Generally speaking, the wine at large parties and galas tends to be despicable. Friends of mine just go with vodka or tequila. But I’m an oenophile, and I often bring my own wine, which is just what I did the other night when my wife and Air Mail co-hosted a party for me at the Odeon to celebrate the publication of my new novel, See You on the Other Side.
The setting was appropriate from a literary and a personal point of view—I’ve been going there since the place opened in 1980, when it became virtually the first hip downtown restaurant, a gathering place for the artists and gallery people who had started to take over the neighborhood as well as a scenic smattering of fashion models and the cast of Saturday Night Live. In the early 80s, I came to watch them from the bar before rolling down the street to the Mudd Club, hoping to get past the doormen. The restaurant was featured on the cover and inside the pages of Bright Lights, Big City, and the characters of my Calloway tetralogy, which concludes with my latest novel, often dine there. In fact, the first chapter of the new book is set in the Odeon.
