When I finally sat down to have lunch at around 6:30PM, I was greeted by a very friendly hostess with the dinner menue. Pigalle is a little disneyesqe French restaurant on the corner of 6th avenue and 48th street and despite being a 24 hour simulation environment, the food they serve there is actually not half bad. (At least the 2.5 dishes I have tried out so far.)
I was given a seat right next to the window, behind the little pulpit of the quite possibly Russian reservations-hostess. (Not the one who handed me the menue)
I smiled thinking she might be of Russian descent, since Pigalle could be seen as a Bistro, or a little place that sounds so french but actually has a Russian name.
I think it was during the 1814 occupation of Paris and the Cossacks, who obviously must have spoken Russian that "Bistro" was born. "Bystro", means "quick"... so I guess the soldiers demanded faster service... Or maybe some restaurants advertised with their fast service?...(Fast Food?) The word supposedly made it into French dictionaries by 1884... pretty "bistro" if you consider what the French call "video recorders" or even "computers", not really incredibly new inventions, these days.
"You appear to be in a hurry, Sir?", the waitress was actually very nice to me. I would have loved to have a glass of red wine with my dish, but ended up drinking an "Olof Palme", which the waitress suggested as an alcohol free alternative, without knowing who Olof Palme was, only what it was: lemonade topped with a layer of ice tea. Why this drink is named after the hero of Swedish social democracy is beyond me, but it was quite good, especially since it is to be drunk with a straw. (Pick your layer and hmm...)
It was not really dark outside, but because it was "dinner time", my table was given a little candle in a glass. (Third hostess?) It was one of those tiny white ones, nothing really exciting in itself... at least not until I looked out the window.
I was again incredibly lucky to sit in the perfect spot to have the illusion that the reflection of my little table-light was burning inside of the tree trunk of the Acacia tree outside of the restaurant.
Had I filmed it, or taken a picture of it, it would have looked very kitschy, but because I saw it with my eyes, and because it was coincidence that had composed the image for me, the situation was one of those really brilliant perfectly private miracles.
There it was. The little dancing flame in the tree trunk. And because we were still in New York, and it was still 8th Avenue at 6:30, there was a good amount of foot traffic between the window and the tree. The reflection of the flame jumped from tree to tourist with strange camera, to woman on cell phone, writing down numbers, to man in a yellow t-shirt, waiting for woman with cellphone to give him her matches, to a woman waiting for somebody. Unsuccessfully...
Back to tree... there it burned and waved, quietly...
My dinner arrived promptly and because I was in a hurry, the main dish was on the table in front of me much faster than usual.
I could write an entire story about the staff trying to prepare a take out order in a way as if it were the very first time in the history of the restaurant. (Except that they kept repeating that it was "exactly the same order as last time...") So it must have been at least the second time in the history of Pigalle...
I was in quite excruciating pain the entire evening. Maybe the drink I was given to taste actually had a name only related to Olof Palme? Maybe the little flame was a reminder of something that will happen...
Maybe it was just another harsh day... this I actually know for sure...
Olof Palme? Funny in America it is known as the "Arnold Palmer," but probably because he went over seas and had an Olof Palme and came back to order one ;)
haha, you might be onto something here.
Maybe she said "Arnold Palmer" with some serious French accent and my brain just jumped to the next similarly sounding name of the names I know... and voilá, we have a new name for a drink.
; )
about "bistro":
websters ("Etymology: French Date: 1921") gave a short and to-the-point etymology, stating origin and what seems to be a date they are sure of (it isnt "Maybe 1921" and it isnt "1921, but it could have been a little earlier or later". just a firm "1921"). They appear to promise more from their unabridged definition, but you have to subscribe to see that. the american heritage dictionary also seems to be very efficient and terse ("ETYMOLOGY: French bistro or bistrot, tavern owner, tavern."). it is just a dictionary after all.
also looked up the online OED for the first time and found out that you have to subscribe. bummer. i was told that for practical etymologies, webster is the best anyway; the OED is too big to be practical.
however, i happily found a nice little online etymology dictionary.
bistro - 1922, from Fr. bistro (1884), originally Parisian slang for "little wineshop or restaurant," of unknown origin. Commonly said to be from Russian vee-stra "quickly," picked up during the Allied occupation of Paris in 1815 after the defeat of Napoleon. Another guess is that it is from bistraud "a little shepherd," a word of the Poitou dialect, from biste "goat."
this dictionary is completely free. finding it today gave me warm fuzzy feelings about mankind.
but witolds entry (free!) is fun, gives dates and places and is well written. by far the best, dont you agree?
I think it was during the 1814 occupation of Paris and the Cossacks, who obviously must have spoken Russian that "Bistro" was born. "Bystro", means "quick"... so I guess the soldiers demanded faster service... Or maybe some restaurants advertised with their fast service?...(Fast Food?) The word supposedly made it into French dictionaries by 1884... pretty "bistro" if you consider what the French call "video recorders" or even "computers", not really incredibly new inventions, these days.
as for the drink. olof palme. it is, as em!ly points out, an arnold palmer. the everything2.com page given gives a pretty interesting background on the drink:
Arnold Palmer has said, through his personal assistant, that he believes his name became associated with the tea and lemonade mix about 30 years ago when he asked for it at a Palm Springs restaurant during a tournament. He made it his regular order, and the drink ended up being named for him.
I like it because I do like my iced tea lemony, but only half-sweet. You get some caffeine, but not too much, some quick sugar energy, but not too much, and even a bit of health-giving fruit. Mainly, though, I like it for its taste.
but where in the world can you find out where and when a long island iced tea, a screwdriver, a salty dog or a cosmopolitan got their names? how about the ones named after people like the bellini or rob roy or tom collins? i know that sometimes even the name of the person who concocted these drinks (and the bar name!) is known. hasnt someone collected this information somewhere? the drinkboy.com page for the bellini sounds promising in terms of etymology, but they provide backgrounds for only a handful of the entries listed.
the arnold palmer. sounds good about now, early in the morning.
hope you feel better than you did when you wrote this post...
are you a bar tender?
;D
Wait a second... the candle... the candle... hmm...
Posted by: Witold Riedel on August 15, 2003 10:59 PM