Passion! in Park Slope by Carol Graham

Author:Carol Graham
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Quixote Publishing

5TH AVENUE

New York City was always changing, and that was what Cara found most interesting about it. It seemed that every few years or so, a neighborhood in any borough, but of course she was most aware of Brooklyn, became a completely different place. New nationalities arrived, or demographics shifted, or meteorological crises occurred to cause a neighborhood to evolve entirely, it seemed, from what the inhabitants had grown used to, to a place they no longer felt was completely “theirs.” Interlopers eventually became old-timers. Beginning with the Dutch who settled Manhattan, and then on and on, every three or four generations, speeding up as the world sped up, the change was continual. And just as uncomfortable to the former immigrants as their immigration had been to the citizens who came before. Restaurants, once landmarks, made way for cuisine more acceptable, or interesting, or desirable in some way to the new settlers. Change was inevitable. The great thing, in Cara’s view, was that all who came before left their mark, in some way. Italian bakeries were still there, in Cobble Hill, offering up cannolis and baba ricotta. Farrell’s remained on the corner of 16th Street in Windsor Terrace (since 1932—according to a sign in the window) serving the old Irish dockworkers a pint at 8:30 in the morning, though it had been joined right across the street by a brew pub that served “pub fare” as well as twenty-nine varieties of artisanal beers. Park Slope’s Greek diners still thrived amid the growing number of burger bistros and coffee bars. And of course, the architecture in Brooklyn was varied as well. The gothic churches in the neighborhood, built in the late 1800s, as well as the brownstones for which Park Slope is most known, brought an air of old world sensibility to the neighborhood that was becoming home to a new generation of New Yorkers thoroughly entrenched in the modern. Cara loved it all. The old, the new, the overlap.

Walking along Fifth Avenue, the street that Mary O’Brien had told her was too dangerous to stroll after 5:00 when she and her new husband first moved to Brooklyn in the early seventies, Cara was on her way to meet Tom and Jim at Stone Park Cafe for dinner. The three friends liked to try new places around the neighborhood, so just about once a month, they picked a newly opened restaurant, or one they didn’t usually frequent. This small and quietly elegant eatery sat on the corner across from Gabriel Byrne Park, and provided a wide window to watch the comings and goings of Park Slope’s inhabitants, as well as a solid reputation for food well-prepared.

“I’m having the pear salad, for sure. And either the Swiss chard raviolini or the cod. I can’t decide.” Cara closed her menu, and looked up at her friends.

“What are y’all thinking?”

“Stuffed Branzino.”

“Tenderloin.”

Cara smiled. “Oh good. I want a bite of all that.”

“Me too. Done.” Tom shut his menu and gestured for the waiter.

Food ordered—Cara went with the raviolini—Jim and Tom looked across at Cara, and waited.

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