Ad Aspera, Per Astra

Yesterday was a bee-oo-tiful day in Manhattan, and I sent an evite out to lots of people to go have dinner outdoors somewhere. Noone could go except my friend Jovan, who’s a hair and makeup artist with a small poodle named Mac that she carries around in a tote bag. Jovan showed up in full fashion-victim mode, with new Gucci sandals that were cutting her feet to ribbons.

In a reverse of Spring’s upward budding process, we hobbled from the roof patio of the Metro hotel (on the left), which has an incredible view of the Empire State building, to a tiny sake bar buried three stories underground (on the right.) The sake comes in a box; you take a pinch of salt from a dish and place it on the corner of the box before taking a sip. The salt is three bucks.