Cafe Gitane, I Love You
I don’t usually like to pick favourites. Usually. Today, however, I’m going to side-step diplomacy and cut right to the quick. My all-time favourite place to have lunch in NYC is Cafe Gitane on Mott Street in Nolita. Boom, there it is. The cold, hard, delicious truth. Perhaps some explanation is in order.
Cafe Gitane is not the fanciest table in town. It’s not especially large, nor particularly gorgeous. It’s neither cutting edge nor consciously cool. But it has a legion of regulars (most of whom seem to be local, but who knows) and it feels to me like an original. It’s cosy, characterful (in an old shoe kind of way), and from my experience of going there for almost ten years, totally reliable. Were it not for the ‘Maroc’ map on the wall and couscous on the menu, one could easily miss the nominally Moroccan influence. And that’s probably a good thing, since Cafe Gitane is not about a theme nor over-egged concept.
It’s just about finding a small table, ordering a simple and healthy dish (the smoked trout salad and avocado on toast are both splendid), maybe leafing through one of the magazines on the rack and perhaps picking up on someone else’s conversation. Turn your ringer off (blissfully phone-free), make sure you have cash (sorry, no cards), and be prepared to wait a few minutes for somewhere to sit. Oh, and order a coffee, which comes with a sweet little chocolate on the side.
