Time and Tempo

Last night, I met up with some friends of mine at Tempo , a new Italian restaurant on Fifth Avenue in Park Slope (where Cucina used to be). My hair stylist, Mark, had recommended it (one of his other clients is involved in it--either a partner or manager, I can't remember). But he's certainly not the only one (check the link to the New Yorker "Tables for Two" review). And it lived up to its reviews. While the restaurant has retained the chef from Cucina, the new incarnation is the collaborative creation of three Park Slope residents and restaurant industry veterans Robert Amato (Ilo, Babbo), Michael Elliott (Restaurant Serenade, Babbo) and chef Michael Fiore (Park Avenue Café, Becco). And their past experience is evident in the menu (which borrows liberally from Babbo's--including one of my personal faves: a Babbo special, pumpkin ravioli), the service (starched shirts and a roaming sommelier, whose recommendation, a 2002 Altos de Luzon Bodegas Finca, was excellent and worth the $38 price), and the decor (think Bolo but with more muted colors and a mellower, cooler crowd).
Seven of us -- spanning a decade in age, from 29 to 39 -- were there to celebrate our friend Stacie's 38th birthday. Park Slope seemed the perfect meeting spot, since four of us (including the birthday girl), live in Brooklyn (although it was faster for me to actually go into Manhattan and then back out to Brooklyn via subway then chaging subway lines in my own borough).
Stacie is probably my closest friend in NYC. She was also my first new friend, when I moved here in 1999. I'd met her a couple years earlier through a friend and NYC-transplant in Phoeniz, where I lived then.
Stacie and I have been on the same track for awhile now. We were each dating, though not seriously, when we first met. We were both seriously involved with someone by 2003. And she got married last July--3 weeks after I did (we were in each other's weddings). Since then, she's been on afaster track to familyhood. She got pregnant in September and she and her husband should have a new home by the time she delivers. She didn't want to wait to get pregnant, since she's approaching 40. And she and her husband are anxious to buy a house before the baby arrives. So far, they've written 5-figure down payment checks, then voided them, on at least two places: a townhome in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn, and a 3-bedroom home in Melville, Long Island. Her other friends and I--all of whom live in or near Manhattan--have been trying to convince her to stay in Brooklyn. Long Island seems so far away --both geographically and pyschologically. And she grew up in Brooklyn, lived for years in Manhattan, and still heads into the city at least 2-3 times a week. She celebrated her actual birthday at Serendipity 3 on the Upper East Side, a Manhattan institution famous for its desserts.
I worry that if she moves to Long Island, she'll feel isolated--especially after she has the baby and isn't able to travel far. But there is only so much I can say. This isn't my decision. I was happy , though,when she said last night that she might look at some places in Brooklyn Heights this week.