Square Meals

Admirable Poindexter...

First there was the Algonquin, where the New Yorker crowd held court and heads of hardcover houses lunched with their prize writers. Then came the Four Seasons. Now, with the recent downtown relocation of some old-time power presses, the Union Square Cafe has become the neighborhood restaurant in a very literary neighborhood. Both Strauses (Roger senior and Roger junior) of Farrar, Straus and Giroux are regulars, as is F.S.G. author Susan Sontag. (Owner Danny Meyer makes sure to stock three kinds of oysters especially for the senior Straus, who "robs us of two dozen daily!") Carl Navarre, Morgan Entrekin, and Gary Fisketjon of the Atlantic Monthly Press run around the corner to get their Union Square fare, as do Abrams editor in chief Paul Gottlieb, Crown editor Betty Prashker,

Soho Press—er Juris Jurjevics, and a flock of Penguin people. So if you want to complain about an advance or push for a holiday pub date, make sure to speak softly and carry a breads tick. —A.J.

A.J.