campaigns : Campaign Archive

January 4, 2007

Resolutions, Russian Tea Room, and another Husband Friendly Restaurant

Well Happy New Year dear tomatoes, one and all. Hope you have recovered from all your holiday bashes and are safe and sound. The Three Tomatoes can hardly believe another year has come and gone. Wasn’t it just yesterday we were celebrating the new millennium? And it seems like a blink when we sent off the first email of last year with that “resolution thing” and here we go again. But here’s the thing with resolutions. The older we get, the more “been there, done that” we get. And truth be told, there’s hardly a resolution that we haven’t made and broken, some more than once.

So we’ve been giving some thought to why that is and have come to a conclusion. It’s because resolutions are usually about doing something that requires not doing something. Like, not eating, not smoking, not drinking, not being a couch potato, not being a “witch”, well you get the drift. We were also thinking about something a wise Three Tomatoes’ mother use to tell us often. She'd say, “You’re wishing your life away” when we’d say things like “I wish it was Friday”, or “I wish I was going on vacation”, or whatever other wish longing we expressed.

So we think resolutions should be about doing things you want to do now and enjoying the road along the way. We’ve been trying this theory out over the last couple of years and we’re here to say, it’s much easier to resolve to “do” something you’ve always wanted to do, than to stop doing something. And frankly, at our ages dear tomatoes, the few vices we actually have left, we’re keeping!

Resolving to do

So here’s how the doing thing works. For several years, one of The Three Tomatoes kept trying to convince another one of us to take up scuba diving so she could have a dive buddy. Well frankly, the thought terrified us. It had something to do with that death by drowning thing. But three years ago, at the start of the New Year, we decided to just do it, as they say. And yes, we confess we cheated on the written exam which was so silly because they actually wanted you to calculate stuff like dive tables. Hey, that’s why dive calculators were invented, which is what has helped keep us alive and diving. Well we somehow got certified (not to be confused with certifiable), and while we’re still terrified, we must say, there is something very life affirming about facing your fears head on and learning something totally new.

Last year it was singing lessons. Now, we have no fear of singing, especially after a martini or two. In this case, it was everyone else who feared our singing. And yes, we admit it. We’ve had this life long yearning to be lounge singers but the best we’ve done is really bad karaoke. So thanks to a gift of singing lessons from a husband who just couldn’t stand to hear our awful warblings, we are, well, if not “singing”, at least a bit more accomplished at the karaoke mic. Can anyone say Patsy Cline?

Oh, and in 2005 we took this silly idea we had for a newsletter for “women who aren’t kids”, named it The Three Tomatoes and sent it out to a few close pals. Today we have hundreds of new close pals who keep signing up and keep reading us. Thanks!

So what are we planning to just “do” this coming year? Well we’re going to just do that African Safari we’ve talked about doing for way too long. And we’ve got a couple of things that we’ll keep under wraps for a bit. (Sometimes you just have to do it first and then tell, or not.)

What are you resolving to do in 2007?

So what are you going to just do this year? Send us an email at tomato@thethreetomatoes.com and we’ll publish a list of what tomatoes are resolving to do in 2007. We will publish your responses anonymously of course. So get inspired, get thinking, and get doing.

The Russian Tea Room

Yes, this golden oldie is back. After closing its doors for a few years, this NYC icon re-opened in November of last year and we had a chance to have dinner there just before the holidays. Talk about a time wrap. Nothing has changed. In fact, some of the diners looked like they had been petrified and brought back to life for the new version. And its décor is still so over the top, you have to love it. The only thing that has changed is the menu, sort of. The new chef, Gary Robins (formerly of the Biltmore room) has created a wonderful continental menu (the venison was awesome) which originally did not include the old standards of the previous menus of the Russian Tea Room, chicken kiev and beef stroganoff. But after many requests, they’re back, sort of. You’ll find them in tiny print on the very back of the menu. The food is good, the service reasonable, the prices are well pricey, but hey…this is an icon. Certainly worth a once in a while visit, especially if you have guests in town. Click here to read The New York Times review.

Another Peter Lugar Spin Off

Now you can add Benjamin Steak House to the list of steak joints started by former Peter Lugar employees. Located in the ground floor of the Dylan Hotel at 52 East 41st Street, the space is spectacular -- 30-foot ceilings and a working fireplace. And don’t hold it against them that the previous restaurant was owned by Brittany Spears. Hey it flopped. If you love Peter Lugar, you’ll love Benjamin’s. Great steaks and great service. And we’d definitely give it a thumbs up over Wolfgang’s (another Lugar spin off), where it is nearly impossible to get a reservation any earlier than say 9:30 PM and is so noisy you can’t hear anyone at the table. (Tip: If you do get a reservation, ask for the back room…much more quiet.) But we’ll take Benjamin's. Steaks, martinis, creamed spinach, a fire place, and home by 10 PM.. Who could ask for anything more?

Looking forward to hearing your “to do” resolutions. (Email tomato@thethreetomatoes.com.)

‘til next week,

The Three Tomatoes