The Long Lunch

Does the long lunch exist in the United States? I would say, barely. Too often you hear the New Yorker people announce, almost proudly, they are way too busy to have lunch out and instead eat at their desks while still working. I do that too, but not proudly. Only because most of the year it's too cold/uncomfortable in NYC to go out and eat lunch in the park. It's a shame, because it seems the lunch-at-desk norm says something bad about your identity as a "worker" - so everybody ends up skipping lunch entirely or minimizing it's importance in the day. Well. I think that's so wrong. I've already had two outside cafe lunches this week.

I used to work near Central Park, and lunch was an Event. A nice group of us would begin the lunch process by setting up an AOL chatroom to decide where to go and what time to meet at the elevators. When the warm weather started, the topic of the chatroom became your deli sandwich order. A lunch designee put in the group order and 15 minutes later we picked it up from the deli, walked over to the park and found the best rock from which to eat and watch the broadway softball teams play. Then we'd all kind of lounge on the rocks and sunned like turtles. I happened to have a strict 30 minute lunch limit, so while everyone else was still sunning, I had to grudgingly run back to the office to avoid getting in trouble. I have to say I broke that rule as much as possible. Until of course the office tattletale (lunch hater?) prompted my boss to speak directly to me about it...

Now I happen to work in a neighborhood where lovely cafes and restaurants abound, and when the good weather starts, the chairs and tables come out onto the little slivers of sidewalk. Meredith and I enjoyed a leeeeeisurely lunch at Max Caffe today, sharing two kinds of the crusty panini oozing with roasted vegetables and cheese. Eggplant and roasted red pepper, mozzarella, roasted zuchinni and gorgonzola. Max Caffe is a good place to experience lunch like the rest of the world does. People are actually drinking wine and Italian beers. You sit there in the half sun and shade, and refills of your water glass keep coming after you're done eating. One of our Morningside Heights colleagues ran into us there and ordered some afternoon chocolate gelato. Good reason to stay 10 minutes more. We practically had to put a search party out to get the check.

My advice is to not feel a bit guilty. Go on a long lunch.