Elmo

After my show tonight, (The Barnard Project at Dance Theater Workshop--review by Lida, hopefully, to come later (then I'll review her show, Late Night!)), my parents and I went to a restaurant around the corner from Dance Theater Workshop.  DTW, or DT-dubs as I've started calling it, is in the always trendy, artsy neighborhood of Chelsea.  My mom, with her long, red, suede coat, my dad in his suit and tie work attire, and I, with a face full of stage makeup, hair in a bun, long, puffy coat, and red Jansport backpack, walked into elmo, a bar/restaurant on the corner of 7th and 19th.  First, notice the name of the restaurant "elmo".  Not Elmo, or Elmo Restaurant, just lowercase elmo.  It would only be trendier if it were something like "elmo.".  We walked through velvet curtains that blocked the doorway and saw the scene.

 

There was a bar on the left side, tables in front, and booths all along the sides and back.  A large Christmas tree with white lights and red bows stood in the middle.  The swanky style was not the most interesting part, the thing that made me feel like a suburban teen out to a dinner with her parents the most were the people inside elmo.  Everyone was beyond fabulous.  Groups of men with perfectly coiffed hair, blazers, martinis in hand, all laughing and chatting, kissing each other on the cheek.  I could tell it was the spot for Chelsea residents on any given night.  The bar was packed with women in high heeled boots, dresses and chunky scarves and guys with spikey hair and wayfarer glasses.  The hostess, while very nice and accommodating, stuck us in a booth in the very back of the restaurant.  We totally cramped elmo's style.  There was techno music blaring and dim lighting.  The food, on the other hand was very good.  Nothing incredibly exciting, but very good American cuisine.  I had grilled chicken which was perfect for my protein-craving, post performance appetite, my mom had Kobe beef burgers which were delish, and my dad had tuna (I think?) which he said was perfectly fine.  We could tell that not many people were there for the food itself.  They were there to see and be seen by all of Chelsea's most fabulous people.
Best part of the elmo restaurant experience, for all you MTV viewers out there, we were sitting there eating and another waiter comes over and says very nicely "how is everything?" I look up, and it was, I'm like 99% sure, Ryan from all those Real World/Road Rules challenges...

I didn't say anything but texted a couple fellow Challenge watchers and they thought it was cool, yes I know I'm super lame for watching those, but they're actually incredibly entertaining.

In all, a great show followed by dinner with parents discussing the show and a mini D-list celeb sighting amongst some of NYC's most fabulous, flamboyant and funky.  -Chelsea
http://www.elmorestaurant.com/
http://www.dancetheaterworkshop.org/barnard
(A little shameless self-promoting, hehe)