Politics
‘I Leaned Out the Window and Asked if I Could Have a Cigarette’
A chance encounter in Greenwich Village, playing Sudoku on the 1 train and more reader tales of New York City in this week’s Metropolitan Diary.
Cafe Borgia
Dear Diary:
I was having a cappuccino at Cafe Borgia on Bleecker Street 40 years ago. It was summer, and I was sitting inside the cafe.
The windows were open. Outside the one near me, two men were talking and smoking cigarettes. One had red hair and was very cute. When his friend stepped away, I leaned out the window and asked if I could have a cigarette.
He offered me the pack. I took one, and he lit it for me. His friend soon returned, and they resumed their conversation.
When I was ready to leave, I stopped at their table and suggested we get a drink at Jimmy Day’s a few blocks away.
We did, his friend eventually left for the Bronx and a year later the redhead and I were married.
P.S. I had never smoked before and never did again.
— Robin Kornhaber
