A number of years ago I met some wonderful people from London who were living in New York. They had lots of friends and lots of fun and they invited me to join them for parties and visits to some very wonderful places. One thing they always said when they spoke about the Atlantic Ocean was to call it the pond. I'm not sure why this is something that is said, but I always thought it was an interesting and somehow funny way to think about a large and mighty ocean.
This past week I went to Long Island City in Queens, and though the trip was under the East River and by subway is a very short trip, when I started writing this blog I thought about the expression the people from London I knew used to say and for some reason it seemed just right. The journey I took that day may have been a quick one from the standpoint of one subway stop to another, but from the way I felt before I went to the way I felt after, it was as if I had been on a much longer adventure.
The reason for the trip was to meet with Dena McCoy who I know through Instagram and our mutual friend Ivonne Camacho who I have written about in these pages before. Dena had written a book titled Greed & Grace which I will be writing more about in the coming weeks, and I had been very interested to hear more about it, but it was for another reason that I first reached out to her. She had been posting music and performances by her daughter, Ava, and the posts and music and performances were so beautiful that I felt as if I needed to send her a message and offer to write about Ava and also Dena in my blog. They are both so talented that I thought they might not be interested in meeting with me because they most likely had lots of people contacting them and very busy lives, but I was honored to have Dena respond with kindness accepting my offer. We made an appointment to meet in person, and that is why I found myself traveling to Queens. I'll be writing more about Dena and Ava and their beautiful creativity soon, but today I'll write a bit about Cafe Henri and the walk I took with Dena to the waterfront after our lovely brunch.
Cafe Henri is right across the street from the Number 7 Subway stop, the first stop in Queens after leaving Grand Central. I was there so quickly that I didn't have time to send Dena a text to say I was on my way as I had planned. The restaurant is lovely and it is described on its website as a little taste of Paris in LIC which it really is. The menu had everything that I love on it, and I chose an old favorite, Steak and Eggs, that I first had years ago on a trip with my Mother from college when we stopped at a truck stop diner along the highway. Ever since that day I've felt like Steak and Eggs was somehow something very special, and I don't often have it. Cafe Henri made a wonderful one, with hollandaise sauce on the egg that was cooked just right the way I like it and steak that was cooked to my preference as well. Hollandaise sauce was something that I learned about the first time when I was visiting with a boyfriend in Hawaii when I was in college. He said he wanted Eggs Benedict and I told him if he had a cookbook I could make it because I can make anything with a cookbook. I hadn't known that it would have all the steps that it did, but it came out perfectly and he was very impressed with me. After that glowing experience I had it again on a trip to New York when a dear old friend took me to the old Four Seasons and they made it right at my table for my asparagus. Having Steak and Eggs and Hollandaise sauce made this brunch not only lovely on that day but brought back so many beautiful memories. It came with home fries and a salad which were lovely too and along with the wonderful conversation and beautiful kind Dena across the table from me, the beautiful surroundings and the wonderful staff I felt like I was truly in another world.
After brunch we walked to the waterfront, a quick few blocks away. The view from Hunter's Point South Park is a very beautiful and special one, with all of the architectural wonder of the Manhattan skyline in full and very close view. As I walked along the walkway and took photographs, for the last one I aimed my camera and hoped for the best. The sunshine was so bright it was difficult to see in my lens, but the views were so stunning and the sky so blue with the most beautiful clouds that I knew something good would appear. I was blessed with a radiant ray of light that shone directly from the sky to the water, a beautiful symbol of that beautiful day, meeting with the beautiful Dena and talking about life and art.
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