NY: Balthazar
02-Nov-2005
Last Friday I arrived at JFK Airport at about 7:30 am after taking a red-eye from Seattle on Delta’s new no-frills airline, Song. I was very excited to be back in New York, as it had been about two years since my last visit – w-a-a-a-y too long! Since I was arriving so early in the morning, yet just in time for rush hour traffic I had decided to try a new way to get into the city. I thought I would take the AirTrain from JFK out to Jamaica Station and then catch the E line into Manhattan.
This is not a very glamorous way to enter the city but at that time of the day I figured a cab ride would take me around an hour, maybe more, and the fare before tip would be $49 ($45 flat rate into the city plus $4 toll fee) while the subway schedule showed the commute time at about 30 minutes plus the time for the AirTrain ride and the total fare would be just $7. Plus, the E train had a stop just two blocks from my hotel – an easy walk with a rolling suitcase! And, there’s not a lot to do in NY at 8:00 am so a little adventure sounded like a good way to start the day. This was a very good theory on my part, but one that didn’t quite work as planned…
After departing from the plane, I stopped to wash my face, put in my contacts and make myself as presentable as possible after spending 4 hours sleeping, mostly upright, in a plane seat. When I arrived at baggage claim I was surprised to see that the luggage had already arrived and, in fact, everyone had claimed their bags and mine was the lone case circling round and round on the belt! That really has to have been the fastest baggage transfer I have ever seen! I grabbed my bag and made my way to the AirTrain station. This was not a hard trip but it did involve exiting the terminal, crossing a couple streets and a parking lot – on Friday it was an easy trip. On a rainy, stormy day it may have seemed much more daunting and miserable. A train arrived within a few minutes, I took a seat and we made a few more stops (the train is primarily used to move people between terminals at JFK) and then within a few minutes we entered Jamaica Station. I paid my fare (no cost within the airport but $5 to go out to either Jamaica or Howard Beach Station). I made the journey from the AirTrain terminal into the subway station and soon was on an E train headed into the city.
Now the E is a local and friends who knew of my plans suggested that I transfer to an express when possible. But with my luggage and the certain crowded conditions on the express trains I had decided just to stay on the local, figuring it wasn’t going to make that big of a difference, especially since I’d need to transfer back to a local to get to my stop in Manhattan. All went well for several stops. I was standing and was okay with that since I’d been cramped in a plane for several hours. Occasionally, the train would stop for five minutes or so in between stations, as they sometimes do. Then the stops started becoming more frequent and longer. Then the conductor made an announcement – there was a small fire at one of the ticket booths and it was causing some delays. Still it didn’t seem like anything to worry about.
More announcements and short delays. Then a 45 minute plus delay in between stations. The car got very warm – people started peeling their outer layers off. We waited. And waited. Somewhere in there the announcements indicated the fire was more serious than first thought, the smoke was being sucked into the tunnels, stations were closed, trains being terminated at certain stations or being rerouted. It was a mess! Finally, the train lurched into Queens Plaza, I escaped and made my way to the street – ahhhh, fresh air at last! Now my challenge was to figure out where I actually was (prior to this Queens was a place that existed in my imagination or on my TV only…) and where I should try to flag a cab considering where I wanted to end up. There is nothing worse than the disgust of a NY cabbie when you’ve flagged them down and they are going in the wrong direction and have to get turned around – especially in the middle of rush hour! Oh, and did I mention the traffic cops who were trying to keep the traffic moving (and doing a good job) but also inflicting their verbal wrath on anyone who did anything to endanger that fragile balance they were maintaining?
I picked my spot, flagged an open cab, jumped in (without incurring anyone’s displeasure!) and was soon at my destination. However, by the time I arrived it was nearly 10:30! Yikes! What a way to spend my first few hours in Manhattan. The only good thing to come of this was that by the time I got to my hotel they actually had a room ready for me! Amazing! And it had just been cleaned so arriving any earlier wouldn’t have worked from that perspective. I got into my room, freshened up and immediately made my way to Balthazar for a nice comforting meal – by this time lunch.
My first experience with a Keith McNalley restaurant was actually at Pastis. I happened to be watching Martha Stewart one morning when she featured the (at-the-time) newly opened restaurant and its chefs on her show. I was going to NY a couple of months later, checked it out and fell in love with the place. It took me two or three more trips to actually make it to Balthazar but since then I almost always stop in for some sort of meal or even just for a coffee or tea break.
On this day, I new exactly what I wanted – the Roast Lamb Sandwich with Harissa Mayonnaise and Frites. Yum! Comforting. Cozy. Hearty. Tasty. Unfortunately, I didn’t have time to linger as I had a business meeting uptown that I had to get to and it had started raining! No time to waste – rain in NY has a terrible impact on traffic. It took me over an hour by taxi to get from Balthazar in Soho to the office Uptown. I was late for my meeting. Oops.
Since I didn’t have much time to linger on Friday, I decided to return on Monday morning for my farewell to NY breakfast. I arrived after the morning rush, was escorted to a little table along the back wall where I spent some time sipping tea, munching on Brioche French Toast with Applewood Smoked Bacon (that bacon is amazing!) and writing postcards to friends and family. If I squinted my eyes just a little and then looked around I could pretend I was in Paris. Well, except that this brasserie is about three or four times the size of a true Parisian version. No matter; it was a very pleasant way to pass a little time.
Balthazar
80 Spring Street – between Crosby Street and Broadway
New York, NY
212.965.1785
Subways: N,R to Prince Street. 6 to Spring Street.
4 Comments
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Culinary Fool 
La Fool:Welcome back. Great story about the train. Those are the joys of travel, eh? On the bright side, I\’m glad to see that it ended happier than the fires they tend to have in London\’s train stations.I saw in today\’s NYT that Michelin has just released its first stars for NYC restaurants. Seems to be big news in their restaurant community, and a couple of the ratings were controversial. Balthazar wasn\’t listed, but I\’d assume that you\’ve eaten in some that were.And now for a moment of Balthazar trivia: Balthazar is the name of one of the Three Wise Men. Every Spanish kid knows this, because they bring presents every January.Anyway, good to have you back in Blogville. Are those your glasses next to the tea cup in the top photo? If so, very cool!Later Fool.Sal (writing in a stream-of-consciousness mode tonight, because my brain seems to have lost its power supply)
Wow, what an adventure. The subway incident sounds like a nightmare. Glad you made it in the NYC. P.S. That bacon sounds very, very good.
Sal! Are you working too hard? I certainly hope not – more holidays are approaching and I\’m expecting you to teach the entire country of Spain about Thanksgiving!! :-) Except that I lost a couple hours I really didn\’t mind my train/subway adventure and I probably would try this mode of transportation again. I mean think of what I could do in NY with that $50 savings – that\’s at least one, maybe even two cocktails! :-) I actually know that Balthazar is a Wise Man (that\’s hard to say singular…) as are Melchior and Nebuchadnezzar – although I\’m having a hard time finding Nebuchadnezzar at the moment. Although I\’m pretty sure I learned this in my younger years (12 years of parochial school, for heaven\’s sake!) the reason I remember is because they are also names of large wine bottles. :-) I saw the Michelin news, too. Of course it will be controversial but since I like slumming so much of the time I think it\’s interesting (and to see the reactions) but doesn\’t affect my personal dining decisions all that much… Ms. M!Every bite of that bacon I was thinking of you! But I didn\’t even try to save you any – see how I am? :-) ~ B
P.S. Yes those are my glasses and they are pretty cool – until you realize that they are reading glasses…. that\’s not cool at all! ;-)