{"id":363622,"date":"2026-10-03T13:24:09","date_gmt":"2026-10-03T13:24:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/363622\/"},"modified":"2026-10-03T13:24:09","modified_gmt":"2026-10-03T13:24:09","slug":"the-return-of-the-nymphs-in-praise-of-a-little-inconvenience","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/363622\/","title":{"rendered":"The Return of the Nymphs: In Praise of a Little Inconvenience"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>The once and future home of Caf\u00e9 des Artistes. Photo by Yvonne V\u00e1vra<\/p>\n

By Yvonne V\u00e1vra<\/p>\n

Electric blankets could be the end of us. They can lull us away from reality and make us forget what matters about being alive, what it means to be human. I learned that at the Caf\u00e9 des Artistes at 1 West 67th Street. Or rather, in a version of the Caf\u00e9 des Artistes recreated as the set for My Dinner with Andre, which was released almost exactly 45 years ago, on October 11th, 1981. One of my favorite movies.<\/p>\n

\u201cWally, don\u2019t you see that comfort can be dangerous? I mean, you like to be comfortable and I like to be comfortable too, but comfort can lull you into a dangerous tranquility,\u201d Andre says, talking about the refuge an electric blanket offers from the hard edges of New York life. Wrapped in its warmth, how do we know it\u2019s cold? All sorts of things might occur to someone who is cold. But when we\u2019re seeking comfort and pleasure, trying to smooth away every friction, we risk falling asleep to life.<\/p>\n

I can\u2019t wait to contemplate all of that sitting by the nymphs painted on the walls of the new Caf\u00e9 des Artistes, which is set to open early next year.<\/a> The restaurateurs behind it have promised to revive the lavish glamour of the original, which was a favorite haunt of New York\u2019s bohemia from 1917 to 2009. Meanwhile, I\u2019m wondering what Andre would think of our 2026 levels of comfort. If he worried that modern life in 1981 was insulating people from the real world, what would he make of us now?<\/p>\n

We can have almost anything delivered. We can regulate the temperature exactly to our liking, eliminate boredom, avoid waiting, get around without getting lost, eat without having to cook, and communicate without having to speak to anyone. Technology tells us what to do, where to go, what to watch, what to read, and even how to respond to a message from someone\u2014or, increasingly, to a message from someone\u2019s technology.<\/p>\n

And yet, Upper West Siders still deliberately seek out inconvenience. We just have great places that reward us handsomely for it.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Book Culture photo courtesy of WSR archives<\/p>\n

Without the help of search engines or algorithms, we browse the shelves at Book Culture on 112th Street for a book we never find. But we go home with the one we actually need.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Photo by Gus Saltonstall.<\/p>\n

At Zabar\u2019s, we patiently wait behind three undecided Upper West Siders as they deliberate over which brisket to pick. We go to supermarkets where they\u2019re out of what we came for, but we\u2019ll find other things worth standing in long lines for.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Photo by Yvonne V\u00e1vra<\/p>\n

We walk for blocks and blocks because this place is so beautiful it would be madness not to.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Photo by Yvonne V\u00e1vra<\/p>\n

We put up with the grumpy waitress at the diner and surrender to the restaurant\u2019s rhythm, letting them decide when we order, when we eat, and when we\u2019re finally allowed to go home.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Photo by Yvonne V\u00e1vra<\/p>\n

We don\u2019t give a flip that Spotify could instantly offer us an endless stream of exactly what our ears desire. Instead we go to Westsider Records on 72nd Street to thumb through records, enjoy the smell of cardboard, and lose track of time looking at cover art. There\u2019s Paula Abdul, and there\u2019s a crate of H\u00e4ndel scores. We hunt for treasures and trade notes about B-sides with Bruce behind the counter. But then he\u2019s busy because a woman has come in looking for a CD of The Nutcracker and asking where she should start her search. And together, they disappear between the boxes.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Photo by Yvonne V\u00e1vra<\/p>\n

Life could be easier. But would it feel as alive?<\/p>\n

What touches me most about My Dinner with Andre is the way the two men connect at the Caf\u00e9 des Artistes. They\u2019re clearly finding delight in their conversation. Even when Wally and Andre disagree\u2014and they do, a lot\u2014they listen to each other with interest. They seem to enjoy discovering the other\u2019s point of view, no matter how strange or misguided they may find it. They\u2019re getting something out of this: a challenge, new perspectives, laughter, and company. Someone to talk to and be fully present with.<\/p>\n

That last one might be one of the things we\u2019re becoming less and less comfortable with, right? Real conversation asks a lot of us. You have to listen. You can\u2019t scroll away, edit yourself, or disappear for hours and come back when you\u2019re ready. You don\u2019t get to curate the experience but have to stay for whatever happens.<\/p>\n

Soon, we\u2019ll have a Caf\u00e9 des Artistes back in the neighborhood, a perfect place to practice just that and become each other\u2019s electric blankets to soften the hard edges of New York life.<\/p>\n

Also, there\u2019ll be nymphs on the wall.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Photo by Yvonne V\u00e1vra<\/p>\n

Yvonne V\u00e1vra is a magazine writer and author of the German book 111 Gr\u00fcnde New York zu lieben (111 Reasons to Love New York). Born a Berliner but an aspiring Upper West Sider since the 1990s (thanks, Nora Ephron), she came to New York in 2010 and seven years later made her Upper West Side dreams come true. She\u2019s been obsessively walking the neighborhood ever since.<\/p>\n

Subscribe to West Side Rag\u2019s FREE email newsletter\u00a0here<\/a>. And you can Support the Rag\u00a0here.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The once and future home of Caf\u00e9 des Artistes. Photo by Yvonne V\u00e1vra By Yvonne V\u00e1vra Electric blankets…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":363623,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[9,24,63,122,124,123],"class_list":["post-363622","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-queens","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc","tag-queens","tag-queens-headlines","tag-queens-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/363622","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=363622"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/363622\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/363623"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=363622"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=363622"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=363622"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}