MY WEEKEND:
Angelica Page
“I grew up with my legendary parents in the Chelsea brownstone that had ‘Torn Page’ as the nameplate on our buzzer,” says Angelica Page. These days, the 54-year-old actress daughter of Rip Torn and the late Geraldine Page bounces between Midtown and Los Angeles. Page, currently starring in off-Broadway’s “Because I Could Not Stop: An Encounter With Emily Dickinson,” tells BARBARA HOFFMANabout where she spends her ideal weekends in the city.
My favorite weekends in New York are when my husband [TV writer/producer Dmitry Lipkin] is in town. We like to have an early brunch at Buvette on Grove Street. Buvette is one of the most charming restaurants. It has an old-school, West Village atmosphere and there’s usually quite a wait. The food is divine. My fave dish is soft scrambled eggs with black caviar.
I like to spa after my week of performances, and tend to head to the East Village and the Russian & Turkish Baths. There’s something called a platza, where you’re in the hottest room there and you hire someone to beat you with oak leaves. Alex has been beating me for 11 years. When I brought Dmitry with me, [co-owner] Boris said, “He’s not Russian. Why doesn’t he have an accent?” So Dmitry, who’s from Moscow, explained, in fluent Russian, that he grew up in the States.
If my daughter, Tana, is working on a Saturday — she’s a colorist at this amazing salon, Sam Brocato, on Wooster Street — I’ll have her color my hair. I’ll be her last appointment, then we’ll go out together, maybe with our husbands. Our favorite restaurant is abcV, Jean-Georges’ spectacular vegan restaurant in ABC Carpet & Home.
My mom used to take me to the Palm Court at the Plaza Hotel for Sunday brunch. She loved to take me to places like that, which was very different from our home life, which was very modest. If I had a bad breakup with a boyfriend, she’d tell me to take the day off from school and we’d have vodka at the Russian Tea Room. But our favorite place was the Plaza, and it had to have had something to do with Eloise. My mom used to steal rolls [there]. I was embarrassed and asked her why. She said, “It reminds me of my youth.” When she first came to New York, she’d walk miles to save 15 cents, so she could buy soup with unlimited rolls. That’s what she lived off, these rolls she tucked away in her purse.