A pre-talk breakfast included jams from the Golden Pear, exquisite cheeses from Mecox Dairy, and Carissa's breads.
I got lunch at the Midland Hotel, sitting at what has to be one of the best tables in the world, with panoramic views over the bay and the hills beyond, the sleek curves of the hotel bar in the foreground, and a plate of exquisite local cheeses under my nose.
To be hungry here, in this hallowed (but renovated, in 2006) marketplace of fruits and vegetables, cured meats and handmade cheeses, exquisite chocolates and knobbly oysters, is a dangerous temptation to overspend.
For dessert a crostata of thin pear slices and whipped white robiola cheese was exquisite.
His risotto was exquisite, mixed with burrata cheese, a carpaccio of shrimp and rosemary.
Be sure to celebrate the weekend with Mama Clemenza's European Breakfast - from the Italian Breakfast Panini, served with prosciutto, eggs and Gruyere cheese, to the exquisite Lemon Curd Ricotta Pancakes, everything is cooked with homemade attention.
The period color, the depiction of a long-vanished New York, is exquisite: date-nut-and-cream-cheese sandwiches at Chock Full o' Nuts, riding on the jump seat in Checker cabs, Schrafft's, the Oak Room back in the pre-Trump days.
And the exuberant Sunday morning market on the esplanade, where you can taste oysters from the Île d'Oléron or buy exquisite little cow's milk cheeses from the Marayn de Bartassac dairy in Landiras, near Sauternes, each lovingly shaped by hand, flavored with herbs, spices or peppers and laid out for sale on wicker trays.
My sandwich was exquisite, lushly stuffed with grilled onions and cheese, but very challenging to eat outside, without a table.
The cheese course is excellent; the desserts, exquisite.
