Fic: POI Guide to New York
POI Guide to New York: Dining Out and Living In
The following is a kind of Baedeker's guidebook to the imaginary universe of places, people, and events I have created for my short stories. The characters you recognize do not belong to me.
Restaurants
Pooja’s Restaurant: A large establishment specializing in vegetarian Indian cuisine under the watchful eye of its owner and founder Mrs. Soni. Ably assisted by her three sons, Mrs. Soni caters to a widely varied clientele who seek substantial food that is filling, hotly spiced, authentic to its sub-continental sources, and moderately priced. This is the preferred dining spot of John Reese, who rents a room above the restaurant.
Stories: The Room Above Pooja’s, Pooja’s New Tiffin Wallah, An Early Spring, Everybody Comes to Pooja’s, The Oasis, The Most Beautiful Dress in the World, Castle Long, and Rematch: The Romantic.
Verona: A cozy Italian restaurant located downtown which specializes in seafood dishes and has an extensive wine list. The restaurant is owned by Rosaline, the daughter of the founder of the establishment. Rosaline takes an active role in the management of Verona and proudly acts as lead server when she is on duty. She is assisted by Lawrence, the wise and meddling maître d’hôtel of Verona. Detective Lionel Fusco is a frequent customer as the restaurant is located a short walk away from his station house.
Stories: General Counsel, Blue Witness
Sugar’s: This lively restaurant/bar features a fusion of traditional Southern cooking with the light experimental fare of its urban setting. Located in a glamorously updated townhouse, Sugar’s is as famous for its sexy setting and trendy, hard-charging clientele as for its rich down home dishes. The drinks menu is particularly innovative and the wine cellar is distinguished. The affable and astute waiter Terrence is notable for his attention to the personal needs of his customers. Detective Joss Carter and her girlfriends enjoy weekend outings to Sugar’s from time to time.
Stories: Girls at Night
Otto’s Uptown Diner: Located three blocks from Joss Carter’s apartment, this classic institution is a favorite early morning spot for John Reese. At Otto’s, Reese can get his coffee strong and black and his banter spicy but affectionate, courtesy of the tall red-headed waitress Anita. On one memorable occasion, Reese encountered Joss’s mother Inez Neal in a booth at Otto’s.
Stories: Maternal Instinct
Sammy the Turk’s Hot Dog Stand: Like its cousins on almost every street corner in New York, Sammy’s stand features dogs, Polish sausages, brats, and hummus or falafel wraps. Sauerkraut optional, mustard a must. Sammy has been parked in front of the Eighth Precinct station house for over a decade. His stand is the go-to lunch choice for Detectives Fusco and Carter, who also stop at Sammy's for the strongest black coffee in their district.
Stories: Titans, General Counsel, Confidential, Time Regained
Swann's Way: This old-style bar is tucked into an obscure niche on a side street in the Bowery. Its cracked central bar, mottled mirror, and cramped booths attract a sparse crowd of regulars who enjoy the no-nonsense food and minimal chatter. Swann's Way is named after its owner, Swanetta, who tends bar deep into the night in an effort to keep her late husband's enterprise afloat. Though lacking a good head for business, Swanetta's husband had been a devoted student of French literary classics. Detective Lionel Fusco was a frequent patron of Swann's Way in the Nineties and remembers it, and its winsome owner, with immense fondness.
Stories: Swann's Way, Blue Witness, Blue Alibi (brief mention)
Henri's: Hushed and luxuriously appointed with a past as distinguished as its starry guests, this Continental restaurant is one of Finch's favorite retreats, which he patronizes as Harold Wren. Henri the owner, tall and Gallic, carries his impeccable manners as a badge of honor. He indulges Wren, one of his most loyal and knowledgeable customers, by allowing the elusive man to work closely with his chef in developing specialized menus designed to satisfy an epicurean sensibility. Finch hosted a holiday dinner party for his little team in one of Henri's red velvet lined private suites. And he also arranged for Reese and Carter to dine there on a rehabilitative respite from their tense work.
Stories: Together, If the Fates Allow; R & R
Other Establishments
St. Saraphia Martyr Hospital: A large hospital founded in the early Twentieth Century by Catholic sisters to serve the economically pressed population of its urban neighborhood. The high quality of care at St. Saraphia Martyr’s draws patients from across the city to its complex in the Village. Joss Carter’s mother Inez Neal worked as an emergency room nurse at St. Saraphia Martyr for over twenty five years.
Stories: September Song, Maternal Instinct, Ride or Die
Apthorp’s Club for Gentlemen: This exclusive men’s club on the Upper East Side was founded before the American Revolution. It still caters to a small clientele of the city’s most affluent and secretive power-brokers. Hidden discreetly behind an anonymous townhouse façade, Apthorps members enjoy deluxe dining and elaborately appointed libraries, locker rooms, and lounges. The club’s wide array of recreational facilities include a firing range, two Olympic size pools, an indoor track, handball and racquet ball courts, a boxing ring, and weight rooms. Its concierge, the ancient and effusive Hadley, has presided over the club for decades. Harold Finch is a member of Apthorps under the name Harold Hawk. Detective Fusco, John Reese, Taylor Carter and Joss Carter have visited the club.
Stories: Target Panic, Youngblood, Wonderland
Tanner-Catlett Art Museum of Harlem: This latest star in the cultural firmament of Black America's capital is a building honoring the past and riling up the present. The museum is named after two notable African American artists: Henry Ossawa Tanner, the internationally famed painter and Elizabeth Catlett, the influential sculptor and printmaker who lived the latter part of her life in Mexico. The T-CAMH is a controversial architectural wonder, fusing references to aspects of African American history and culture from the Continent to the cotton fields. Joss Carter's poet friend Daro enjoys afternoons of people watching in the museum's cafe, which is designed to evoke rustic juke joints and country cabins.
Stories: Exhibition
Residences
John Reese has several places located strategically across the city. He occasionally uses a flea-bag hotel, The Taj Mahal, dodging its hot-sheet clientele to hide out, rest, and recuperate on the down low. Finch supplied him with an upscale and spacious apartment near a park on the edge of Chinatown which features a monumental bathroom and a sleeping loft overlooking the main living space. On his own, Reese secured a rental room above Pooja’s restaurant where he spends increasing amounts of time under the nosy supervision of his landlady, Mrs. Soni. This room is large, square and airy, with windows overlooking the street in front of the restaurant. There is no air conditioning, but the overhead fan is efficient and soothing. The apartment is sparsely furnished by Mrs. Soni with a large bed, an arm chair, a round table, and a metal rack for hanging clothing hidden behind a screen. The ensuite bathroom is narrow, but sufficient to its purpose, complete with a shower. Reese has made certain alterations to the room including pulling up the floor boards to hide weapons and cash. He hides injectable pain-killers in a niche carved out behind the medicine cabinet.
Stories: The Room Above Pooja’s, Pooja’s New Tiffin Wallah, An Early Spring, Everybody Comes to Pooja’s, The Oasis, The Long Weekend, The Most Beautiful Dress in the World, Summer Solstice, Ganges, R&R, Because: Vignettes from Three Quiet Evenings
Harold Finch spends several nights a week in small rooms off the pocket kitchen in his library headquarters. When he can, he returns to the townhouse he owned before his accident and “death.” Extensively renovated to accommodate his physical restrictions, Finch now lives only on the first level which features a parlor, study, elaborate chef’s kitchen and a spacious bedroom suite with bathroom. The townhouse’s upper floors have been turned into an apartment for Finch’s housekeeper, the darkly mysterious Danvers.
Stories: Human Interactions, The Grain
Joss Carter has a comfortable and generous pre-war apartment which she shares with her son Taylor. This flat, on the second floor of a handsome brownstone building, has two bedrooms served by two baths, one in the hallway and the other in the master suite, accommodating the needs of the mother and teen. The kitchen is small and out-of-date, the living room is divided into a sitting area and a dining space defined by a compact rectangular table.
Stories: Confidential, The Long Weekend, Sonny Boy, Girls at Night, Youngblood, A Merry Little Thanksgiving, Blue Witness, Because: Vignettes from Three Quiet Evenings, The Sweet Science
Homeless Encampment: John Reese reached the bottom of his catastrophic personal collapse here and was cared for by the eccentric indigent Joan. When he faces other crises, he returns to Joan for solace, advice, and information. The encampment is located in a vast abandoned warehouse whose arched pane-less windows and expansive space gives it the air of a stark cathedral. Joan lives here with a horde of other homeless men and women, but she shares her personal space -- a single mattress -- with her companion Odette. Together the two women form an unusually strong family bond that weathers physical adversity and mental incapacity.
Stories: Confidential, The Long Weekend
Andrew Austin’s Apartment: Located in a stately townhouse on Strivers’ Row in Harlem, this gracious apartment contains the large life and long history of one of Reese’s most unusual numbers. The apartment leads from a noble front room furnished with a baby grand piano to a large dining room which houses the writer/activist’s extensive library. Austin’s prize-winning baking hobby is accommodated in the spacious tiled kitchen which is the domain of two imperious cats. The apartment is located only a few steps from St. Nicholas park.
Stories: A Fine Death