Below 14th Street, East Village

A few of our favorite Asian restaurants East Side ...

Fall is busy generally—back to school, back to work. Then suddenly it’s Halloween, which means Thanksgiving is almost here, followed by the Christmas through New Year’s celebrating, followed, in our case, by Ann’s 8-day winter MFA session at Salve Regina University in Newport, followed by Writers in Paradise, 8 more days in St. Pete’s, followed by the San Miguel Writers’ Conference (Ann taught, I plus-one’d throughout). And I write now on a flight back from Key West, where Ann and I did book events for the library there.

The relentless rush of time, as John Updike wrote. Accelerating ever faster.

All of which is to say: it’s been too long since I’ve written a Below 14th Street post!

One of the reasons fall is so busy is that we see a lot of theater. Truly one of the great pleasures of living in NYC. We also subscribe to two theater companies—New York Theater Workshop and MCC Theater, because we know we are going to see at least three of their shows and subscribing saves money and gives us flexibility on dates.

New York Theater Workshop is one company I’m very happy to be a subscriber to. We saw Mary Jane there, and Slave Play, and What the Constitution Means to Me, and Here There Are Blueberries, all of which went to Broadway. We would never have seen the extraordinary 100 Days were it not for our membership. It’s a tiny box-like theater at East 4th and 2nd where you may well spot Mandy Patinkin, wearing a puffy jacket and wool cap, in a back row seat. (Ditto Ethan Hawke uptown at MCC, wool cap and all.)

Of course, either before or after the show we have dinner near the theater. The following are a few excellent Asian restaurants in the East Village inspired by our East Village theater-going.