Rudy’s Beau Rivage

OUT OF BUSINESS. The building has been knocked down after being practically abandoned and then suffering a fire.

At my dad’s retirement party (Congrats, Dad!) here last week, I was transported back to a fragile time in the life of Lex C. Let’s set the scene.
Rudy’s Beau Rivage, 1995, when I guess yellow and brown stained glass ceilings are de rigeur. A bat mitzvah in the era of many bat mitzvahs. I am probably wearing my pink dress, overlayed with white lace in a butterfly design, and pink strappy shoes from Joyce Leslie. No, wait, it’s December, so it’s probably the brown corduroy jumper with the huge yellow sunflower on the front from the Lord and Taylor kid’s section, matched with white tights.
1995, so it’s too early even for the macarena. It must have been the electric slide, «It’s raining men,» and «That’s what friends are for,» and the professional dancers, in tuxedo jackets and tight pants, are pumping up the crowd. My girlfriends and I are in the bathroom making a memory glass with melted candle wax. Girls in palazzo pants are huddled in circles, talking about which boys look cute in their suits. Someone is in tears because she lost her favorite pink scrunchie. I’m pushing up my huge tortoise shell glasses on my nose, wondering what kind of cake there’ll be.
Thanks to the lack of renovation and unchanged interior of Rudy’s Beau Rivage, I was 13 again last week. For this painful experience (and wholly mediocre food), I bestow 2 stars to Rudy’s.
Oy vey.