Tonight we had a truly authentic family dinner in Little Italy.  As I have said, Enza’s father and Frank’s mother were siblings, making Frank and Enza first cousins.  Frank’s nieces and nephew (his brother’s children) still live in Brooklyn, where Frank grew up.  So they are all related to Enza.  We were looking forward to this night.

So much so that Enza decided that afternoon that she needed to have her hair done.  We are in New York, and I am pretty good with logistics, but had a momentary panic of how to conjure up a salon on a moment’s notice in a city that isn’t mine.  Until I remembered about a place I had heard about – the Dry Bar – that specializes in blow-outs only.  All they do is blow-dry hair.  And there was one 3 blocks from our apartment!

So we made an appointment and trudged up 34^th Street for an hour of beauty

Enza made me take a “Before” picture:

And After Picture

On then on to dinner – at Vincent’s in Little Italy, which has been there since 1904.

Most of the Brooklyn family speaks Italian to some degree, so stories and questions and pictures fired back and forth, along with spicy marinara, linguine vongole, and lots of vino rosso. 

I could just picture Frank’s mother looking down and smiling – what a very special evening .