Friday, March 2, 2012.
Lark In The Park. Nightcap At Andrea's.
I got a nice letter from the Friends of City Park a few days ago, going overboard about how much their being on the radio show helped ticket sales for tonight's Lark In The Park fundraiser. But I must have persuaded Mary Ann and myself that we had to be there, and we were, even though it looked as if it might be a drizzly, windy night.
It wasn't. We arrived just as the patron party in the Peristyle (the classic Greek structure in the park for which the restaurant on Rampart and Dumaine was named) moved into the big tent where the restaurants were doling out food and a substantial number of bars were dispensing their goods.
I am no fan of grazing events like this. I do understand their appeal both to party-goers and to the restaurants, whose generosity allows them to simplify things. However, I almost always leave such affairs with the thought that if only somebody had coordinated the dishes being served, the spread would have more balance. There's always too much crawfish (although that role was understudied by shrimp tonight), too many loose casseroles, and way, way too much pasta.
Mary Ann says that I want to be the arbiter of taste for everybody. She's probably at least a little right. She also says that most people don't care about these fine points, as evidenced by the substantial crowd here. All right, I'll just shut up about it.
The best aspect of this party was not the food, but Leif Pedersen's 1944 Big Band. It's big, all right, with a dozen musicians in tuxedos on the stage, including a powerful brass section. Leif conducted and sang. They put out a tremendous, well-rehearsed sound. When I drifted onto the dance floor and took some pictures, Leif gave me a glad-you're-here smile and a thumbs up, and motioned me over to the stage. Because so many people I'd never met had already come up and said hello, I thought he might know who I was, and maybe even that I'm a wannabe Big Band singer. I shook his hand, which seemed to irritate him. "Can you ask that lady over there in the white dress to come over here?" he asked. Hunh? I said, seeing several women in white dresses. "Margo Dubos!" he said. "You know her, right?" Yes, I do know the publisher of Gambit. (She's also heavily involved with Lark In The Park.)
"I need to tell her that the band is going to take a break," Leif continued. Then it was clear. Leif must have thought I was a staff photographer working the event, and needed me to be his runner for a second. Happy to help. I got Margo's attention, Leif told her what he needed, and my dream of singing with a serious band specializing in my favorite music vanished. The song "What Kind Of Fool Am I?" entered my mind and stayed there.
We didn't stay long. It was a good party, but Mary Ann didn't want to be around all this food, lest she eat it. And being with me at something like this is no fun, since we are interrupted by another new friend every two or three minutes. We did have a nice conversation with Frank Stewart and his wife, then with Dr. Mary Lupo, who was wearing an unusual piece of jewelry that Mary Ann thought stunning.
Mary Ann thought we should stop at Andrea's on the way home to taste Chef Andrea's new wines again. From an old vineyard his family owns on the island of Capri, he is making a line of wines that bear his own label. To say he is proud of these is an understatement. The wine, fortunately, is actually pretty good. The white is made with Falanghina grapes, found only in this part of Italy. The red is made with Aglianico and Piederosso grapes, also native here. We drank that with a couple of appetizers: ravioli with porcini mushrooms and pasta cu li sardi--what we call pasta Milanese around here at St. Joseph's Day. This was made with fresh, big sardines--hard to get lately, but very good in this mixture.
Ruth Ann "Baby Ruth" Kerr--the same pianist-singer who'd been with us at Redemption two days ago--was playing in the bar. She invited me to come up and sing a few number with her. But for some reason (unrelated to her obvious talent), I find it hard to blend with her. Maybe we need to rehearse. Or maybe I need to sit down and shut up, as Mary Ann keeps telling me.
