Monday, December 4, 2006
Food & Drink / Food Chain One Last Recommendation
Posted by Elizabeth Tamny on Mon, Dec 4, 2006 at 9:06 AM
New York Times political--latterly, food--writer R.W. Apple Jr., died October 4, ensuring a long lifespan for the word "Falstaffian" in newspaper obituaries everywhere. Apple, a legendary figure in appetite and talent, was an Akron native and wrote well about Chicago (which he called "the most characteristically American city"), including one well-known recent piece about hot dogs.
According to a brief article yesterday in the Times' Sunday magazine (subscription required), the night before he died Apple sent an email to food writer Jill Santopietro, who was looking for example of "great American pancakes." According to Santopietro, he wrote that (yes, American pancakes were overrated and) he didn't have his notes, but she "might try the Bongo Room, in Wicker Park, north of Chicago.” The Times piece then includes the Bongo Room's take on cornbread-cranberry pancakes, which Santopietro recommends, noting, "As was often the case with food, Apple was right."
No word yet on whether or not the Bongo Room plans on capitalizing (tastefully) on this deathbed recommendation, as it were, or if that's just a fancy of my tacky imagination.
Comments (6)
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Saw that yesterday. Can no one can explain Chicago geography to the NYT? It's not hard. It's a grid! And the bongo room is not "north of Chicago" (unless he means the avenue... doubtful). It's like saying "The Met, on the east side of Manhattan, north of the city." Anyway. Those pancakes sound good.
Actually that was the second time they made that error (without bothering to correct it): http://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/11/dining/11johnny.html?ei=5088&en=41e92de886bcb4ff&ex=1318219200&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss&pagewanted=print Can't blame Apple for making a mistake when he was so ill, but you'd think the Times would smoothly correct the error.
I think the mindset's fairly common: I've heard people say the same thing about Trotter's, for instance, that it's "north of the city." My pet theory why this happens? NYers can't believe how big the city actually is! (This was borne out by the strange way people would refer to Rogers Park during the years I lived there.) They are used to more squashed square acreage.
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