For their first evening together after fifteen years separation, Toby took Emmett to a famous bar in New York, Bemelmans. It’s attached to the Carlyle Hotel on the Upper East Side and has an old school class that cannot be beat. It also recollects back to their first date as teens when they went to an art show of famous children’s book illustrators. Join me as Toby witnesses the reaction he had imagined for years:
They entered the bar, and Tobias slid Emmett’s coat from his shoulders. Excitement thrummed under Tobias’s skin; he had been to this bar several times over the years, and every time he had thought of Emmett.
The walls of the classic bar were covered in muted yet colorful illustrations. It wasn’t until Emmett stepped past the grand piano and really looked around that his eyes lit up.
“Bemelmans! This is… ” Emmett brushed past Tobias to the wall nearest t
he bar to get a closer look. “Toby! It’s Madeline!” He glanced at the shades on the table lamps, which were decorated with more of Ludwig Bemelmans’s work, and, his eyes bright with childlike awe, looked back at Tobias. “Toby… ”
“This is exactly the reaction I was hoping for.”
And on a personal note, we made our first journey into Bemelmans last week, and it is now a permanent stop for our New York excursions. It’s a fabulous place to slip away from the noise of the city, even midday, and unwind. I highly recommend.
More tomorrow from Bemelmans Bar.
