"The story of how Union Square Cafe, the famous restaurant in New York, became as important to my family as it is to the national restaurant industry begins, in a way, before I was born. Even though my brother, sisters, and I were raised in what we considered a boring suburb of Hartford in the 1980s, my mother always subscribed to New York magazine."
"My mother doesn't regret devoting her adult life to raising four children while my father worked in an office. I think she could have been secretary of state or a distinguished professor of literaturebut then, as she says, us kids might not have turned out as wonderfully as we did. New York was important to her, a girl who grew up working-class in the 1950s and early 60s and used to ride the bus into downtown Hartford to shop at G. Fox department store as a teenager on special occasions."
Union Square Cafe became central to a family's identity through a mother's enduring fascination with New York. The mother subscribed to New York magazine while raising four children in a Hartford suburb, using the magazine as an emotional escape and connection to the city. Family trips to New York exposed the children to museums, Broadway, shopping, and restaurants. The mother prioritized home life, cooking dinners from scratch nearly every night and choosing family over a potential professional career. Her working-class upbringing and seasonal trips to downtown Hartford shaped her appreciation for urban culture and food, which she passed to her children.
Read at www.esquire.com
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