NEW YORK, NEW YORK

On Tuesday morning, I stepped out of my hotel in Westchester County, New York to a crisp, cool, sunny October morning – the kind of day that actually makes me miss the Northeast. The leaves are beginning to turn their autumn colors up here – we have about a month to go before Atlanta catches up.

Two customer visits today. The first, conveniently located across the parking lot from my hotel, was with a purchasing manager I used to call on back in the 1980’s. We had a good time getting reacquainted before proceeding to the business at hand. The second visit was in Long Island City, which is a part of Queens that is more “City” than “Long Island.”

Getting there was a treat – and I mean that both sincerely and ironically. The first part of the drive was along the Sprain River Parkway, a scenic road on which there was virtually no traffic. There are several roads like that in New York – beautiful little wonders – the existence of which most out-of-towners are completely unaware. It’s probably a real horrorshow during rush hour, but I caught it just right.

But, of course, once I got over the Triboro Bridge and onto the surface streets, it was a whole ’nother world.

My advice to anyone who has never driven a car in New York: don’t. For me, it’s not that big a deal, because I learned to drive not too far from here. Even so, there’s a whole lotta shit happening at once. City driving anywhere is a challenge, but in New York, the sheer insanity of navigating the chaos gets ratcheted up to an amazing degree.

As I drove through Astoria, I threw a mental tip of the hat to Bakerina. Then, into the maelstrom that is L.I.C. Even more fun, I was following my colleague, Mr. New York Sales Rep, who did a reasonably good job of making sure he didn’t lose me at random red lights.

After our customer call, it was (conveniently) time to have a spot of lunch. And we had the perfect place for it: the Water’s Edge restaurant, which sits hard by the East River not too far from where the Queens Midtown Tunnel dives beneath the bedrock of the city. Mr. NYSR and I sat by the window, right across the river from the spires of Manhattan.

The food was worthy of the view. I started with an orange and red beet salad with a chunk of goat cheese in phyllo, then moved on to a plate of salmon gravlax garnished with onion confit, salmon caviar, and a cute little potato pancake. For a main course, a braised lamb shank that melted off the bone, sitting on a cushion of buttery garlic mashed potatoes. Dessert was a delightful platter of various cheeses and fruit, with the cheeses ranging in taste from mild to (ahem) somewhat assertive. Assertive works for me ’most every time, Mister Cheesemonger.

All of this was washed down with sparkling mineral water and coffee. Yum.

Then, on to the next stop on my day’s journey: the Parental Homestead.