August 27, 2008

A chance meeting at Morandi

The other night, I went to dinner with a few friends at Morandi. This is a fun Italian trattoria located on Waverly Place in the West Village in New York City. Morandi is a creation of Keith McNally, the restaurateur who also owns Pastis, Balthazar, and Schiller's Liquor Bar. One of the things I just love about New York is that you never know who you will bump into or who will be passing by. What started out as a dinner for four quickly turned into a lively gathering of six. Come and take a look. 

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Thom Browne in his signature shorts and unironed white shirt. Really,
this is how Thom walks around New York City. He is, of course, the very
famous menswear designer who has a very successful line of clothing for
men and women at Brooks Brothers. By chance, he was walking by and
joined us for drinks at Morandi.
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Kevin Sharkey is Thom's friend and he was also just walking by, but not
with Thom. He gladly joined us, too. On the right is our chairman's son,
Brian Koppelman -- he is a famous Hollywood screenwriter ("Rounders,"
"Ocean's Thirteen," "Runaway Jury," etc.), producer ("The Lucky Ones," "The
Illusionist," "Tilt"), actor ("Michael Clayton," "Knockaround Guys"),
and director ("Tilt", "Knockaround Guys"). His new movie is coming out very
soon. Brian wasn't walking by, but was actually invited to dinner by
his father, Charles Koppelman.
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The gang as assembled and photographed by an accommodating diner
sitting outside at Morandi: Robin Marino, our co-CEO; Kevin; me;
Brian; Thom; and Charles.
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The charcuterie is really tasty at Morandi. It comes on a French bread
board on top of butchers' paper -- cheeses, prosciutto, salami, and
olives. Obviously, I wasn't fast enough with the camera!
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Charles looking happy -- he loves a good dinner, especially if it's Italian.
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Robin in her designer garb. Actually she fooled a lot of us by admitting it was a rather inexpensive jacket from J.Crew. Mickey Drexler, the CEO, is doing a phenomenal job at J. Crew.
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