Also known as: “Helga, Meghan and Leigh Are the Dorks of New York.” (Props to Helga for supplying the ornithological visuals.)
This Goldpost is a spoiler alert if you haven’t read the book. But if you have—as many friends of the farm have done— we started at the Met, of course, in the gallery of the Dutch masters. This is where the painting likely would have been at the time of “the incident.” You can see Mr. Rembrandt peeking at us through the ages … er … people.
Then we left and headed across Park Avenue, looking south toward the East 60s where the Barbours lived. We went to J.G. Melon on 3rd Ave. and 74th St., which was where, we decided, Platt Barbour had told Theo the awful news about Andy and Mr. Barbour. It’s also where Theo sees Platt drinking alone a lot when Theo’s engaged to Kitsy and seeing her on the Upper East Side. Poor Platt.
Next, we entered that sorry bastion of Larry Decker’s pain and misery, The [Save The!] Subway Inn at 60th and 3rd. When Theo and Audrey, Theo’s mother, toodled around Bloomingdale’s, Larry would drown his innumerable sorrows in here. You also might recognize it from the opening of Saturday Night Live.
Sadly, it was pretty rank in there so we didn’t stay for a celebratory beer. (That’s saying something.) And Helga had to help the little finch aloft through the thick, dense air.
Onwards and upwards to Le Veau d’Or (almost L’oiseau d’Or!) on 60th between Park & Lex. It’s the restaurant where Audrey would take Theo “back when we had money.” He remembers it as the first place he ate escargot and had a sip of Marc de Bourgogne. Sigh …
We planned to have lunch there but they were closed. Note to Le Veau d’Or: update your website! It says you serve Saturday lunch from noon to 4. Gawd! Moving on …
We headed down to the West Village, where we found Hobie and Welty’s house. Kind of. In the book, the great and powerful Tartt says the house is between numbers 8 & 10 on 10th St. There are 1/2 addresses on that street, as well as some obstructed doors and gates and such. Makes sense that they would live on this street. Emma Lazarus lived on it, too.
Can you see the 12 1/2 address? We pretended Hobie was upstairs being, well, Hobie (translation: fabulous).
We finished at the Film Forum on W. Houston. We had started at 2, had a nice lunch (not at Le Veau d’Or!) and then wrapped around 7. The Film Forum is where Theo took his mother to see “The Body Snatcher,” the last movie she ever saw—a fact that he regrets for years. It was a silly, bad horror movie and he recalls feeling guilty for making her endure it. Later, it’s where he brings Pippa to see the Glenn Gould movie before ducking into a wine bar on Bedford. As anyone who read the good book knows, that was quite an evening in the life of our friend Theo.
To all who read and loved the book—like we did—clearly there are a whole bunch of other places that we didn’t get a chance to see. Maybe next time. But in the meantime, it was a lot of fun to trace the characters’ steps and visit, once again, with our beloved Theo.
