Get ready, get set ...

Bob and Burt, et al, are about to open their new restaurant The Gulf Coast Cafe. They're aiming for Monday, June 21st. Last night I took the subway to Soho. Bob had asked me to come to their pre-opening party. When I finally got there at 9:30 (after starting late due to an explosive flat on my bike's front tire) the scene was bubbling with people, friends, family, other invitees. It seems everyone likes a freebie. Hey, why not? It was all very glamorous with some Soho "types" (I won't get into that) and others who were more down on Earth's level. Beer and wine were being dispensed and the food was being passed around on platters by Bob's new wait staff.


Some of the guests at the pre-opening party at the Gulf Coast Cafe.


Paul Leavin, Bob Heisler and Bob's son, Abe.


Elizabeth (Bob's fiance, left) with friends at the opening party.

If you'd like to see more GULF COAST CAFE photos, just click here.

I stayed for an hour and then biked home. It was a humid summer night and the Brooklyn Bridge (packed at 11 pm with strollers, bikers, tourists) was its usual magnificent self. The air was humid and summertime-thick and I felt like I was rolling my bike through a perfumed fluid. I love biking at night in the summer. There's nothing as perfect as that.


Try a midnight walk across the Brooklyn Bridge. It's an experience you'll never forget. And it's very safe - many people out and about.


The Brooklyn Bridge at night. A spooky arch but you're alone with the bridge, the night, the city, the water.

When I made my way back to Brooklyn and through the Heights and Park Slope, I chose the path less frequently taken at night: Prospect Park. The trees and shrubs closed in on the roadway as my bike zoomed downhill and the park was inky black and I was all alone, just me and the Park - coasting, coasting down to the southern end the fluidy-air in my face and the sultry, sour and musky smell of hedges in bloom. To me that aroma is the quintessential smell of summer. It only lasts a week or so in June. Then it's gone. It's one of those cues that people collect during a lifetime... like a song that can bring you back to your teenage years or perhaps a picture of some person you once knew. So it is for me - the smell of hedge flowers as they bloom - they are my hint that summer has arrived. They bring me memories of nightime walks on the boardwalk or down a dark Manhattan Beach street, the aroma enveloping you.


White flowers on the hedges in front of my house just beginning to bloom.
Do you think the Internet will ever transmit smells?

Stacey leaves for Europe and other parts of the world this Friday. More on that shortly.