My Life as a Dog

It is raining cats and dogs out!

I had such a great wonderful time at the small dog run the other night.

Brian and Ben were en route from my parent’s house outside the city, so I took Saki (our magazine cover dog) to Tompkins Square Park for an extended walk. It was about 8 p.m., and I was surprised to see a few people still hanging out in the small dog run. As our white dogs frolicked in the muddy wood chips together, we four humans started talking about food, the green market at nearby Union Square and the best places to eat nearby.

Although most downtown New Yorkers don’t cook, they love to talk about food and we did so for one hour.

I could kick myself for not having a pencil and paper handy! The recommendations were non-stop. A great taco shack on Avenue B, an even better empanadas shack on 1st Ave and 4th street, the 4th street food coop between 2nd and the Bowery, Madras- a vegetarian Indian restaurant, then a ten minute jag on barbecue that led to a tangential discussion of barbecue in St. Louis and Kansas City (two Midwesterners contributed their insights). The list just went on and on until someone said, “Clinton Bakery is great”. There was dead silence, and then someone said “no, we’re talking about the East Village, we hardly ever go below Houston.”

For non New Yorkers reading this post, you should know hat Houston Street is eight very short blocks away from the park. All the dozens and dozens of places we listed were in a five block radius of the park – much to even my surprise. What made me laugh is that I am one of those uber lazy, provincial East Villagers who rarely go below Houston Street. Note: Houston is a street I can see when I look down my block!

These exchanges remind me how great Tompkins Square can be . Not only because of the multitude of places to eat but the fact that I could hang out on a week night with three or four strangers in the middle of a downtown city park and not be dealing drugs or performing oral sex.