About a year ago I started a weekly ritual. On Wednesday, I buy a copy of the New York Times and read the Dining and Wine section over lunch. On other days, my normal routine is to eat hastily acquired take-out at my desk, but this one day a week I make it a point to get out of the office and eat a leisurely lunch.
Given my reading material, you might guess that I choose high-end restaurants, but that isn't the case. Sometimes I head to Boat Street Cafe, but lately I've been going to a Yummy Teriyaki in lower QA, hardly an upscale joint. There is a lot more to a good restaurant than white linens and doting service.
Which brings me to Florent. Opened by Florent Morellet over two decades ago, this fixture of the New York scene will be closing next month. The eulogy presented in The Times paints a fascinating history of a period neatly matching my adult life. Viewed through the lens of Mr. Morellet's humble restaurant the article tells the story of a neighborhood and the cultural movements that helped shape it, from the end of disco, through the early days of the the HIV-epidemic to gentrification and New Money. It's a great article, I suggest reading it over a formica counter lightly tacky from years of accumulated grease.
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