FILM CRITIC, PODCASTER AT YOU MUST REMEMBER THIS
Dean & DeLuca
I moved to New York with $1,000 to my name—not enough, even in 2003, to pay a first month’s rent and deposit. I needed to make cash fast, and if free food was included, even better. With a fake resume, I got hired at the cheese and pasta counter at Dean & DeLuca in Soho. We were encouraged to taste everything, rendering meals not terribly necessary. We’d trade with other counters: some shaved Gruyère for some shaved speck; a melty puddle of Brie for fennel loaf. I earned enough to snag a $700 month room in a loft with 7 roommates, under the Marcy Avenue stop of the J/M/Z. The barter continued: a bit of Coach Farm green peppercorn goat cheese for cigarettes and booze. Now I wish I’d hoarded that Coach Farm cheese—it doesn’t exist anymore, and I miss it.
DEAN & DELUCA, SOHO
(Closed in 2019)
