Dîner en Blanc

Dîner en Blanc in Paris

I just read about the Dîner en Blanc in the New York Times. Seems like the perfect spot for a flaneur like myself. I love the idea of dining in the heart of the city with fellow New Yorkers, soaking in the luminous lights of the big apple. Let's just hope the mandatory white dress code does not get too dirty in the friendly dirt that envelopes New York.

There is something uniquely distinctive about eating in public in New York. I think many "manners aficionados" would say that one should never "chow down" in public. But any kind of boundary about eating in public evaporates into the thick air of New York, which is already concentrated by the omnipresent smell of hot-dogs and peanuts.

The 79th Street Boat Basin

People appear to feel comfortable eating anywhere: In Lincoln Center, Central Park, and even on the stoops of unmarked townhouses. New York has become a kind of table, a communal one that is. Perhaps this communal table that is New York shows the kind of trust that we New Yorkers have in one another. We know, or at least we hope, that we are not being judged for what we eat, or how we eat it.

Dîner en Blanc will fit right in in our city.
I've already registered twice, have you registered yet? Here's where.