Be enchanted as New York works its magic again
When Akash Arora visited one of the city’s most celebrated venues, he discovered it was nothing like he’d imagined. Instead, it was everything and more.
“That’s the hottest ticket in town,” my New Yorker friend told me when I mentioned I’d booked a table for two at Café Carlyle at the Carlyle Hotel on the posh Upper East Side of New York. Jeff Goldblum – the actor who, it turns out, is also a jazz pianist and singer – was going to be performing with his band.
It was the autumn of 2014 and my second time in New York. A few years earlier, I’d travelled there to check off the textbook Big Apple experiences – Times Square, Grand Central, Central Park… you know, The List. This time I was determined to go deeper, to check out the real New York and track the city’s pulse. So when my friend was impressed by my plans for the evening, I felt smug.
The feeling didn’t last long. In fact, it barely carried me through Café Carlyle’s door. I’d imagined this New York institution to be a glamorous den of bright lights and plush velvet. Instead, what I found was a dimly lit, low-ceilinged restaurant, crammed with so many tables that my partner and I had to walk from different sides of the room to reach our seats. There were so many people within our two-metre radius we couldn’t speak a word without half the room overhearing it. This is the Café Carlyle?, I thought. This sea of tables is one of New York’s most exclusive hangouts?
Then Jeff Goldblum entered the room and everything changed. As soon as he began his set, the place erupted. Every wineglass reverberated with the sound of saxophone. Energy rushed through the room, the space filled with the tinkle of the piano, the strum of a guitar and Goldblum’s husky voice as he lit into one jazz hit after another. And none of it would have felt the same if we weren’t in a dimly lit, low-ceilinged restaurant crammed with tables.
New York is arguably the world’s best-known city. Yet it never fails to surprise. In that Goldblum moment, I realised the city isn’t about having the experience you imagine. You don’t carve out a piece of New York for yourself. New York draws you in and forces you to become part of its cacophonous craziness.
What will the new New York look like? I can’t wait to be surprised all over again.