“Dinner, for two?”. We’ve eaten to be honest. We wanted to come here. I have always wanted to come here. I love Josephine Baker and I needed to see this place.-But, we’ll have some desert”. “Yes, you must have desert, they are delicious. The ladies have come for desert!”. The ladies have come for desert? THE LADIES HAVE COME FOR DESERT! The waiters chanted almost in uniformity. “You are interested; I must give you a tour of this place”.
We got our tour alright. Jean-Claude basically dissected the place. Even the restroom wasn’t off limits! To the keen reader; make a stop at the restroom at Chez Josephine, even if you don’t need to go, some of the most beautiful art work is in there. “I know these pictures, Naomi took similar ones for a magazine spread as a homage”. ”Oui, elle est formidable”. To which, of course, he meant the both of them. Every painting, picture and photograph on the restaurant’s walls has its own unique story; and Jean-Claude recounted them with such childlike enthusiasm and nostalgia. “I performed with my mother on stage, when I was thirteen”. I could see the stage in front of me. Perhaps that is the charm of the house that Jean-Claude built. For every visit, we can all escape momentarily and perform on stage with Miss Baker. “You must come back on Saturday; we have a special lady singing. She is eighty years old and she wears a hat. Sometimes she sings with no shoes on. When you come back I’ll give you this painting.”
Saturday came and we were greeted by our friend outside the restaurant. “Bienvenues my girls, you look wonderful”. To add to its uniqueness, at Chez Josephine, guests are seated personally by the restaurant’s owner. Does there really exists any another way to say “bienvenue chez moi”? For the evening, Jean-Claude wore a Mandarin styled coat. The colour was reminiscent of the shade of the Moulin Rouge. I was perplexed and dazed, was I in Paris or in New York? I had to close my eyes for a second to feel. Then, I opened them and realised that I was in both.
The evening was perfection and the Lady sang the blues. The food was literally your best dream served on a plate. We also got three desserts for two! A trip to New York for me now could never be complete without a visit to my favourite restaurant. I am returning very soon. Yes, I got my painting. It’s a replica poster of one of the art works that hangs upstairs in the restaurant. People ask me where it came from and I get to tell them about a September night at Chez Josephine.
Madifon
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