A few things are clear from Grub Street's profile of Socialista co-owner Armin Amiri's eating habits. First, dude's crazy. He has more eating disorders than Karen Carpenter and more guilt issues than Woody Allen.
Wednesday, July 4I went through a bit of a cleanse. I started with green tea, and I basically stayed on juice the whole day. I had fruit in the afternoon and didn't eat anything for dinner. I left work early -- around 12:30 a.m. -- so it was all right. Sometimes not really eating gives you more energy...Tuesday, July 3
I started at Panino with tea. I had a chocolate-almond croissant.
Around 3 p.m. I went to Elixir for juice. It's called a guilt trip. It makes me feel better about my lifestyle, especially being up late at night. Sometimes I have them put ginseng in it.
Then I went to Whole Foods and bought some raw nuts.
By way of explanation, on Sunday Amiri went to Raoul's and "was a "bad boy, and I also had chocolate cake." So for the rest of the week, like a penitent, he "cleansed" (fasted/punished himself with food). Also, FYI, it'll take a lot more than a juice with some ginseng in it to ablute your sins, Mr. Amiri. But that's just the start of the revelations.
Mr. Amiri also informs us that the menu at Socialista is Lilliputian. There are Cuban-style burgers: "They're very tiny, and the mustard and ketchup are already prepared in the meat. The French fries are on top of the meat and you close the bun on top." There are also Cuban sandwiches: "They're very tiny." Maybe the menu is trying to recapture that great and woefully underappreciated quality of Socialism that is food shortages.
The other thing we find out but knew all along is Amiri is, well....
It's really important not to have a pretentious place. If celebrities are here, great, enjoy, but we're not here strictly for that. The music is important to me— not having any hip-hop. I want it to be a place where great minds come together.
Oh, that explains the door policy. They're quizzing people on their reading interests. Tacitus? Yes. Danielle Steele? Sorry, nope.
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