Falling in love with the New York she hated wins dinner for two at The Brasserie

        It wasn’t easy to choose among all those touching, momentous, amusing reasons for celebration emailed by my readers competing for The Brasserie's dinner for two.  But here I go. Thirty years ago Meryl Pearlstein told her school counselor she would work anywhere … except NYC.  That year she got her first full time job in NYC. She kept telling herself she would only stay four years, just like college, and then go back to where she belonged. “Well, it didn't happen.  The Brasserie became one of my late-night favorite haunts since it was open all night.  It was one of those places that convinced me that this was where I should spend the rest of my life.”  Pearlstein will be celebrating her 30th year in New York one night soon at The Brasserie as a winner of a dinner for two.

        I couldn’t resist a reformed vegan and the Brasserie agreed to honor a second winner. As N. Tuma tells it, last February she was weak, too thin and very hungry after five years as a vegan.  “I fantasized about grilled cheese sandwiches and frittatas. So my wonderful (and patient) lover and I went to Europe (Oxford, London, Paris) and I had a “coming out” party of vegetarianism. 5 egg omelets, macaroons, butter, cream sauces! I was in heaven.” In May, she developed a craving for fish.  And a week ago at Balthazar, she writes, she suddenly needed a steak. She will be celebrating her awakening at The Brasserie “with the man who stood by me from Candle 79 to Wolfgang’s.”

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