Bonnie Slotnick Cookbooks

If you want to cocoon yourself - temporarily at least - in an older corner of the Village, & pretend that a Bloomberg era city is just a bad dream, the magic Tenth Street trifecta of Julius, Three Lives & Co., & Bonnie Slotnick Cookbooks will do the job.  The Greenwich Village Historical Society once cited Three Lives as "a haven of civility", but really, all of these places deserve the praise. In comparison to the other two, Bonnie's Slotnick's is a newcomer, having only been there for a dozen years, but Bonnie is a long-time Village resident with an encyclopedic knowledge of food and city life, and the store, a book-crammed parlor floor, feels as if it's been there for ever.  This is the rare kind of bookstore - a salon really - where you can have a long conversation with the owner, and the quietly witty Bonnie is a real pleasure to talk to. You can hang out here browsing as long as you like, & whether your tastes are scholarly, professional, down-home American, or kitsch, there'll be something you want to buy. The collection ranges from rare antiquarian books, to an equally rare and valuable document I bought for a buck: a take out menu from Fine & Schapiro (Call TR 7-2721) , which included oven roasted pullets and spring chickens, tzimmes, charassis, kishke a la Fine & Schapiro, and home made rhubarb with apples and strawberries.