ARTS & MANNERS

How many cookies do you buy for an afternoon party of six thousand people? How do you fix picnic box suppers for three thousand? A problem of logistics, one would say, which recently confronted Guenther Schnee, the director of the restaurants in New York’s Metropolitan Museum. The first occasion was the Metropolitan’s annual garden party for its members at the Cloisters, the part of the Museum that not only displays medieval art, but is medieval art high over the Hudson. The second occasion was a Midsummer Night Fete on the same day, at the same place. At the garden party, which was to last from two until six, and which was embellished by Renaissance madrigals sung by the Prague Madrigal Singers, the refreshments— the cookies and non-alcoholic punch— were free; for the picnic box supper (which was repeated a week later for another three thousand people) the members paid $4 each; they also got wine and Italian bubbly, which had been contributed to the affair, as well as strolling musicians, magicians, singers and a unicorn to entertain them.

The Metropolitan has four restaurants; two are public and two for its employees. The big one, with a large pool with spot-lit dancing figures by Carl Milles around which the tables are grouped, is a very pleasant place for luncheon and dinner (the latter only on Tuesday and Friday nights, when the Museum stays open). You get your food cafeteria-style, but the tables are set with cloths, there are plenty of polite waiters to carry and clear, and there is a bar. The food is not expensive and it is good: cold salmon with cucumber salad comes to $3.25, prime roast beef with baked potato and sour cream and vegetables to $3.75, and cheese cake to 75 cents— this at dinner; at lunch $2.35 is tops for the cold salad plates. The dark brown walls produce a soothing atmosphere, the fountain’s waters make background music—it is a very nice place to sit and eat in between bouts with Kunst, or to ignore the Kunst for an agreeable dinner a deux or enfamille. The second public restaurant is rather a snack bar, in the children’s museum, with the kind of food kids like.

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Nika Hazelton

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How many cookies do you buy for an afternoon party of six thousand people? How do you fix picnic box suppers for three thousand? A problem of logistics, one would say, which recently confronted Guenther Schnee, the director of the restaurants in New York’s Metropolitan Museum. The first occasion was the Metropolitan’s annual garden party for its members at the Cloisters, the part of the Museum that not only displays medieval art, but is medieval art high over the Hudson. The second occasion was a Midsummer Night Fete on the same day, at the same place. At the garden party, which was to last from two until six, and which was embellished by Renaissance madrigals sung by the Prague Madrigal Singers, the refreshments— the cookies and non-alcoholic punch— were free; for the picnic box supper (which was repeated a week later for another three thousand people) the members paid $4 each; they also got wine and Italian bubbly, which had been contributed to the affair, as well as strolling musicians, magicians, singers and a unicorn to entertain them.

The Metropolitan has four restaurants; two are public and two for its employees. The big one, with a large pool with spot-lit dancing figures by Carl Milles around which the tables are grouped, is a very pleasant place for luncheon and dinner (the latter only on Tuesday and Friday nights, when the Museum stays open). You get your food cafeteria-style, but the tables are set with cloths, there are plenty of polite waiters to carry and clear, and there is a bar. The food is not expensive and it is good: cold salmon with cucumber salad comes to $3.25, prime roast beef with baked potato and sour cream and vegetables to $3.75, and cheese cake to 75 cents— this at dinner; at lunch $2.35 is tops for the cold salad plates. The dark brown walls produce a soothing atmosphere, the fountain’s waters make background music—it is a very nice place to sit and eat in between bouts with Kunst, or to ignore the Kunst for an agreeable dinner a deux or enfamille. The second public restaurant is rather a snack bar, in the children’s museum, with the kind of food kids like.