New York.