After returning from Chinatown Friday afternoon with an assortment of fake Prada and Trader Joe's wine (more on that to come), Aunt TC and I enjoyed a brief respite before heading out to meet her friend Mary for dinner and drinks in Bronxville.

Bronxville

For those who aren't familiar with Bronxville, except insomuch as the name contains "Bronx" and thus suggests a location north of Manhattan, allow me to characterize. Bronxville is a northern New York suburb, of sorts (not how we envision "suburb" in Pittsburgh), which from the city can be reached on the Metro North line to White Plains. Up past the Bronx and Mt. Vernon, Bronxville is as far away from Manhattan proper as... well, damn, beats me. Maybe as far as Cranberry or Moon or something. Maybe further. I've never been good with gauging mileage. I judge distance based on how long it takes to get there, and thanks to the Metro North railroad, going between Grand Central and Bronxville takes about as long as going between upper Highland Park and Downtown Pittsburgh on the 71A. Maybe even shorter, depending on if you get a local or an express train.

The Bronxville station on Metro North

In character, I would say that Bronxville resembles a larger and more urbanized Fox Chapel or Aspinwall. In fact, imagine Shadyside and Fox Chapel rolled up into one, and you've got it pretty much dead on. After years of living the Bronx, archivist extraordinaire Aunt TC opted to purchase a co-op in a large stone Bronxville apartment building. This is the type of architectural phenomenon you simply don't see in Pittsburgh: early 20th century upscale stone apartment buildings nearly ten stories high with several buildings comprising the entire complex, and many of them in a neighborhood outside the city. Even Shadyside doesn't have anything to compare. Accordingly, the Bronxville business district offers many classy establishments for jewelry, housewares and real designer purses, but most importantly for eating. That night, we went to The Village Café for wine, food and jazz.

The Village Café

There was a live jazz ensemble and we sipped red wine while we waited for Mary and chatted with the bartender, a congenial fellow who also lives in Aunt TC's building. When Mary arrived she ordered up a martini with a twist we placed our food orders. Aunt TC and I elected to split two appetizers, rather than getting whole meals. We got the fried brie appetizer, and truly delicious wonder... the duck quesadillas. That's right, duck in a quesadilla. An inspired dish if I ever tasted one. The fried brie was also quite excellent, served with a delicate breading and berries. Yum. We also got to try some of Mary's burger, because after some confusion with her order, they brought her an extra hamburger on the house. I'm not normally a hamburger type of person, but it was purported to be medium and I was a little drunk, so I took one of the quarters into which it had been divided, and from what I remember through the red wine haze, it was also mighty delicious, tender and subtly spiced.

The Bronxville street sale

The next morning we were off to the Bronxville street sale, where local vendors display their wares along the sidewalk, often at a considerable discount. By this time, my wallet was a bit thinner from the Prada shopping spree and none of the sales really captured the interest of my inner bargain hunter, but Aunt TC bought quite a few things. There were some especially good jewelry sales. I was tempted by some, but my problem is that I too often simply forget to wear jewelry, and so I seldom get inspired to buy it. The few pieces that get worn on those rare occasions when I feel the urge to put on jewelry—usually my pearls and/or my cartouche earrings—service me well enough. And so, I decided to reserve the remainder of my cash for food and drink. For lunch that day, we ended up taking advantage of the sidewalk specials at a brand new Bronxville restaurant, and so sampled the Asian-fusion cuisine at Wild Ginger.

Wild Ginger in Bronxville

Aunt TC got the sesame chicken lunch special, a generous offering of chicken, noodles and vegetables. I selected the sushi special and picked out a serving of the spicy tuna rolls. Despite reporting that the sesame sauce was a little heavy, Aunt TC left with an overall good impression of Wild Ginger. I found the sushi to be quite tasty, though I was a little disappointed that my serving came with more vegetable rolls than tuna rolls. Still, anything drenched in wasabi is heartily welcome in my book.

Next up... A trip to Little Italy of the Bronx and find out what's so great about Trader Joe's that it helped inspire Aunt TC to get her driver's license?