The following item will be of only limited interest, but I wanted to express sadness, bordering on heartbreak, at the closing of Bright Food Shop, this household's favorite local restaurant. It inhabited a restored Eighth Avenue coffee shop that dated back to the thirties; the neon sign was a Chelsea landmark. The menu was eccentric, ranging from Tex-Mex to pan-Asian and beyond, but delicious in a way that no other New York restaurant was delicious. Jonathan and I celebrated our anniversaries there. At various times the establishment also hosted, wittingly or not, such international musical celebrities as John Adams, Ian Bostridge, and Radiohead's Colin Greenwood. Hopefully the owners, whose Kitchen Market site is still up, will find a new space. The reason for the closing need hardly be stated: the city-blighting, soul-sucking force of skyrocketing rent.
