March 29, 2007
We wanted to hate her. Where are the dance floors? Glamour
at the 21 Club.
Yes, we wanted to hate her. The
Three Tomatoes are talking about that horrible gold-digging woman and her
outrageous claims about our very favorite Beatle, Paul McCartney, whom she is divorcing. Yes, we are of course talking about Heather
Mills, or as she is referred to on Dancing with the Stars, a "charity campaigner", which does
sound better than gold digger. First of all, we confess that we love this show. Now for those of you who have better things to do with your
time, Dancing with the Stars pairs "B" list (which is being generous) celebrities with professional dancers, and each week the competing
couples have to learn a difficult ballroom dance, like the Mambo, Two-Step, or Fox Trot among others. And like American
Idol (yes we're hooked on that one too), they get critiqued by a panel and then the public gets to vote on who stays and who goes. So,
back to Heather.
As you may know, Heather had an unfortunate accident a few years back and lost part
of her leg and wears a prosthesis. So when it was announced that she was going to be one of the celebrity dancers, we were certain
this would be like watching a train wreck, only worse. At least with a train wreck you hope for the best, and we must admit we were
hoping for disaster and public humiliation. But amazingly, Heather has not only pulled it off (and not her leg), first doing a fox trot
and then this week's amazing mambo including a back flip -- but she has charmed us (and apparently many others too) with her sheer guts and
self-deprecating humor. At least we now understand what Paul saw in her -- originally. And memo to Paul - Pre-nup,
Pre-nup, Pre-nup. And by the way, we're still lovin' you even at 64 and beyond! (Heather so did not deserve you.)
Where's the glamour and what happened to the dance
floors?
But back to our fascination with this show, which harkens back to all those great
old Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers movies that we love and always pictured ourselves gliding across the dance floor. And now it's very fun
seeing all those ball room numbers danced to contemporary pop music. It makes you want to grab a partner, put on your high heel shoes and hit the
dance floor. Which brings us to our dilemma. Where are the dance floors ?
We missed the era of the old dinner dance night clubs like the Copacabana and
those wonderful places we've seen in old movies where glamour seemed invented. And the last of our "club" dancing was under a disco
ball. And about the only time we get to try out our "moves" these days are at weddings, or an occasional charity event and even those are
rarely dancing events. And sure we know about the New York City "clubs" for the under thirty crowd and celebrities just out of
rehab. But what about the rest of us? Even ten years ago in New York City you could find a romantic little restaurant
with a jazz trio and a little dance floor. Now there are slim pickins' -- at least as far as we know. And yes you can
still go to the Rainbow
Room, which has dinner and orchestra dancing on Friday and Saturday nights and pay $200 a person
and feel like you're at your senior prom or a wedding. And you could take a dinner-dance cruise like the Bateux, or World Yacht , which are more cruise than dancing,
and mostly tourists.
So we're imploring all you tomatoes out there, to let us know if there are some
wonderful dinner and dancing places in Manhattan. And if not, why isn't some smart restaurateur capitalizing on the back to ball room
dancing and glamour trend?
Glamour Upstairs and Downstairs at the 21 Club
Okay, so they don't have dancing, but the 21
Club is still one of our all time favorite "old-time" New York restaurants. This wonderful
establishment, which has been here since the "speakeasy days" is one of the best cocktail lounges for grown ups, anywhere in the city!
With big overstuffed leather chairs, a huge fire place, a noise level that let's you talk and listen to your companions, and even retro cocktails, it
is the best. It's the perfect stop for an after theater night cap. In fact, we were very disappointed with a recent New York
Times article called "The Night's Young, So Find a Gray Bar", and not just
because we abhorred the "gray" thing, but because it failed to even mention 21 in it's suggestions of bars for grownups. And some of it's
other suggestions like the bar at Wolfgang's was just ludicrous, since it's one of the most crowded, noisiest bars and restaurants too, that we can
image. But we digress. If you haven't been to the 21 Club in a while, you'll enjoy the new
upstairs dining room which is a club within a club, and Christopher who oversees the dining
room, will make sure you get impecable service. We still like the main restaurant too, which is hustle bustle New York, and also has a great
"standing bar" with fun toys with corporate logos and other memorabilia from patrons over the years. Now if they just had dancing!
For other restaurants reviewed by The Three Tomatoes, check out our archives.
Here's to cha, cha, cha 'til next week,
The Three Tomatoes
Copyright©2007. The Three Tomatoes. All rights reserved.
