I just had dinner at Asiate, the new restaurant on the 35th floor of the new Mandarin Oriental Hotel in the new AOL Time Warner Center, with astounding views of cute waiters and of Central Park in all its nighttime snowy glory. Dinner (think scallops; think wagyu beef, think French champagne and passionfruit souffle) was excellent (although the sticky rice ice cream was best left untouched that the "chocolate breadsticks" fit into the category of "crime against nature"), and our waiter (who mentioned a boyfriend!) was quite the cutie.
After dinner, I was waiting on West 60th Street for a taxi and the snow was coming down. And I noticed something I'm not sure I ever really had the opportunity to notice before. I'm not sure if it was a factor of the cold temperature or of the wool suit I was wearing (I was coatless, don't ask), but on my sleeve, I was actually able to make out the details of the "geometry" of several of the snowflakes. They really looked like those beautiful, crystalline forms that so often are described as snowflakes but you never see. They were based on hexagons, and they were, simply, gorgeous.
It's astonishing how even in the city, sometimes, you can find a new way to appreciate nature.
And it was a hell of a lot better than the stupid opossum the Times covered because it was such a slow news day.
Posted by Jon at January 14, 2004 09:51 PM | TrackBackActually, it's just the Time Warner Center now. Due to AOL's poor performance of late, its name has been stripped from the parent company. It sounds better now anyway.
Posted by: Jere at January 15, 2004 12:37 PMAw, that possum was so cute!
Why did the cat rescue lady come get it, though? Is someone going to adopt it and call it Mittens?
Posted by: Mike Benedetto at January 16, 2004 10:31 AM