Well hello again. And Happy Persian New Year.
I finally visited Cafe Nadery, a Persian cafe on the borders of NYU. It’s been on my list since arriving in the city and finding it featured in The New Yorker‘s Table For Two. I never made a plan to go because I assumed it was in the neighborhood I was staying in and would stumble upon it eventually. Assumptions are troublesome where directions are concerned. I was staying on East 7th, the cafe is on West 8th.
I decided to finally check the cafe out today because it would fulfill a trifecta of things finally being accomplished, today. It began with finally seeing the film SELMA. (This post isn’t about reviewing the film or the cafe though both were positive albeit different experiences.) After buying my ticket there was a little time to kill so I went to browse a favorite used book store. It was at Alabaster Bookshop that I finally picked up a copy of HERE IS NEW YORK by E. B. White. The romantic in me wanted this ode to the city to be the first New York based book I read in situ.
It wasn’t even noon and suddenly two things were crossed off an always growing To Do list.
What I will say about SELMA is that the passion and power of Dr King’s words stirred a fire in my belly. It’s been a funky time adjusting to my newly adopted city and I’m still getting my bearings. Some days when the MTA and general bullshit get me bent I wonder why the hell I came here. Oh yeah, it’s New York.
But it’s more than the city. I’m reminded that I came with a purpose, in pursuit of a dream.
I packed up and crossed the third thing off my list. Leaving the cafe I discovered the poster for the Persian New Year celebration starting tomorrow. On the window by the door was the piece from The New Yorker. The issue date was Jan. 20, 2014. Martin Luther King Day.
Serendipity? Kismet? Coincidence?
I don’t know, but patterns are a beautiful thing.
New York. New Year. Renewed.
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