New York - Day 4. I got up super early at about 5:40am because I had a ton of stuff to do before I headed into the city again. After showering and packing some clothes, the laptop and the backpack I headed into the office. At the office I made copies of the NDA, cut out all 56 nametags, packed the P-Touch, printed the guest lists and found a couple of clipboards left over from Stash Bash 2003. My goal was to leave by 7:30am and make it into the city an hour later. Sadly that didn’t happen. It was kind of predictable even - but I forgot how bad traffic was.
The big bottle necks were the sections before the big bridge, on the turnpike near Exit 14A and right before the tunnel. I was afraid that I was going to leave Mattt waiting for an hour or so but he called around 8:30pm to tell me that his flight had gotten in an hour late and that he was about to hop a cab to the SoHo Grand. I figured that with both of us coming into the city and hitting about the same traffic that we’d probably meet at the same time.
After making it through the tunnel and into the city I made a wrong turn, doubled back and then found a lot and parked the car. I headed into the hotel and waited for a bit on the ground floor near was turned out to be the concierge desk. He politely informed me that check-in was one floor above. I walked up the iron and glass staircase and asked for an early check-in. No problem. While I waited for the keys to be encoded I filled out an amenities card circling ‘goldfish’, ’surprise amenity’, ‘bose soundock’, and ‘fresh fruit.’ Sadly none of these appeared during my stay - I guess it’s a record to keep for next time. I sure hope there’s a next time - I love that place.
I called Mattt to tell him that we had a room and a place to dump our bags. I dumped my own bags in the room, checked it out for a bit and then headed back down to the first floor lobby to wait for him. 5 minutes later he arrived and we took the elevator up to the 6th floor and into our room - 605.
Mattt dumped off his bags, checked out the room and then we headed out to look for The Cupping Room which was just up the street. We passed it the first time because they had changed the lettering on the front window. I found it when we doubled back.
The Cupping Room was made famous in the movie ‘Made’ as the place where Jon Favreau and Vince Vaughn have to retreat to when they can’t get into the Forum on West Broadway. Basically that’s the only reason I wanted to go there. That and I heard they had a good breakfast.
Mattt indulged in bacon, french toast and eggs and I had the McCann’s oatmeal with fresh fruit and coffee. Potter picked up the tab.
After breakfast we headed to a Staples on Broadway and Broome because I had to pick up Avery nametag holders and pens for the NDA’s. Then we headed to the SoHo Apple Store to chec it out. Then after walking up and down Broadway I decided that it was getting cold so we headed back. We made one more stop at the Puma Store on Broadway where I grabbed some track pants. I was tempted by the shoes as well but I held back. One blank stare at the checjout woman and we were off.
After a bit of e-mail and message boarding at the room we decided to go check out the IFC Center. We walked one block west to 6th Ave and about 5 blocks north until we hit the theater. Once inside I introduced myself to the staff, checked out Theater 2 and then asked if I could have a table set up at the entrance as I checked people in. While I did this Mattt called Zak and wefound out that they were across the street at the Washington Square diner. We headed over there to meet them and found then across the street already taking some exteriors of the theater. We met their friend John, a huge guy that 10 of me wouldn’t want to mess with and then we split. Them heading back to the Tribeca Grand and us heading to…
Lunch at Nobu. We hailed a cab that took us to the corner of Franklin and Hudson and then we went in. I saw several empty tables - a good sign because we didn’t have reservations - and then got seated after checking in our jackets. I told Mattt about my intention to get the omakase menu and he said he’d probably grab some California rolls or something. When the waitress arrived I placed my order for the $65 omakase menu. She took it to mean that we both wanted it and so she left. I asked Mattt if this was ok and he said yes. This was going to be interesting.
The dishes soon arrived and were as follows:
1) Toro tartare with caviar in soy and miso with a Yamamomo (Japanese mountain peach) palate cleanser chilled in a bowl of ice
2) Some really complex textured and buttery hamachi yellowtail with greens and a flavored oil
3) Black cod marinated in miso for 3 days with daikon and pickled ginger palate cleanser
4) Rock shrimp tempura with spicy sauce
5) A chef’s selection of sushi and miso soup
6) chocolate souffle with a liquid chocolate center and green tea ice cream in a bento box
I actually did order a California Roll but Mattt said he was full - we ended up eating the whole thing anyway.
So it turns out that Mattt wasn’t a huge, huge fan of raw fish itself so I told him that if there was anything he didn’t want to eat, that I would GLADLY eat it for him. He passed most of his unfinished dishes to me. God bless him.
Photos stolen off another dude’s food blog.
We left Nobu at around 3pm and after a few wrong turns made it back to the SoHo Grand. We decided to chill out until we had to be at the theater at 5:30pm. Mattt showed me the Chasing Amy documentary he had been cutting for the 10th anniversary DVD and I sat in the very comfortable SoHo Grand Bed, laptop close at hand.
At about 5pm we got bundled up and headed out the cold Manhattan evening. As we approached the theater we saw Zak, Joey and Joe outside smoking and talking so we joined them. Soonafter Mosier and Elliott join us having just eaten a quick dinner at a nearby pizza joint. At about 5:40pm I noticed some invitees around the theater - Jason on his crutches and others. At about 5:45pm I headed in and started setting up on the table the IFC Center had kindly set up.
Out of my bag came the NDA’s, the list of all invitees and all the nametags I had made up. I was hoping Mattt would help with the tags and making sure the NDA’s were filled out correctly but suddenly he was nowhere to be found. Big Kev stepped in and alphabatized the tags for me which turned out to be a great help. The line was already forming an hour early so I started greeting and checking people in. A lot of them were oroginal board members almost 10 years ago and I hadn’t seen them in ages. Somewhere mid checkin I met two reps from the Weinstein company who handed me a list of their guests. I told them I would check them in as well.
I had pretty much everyone checked in well before 6:30pm and waited around to see who else would be coming. At about 6:50pm Mr Harvey Weinstein walked in and started talking to Scott and some people from the Weinstein company. I went over to him and got a quick handshake. Cool. After than I took the stairs up and headed in. A couple of the theater employees tried to sneak in with me but Scott blocked them. Nice.
Kevin did a quick intro and the movie started. I found a seat and sat down only to hear a gruff, “Hey!” from behind me. Oh crap - I just sat on Harvey’s jacket! I apologized immediately and then sat back down. The rest of the screening went smoothly with a lot of gauffaws from Bob Weinstein who was seated to my left. After the screening a short focus group was done until the theater kicked us all out. Luckily there is a bar attached to the IFC Screening Room so anyone who wanted to hang out went over there. I spent most of the time talking to the people who had invited and Shawn snapped this very cool photo of Kevin and I:
Clerks screening
after the screening
