This is a photo from a storm last year around this time. The scene outside the window today is much more white. I love the snow, albeit more so when I am in the mountains than in the city or the suburbs. That said, today’s storm is a nice forced moment to stay inside and think, something that is hard to do with such busy lives.

Over the last week, I have seen changes to New York City that brought me back to my first year in town, right after college. I used to live on 13th street and University. Back in those days, my world was about law school and being a paralegal. I had a homeless man living on my stoop who used to make little circles out of matches and leave them for us. The city was very different than as was my block.

Today 13th street is a thriving and hip place and the location of the great local for wine, Corkbuzz but back then, the arrival of a Korean run deli was a big deal. Sure we had Souen and the New York Health and Racquet club which are still there but nothing else that is on the street is the same. My sister went through a macrobiotic phase and I remember eating often in that place which seemed to me to be the opposite of joyful eating.

I was downtown on Thursday and saw that even Bowlmor, a famed bowling alley is gone. University between 12th and 13th is going to become one big development project. I also noticed that the Quad Cinema closed. All signs maybe of progress but the constantly changing landscape does take my breath away. I remember that in the back room of the apartment, the bowling alley sounded like an ocean and could help one get to sleep, except for Thursday when they would constantly announce “Ladies drink for free.” One restaurant that is still the same is Cafe Loup which brings me to another memory from that time, I only really drank French wine.

As a devoted francophile until I was around 22, the wines that I drank and thought of were all French. I was a French major, lived in Dijon in college and was obsessed with all things French and Burgundy. My uncle, also a great lover of French wines and a lawyer, had this bottle that I shared with my parents earlier this year.

Monthelie, in the Cote de Beaune has had an appellation since 1937. While mostly known for their red, pinot noir based wines, they also produced some good chardonnay. Not the most prestigious of Burgundy appellations but nonetheless, a nice expression of a very approachable Burgundy. I wish I had another bottle to share today during this blizzard. I think it would go well with the Risotto ai Funghi that I am making for lunch. Alas, we will have to drink something else.