The writer Charlotte Druckman and the photographer Melanie Dunea spend Sunday evenings at New York City dining establishments to find out what’s new with the people behind them.
作家夏洛特·德鲁克曼(Charlotte Druckman)和摄影师梅勒妮·杜尼亚(Melanie Dunea)周日夜晚在纽约市的一些名牌餐馆寻找美食新动向。
You’d think the final night of a restaurant’s existence would be a sad one. This was not the case at Family Recipe on Sunday evening. “It’s a little crazy,” said the chef and owner Akiko Thurnauer, who excused herself from kitchen duty to enjoy the company of friends and loyal customers who stopped by to bid farewell to her culinary hideout on Eldridge Street. Final orders of fried chicken wings, duck-filled pot stickers and steamed buns and crunchy, golden-brown potatoes were greedily gobbled, last-supper style. Sake glasses and wooden boxes were raised, bottles of rosé — marked half-off for the occasion — drained.
你可能认为一个餐馆的最后一晚应该是悲哀的。但是家族秘伝(Family Recipe)餐馆周日晚上的情况并非如此。“有点疯狂，”大厨、老板明子·特诺(Akiko Thurnauer)说。她放下在厨房的责任，去享受朋友和忠诚顾客的陪伴，他们前来向这个隐藏在埃尔德里奇街的餐馆告别。最后一次点炸鸡翅、鸭肉锅贴、包子和金黄色的松脆土豆，吃起来狼吞虎咽，颇有最后晚餐的感觉。装清酒的玻璃杯和木箱被举起，一瓶瓶玫瑰葡萄酒被喝光——为了这个场合，葡萄酒打五折。
“Sunday is kind of a weird night here,” Thurnauer noted. “Sometimes it’s really busy, sometimes really quiet, and sometimes you see amazing people,” she added, noting that celebrities were more inclined to drop by at the end of the weekend when they could keep a low profile.
“在这里，周日是个古怪的夜晚，”特诺说，“有时很忙，有时很安静，有时你能看到不可思议的人。”她说名人们更喜欢在周末结束时来这里，因为那时候不太会引人注意。
Trained as a graphic designer, the Tokyo native arrived in New York 18 years ago and enrolled in an E.S.L. program at Hunter College while working as a bartender. She constantly threw dinner parties and dreamed of doing the same for a larger audience. In 2004, she decided to get some professional training and landed a job at Nobu. After that and a couple of other food-related stints, she finally opened Family Recipe in September of 2011. And it’s been a learning curve ever since.
明子是东京人，曾接受平面设计培训，18年前来到纽约，在亨特学院上非母语英语教学课程，同时做酒保。她不时承办宴会派对，梦想着能招待更多人。2004年，她决定接受职业培训，在Nobu餐馆找到了一份工作。之后她又短期做过几份与食品有关的工作，最终于2011年9月开设了家族秘伝餐馆。从那以后，这个餐馆一直在学习中成长。
First, she realized her food was too avant-garde for the Lower East Side. “The neighborhood wants comfort food,” she said, explaining that she toned down her more eclectic menu for local tastes. Then Thurnauer learned another lesson: that reality is very different from the fantasy of owning a restaurant. She found that juggling motherhood (she has 6-year-old twin girls), managing a business and working the line took her away from the joy of cooking, something she hopes to get back now that the restaurant is closed. She’s keeping her lease and will use the space for her catering operation. From time to time, she may entertain the idea of a pop-up supper. Stay tuned.
首先，她发现自己的食物对下东区来说太前卫了。“这个社区想要舒服熟悉的食物，”她说。她解释说为了适应当地人的口味，她把菜单调整得更折中。然后特纳得到了另一个教训：你会对拥有一家餐馆抱有幻想，但现实却非常不同。她发现在做母亲（她有两个6岁的双胞胎女儿）、经营生意和工作之间周旋让她失去了烹饪的乐趣，她希望关闭餐馆后能找回它的乐趣。她还会继续租这个店，用它来进行酒席承办业务。她或许会时不时地供应临时性晚餐。请继续关注。