Out & About covers the events where notable, powerful and influential figures gather. Plus the outfits. This week: a reunion for “The Sopranos” cast and a gathering for the podcast “Nota Bene.”
A Family Dinner on Mulberry Street
On Wednesday night, in Little Italy, cast and crew members of “The Sopranos,” which premiered 25 years ago this week, gathered for dinner at Da Nico, an old red sauce restaurant on Mulberry Street. The celebratory feast was held alongside an anniversary nostalgia tour for the show, with fan events and special screenings.
“It’s like heaven. It’s extraordinary being with these people,” David Chase, the creator and executive producer of the series, said as guests mobbed the bar around him. He added that he hadn’t seen many of them in years.
Some 75 people packed into Da Nico, a family-owned restaurant that opened in 1993, where “Sopranos” stars Michael Imperioli and Steve Schirripa are cherished regulars.
Bartenders poured “Sopranos”-labeled Chianti, waiters offered baby-caprese appetizers, and figures like Steven Van Zandt, who played Silvio Dante, and Steve Buscemi, who worked as an actor and director on the series, wove through the crowd. (Some of the show’s most recognizable faces did not make it.)
“I wanted to make sure I was here because I don’t know if this is going to be the last reunion,” said Mr. Schirripa, who played Bobby Baccalieri on the series.
The evening also felt bittersweet, he said, following the recent deaths of castmates like Frank Vincent and Tony Sirico.
Lorraine Bracco, who played Tony Soprano’s psychiatrist, Dr. Jennifer Melfi, said that she looked back fondly on the years she spent with the crowd in the room. “I shared a big part of my life. They watched my children grow up and graduate and have children and get married and so it continues to be a very large, looming family.”
Matthew Weiner, the creator of “Mad Men,” who worked on “The Sopranos” for several years, said that he still sees Mr. Chase in Los Angeles.
Mr. Chase’s writing advice stuck with him: “David would always say, ‘if we like it, they’ll like it. If we understand, they’ll understand it. We are the audience.’”
After cocktail hour, the group moved to a private room upstairs, for dishes like Carmela’s Baked Ziti and Satriale’s Special Calabrese. For the next few weeks, these menu items and others inspired by the series will be available at Da Nico, which will also have a special Sopranos-themed red dinner booth.
James Gandolfini, who starred in the series as Tony Soprano, died in 2013. But at the gathering, Mr. Gandolfini’s son, Michael, who played a younger version of Tony in “The Many Saints of Newark,” hung out by a wall stacked with wine bottles, eagerly introducing people to his girlfriend. One of his father’s old cast mates approached and asked, “How’s your Mama?”
As Mr. Gandolfini took in the scene, watching former crew members hug each other and plant cheek kisses, he grew reflective.
“I’m here not only as a fan of the show,” said Mr. Gandolfini. “But to honor all the cast members and what they have done.”
The Art World’s Podcast Hosts a Bash
Art dealers, painters and critics mingled on Monday night at the opening of a group show, “Friends of the Pod,” at Broadway Gallery in TriBeCa. The exhibition’s name nodded to the podcast that organized the event: “Nota Bene,” a weekly talk show hosted by two art world insiders, Nate Freeman and Benjamin Godsill, who discuss the industry’s news and gossip with the kind of breathlessness that might befit Siskel and Ebert — if they’d hung out downtown.
“Friends of the Pod,” which runs until Feb. 3, features the works of artists who have appeared as guests on “Nota Bene” or who have been discussed regularly on the podcast, with pieces provided by art stars like Rashid Johnson, Sterling Ruby and Jonas Wood. Mr. Freeman is a culture correspondent at Vanity Fair and Mr. Godsill is a prominent art adviser.
“We’re true insiders, Nate as a journalist and me as an adviser,” Mr. Godsill said. “Our listenership ranges from heads of the biggest art fairs to the owners of small galleries on the Lower East Side.”
“There’s lots of obfuscation in the art world, and we’re trying to bring transparency to it,” Mr. Freeman said. “We’re here to tell you what’s really happening behind the scenes.”
Hanging out near his own painting, the artist Andrew Kuo sipped a tall boy of Carlsberg. And the critic Dean Kissick considered a painting of oysters by Hilary Pecis and a sculpture by Tony Matelli of a Roman-style bust covered with celery sticks and an eggplant.
“That food appears in these works, in a way, mirrors what ‘Nota Bene’ is about, because a big part of the podcast is talking about going to dinner,” Mr. Kissick said. “That’s because a big part of the art world is about going to dinner. Dinner is how the art world works.”
Admiring a piece by the painter and sculptor Sam Moyer was Bridget Finn, the director of Art Basel Miami Beach. “I was just listening to a new ‘Nota Bene’ episode on my way here,” Ms. Finn said. “They always get the inside scoop.”
Attendees soon walked through the cold to a nearby after-party at a dimly lit bar in Chinatown, the River. Trays of pickled cauliflower, beets and green beans were offered to guests like Rachel Tashjian, a fashion writer for The Washington Post, and Noah Horowitz, the chief executive of Art Basel. Gutes Guterman, the co-editor of the web publication Byline and a founder of The Drunken Canal, sipped an old-fashioned and wore a sequined scarf.
Clad in a dark suit, Max Hollein, the director of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, maneuvered through the crowd to reach the bar. “I listen to the show from time to time,” he said. “It’s two buddies talking. I find it quite fun and relaxing.”
As midnight approached, the scene embodied the podcast’s subject matter: gallerists and artists sat in dark corners of the room drinking tongue-loosening martinis while they talked business and traded gossip. Mr. Freeman and Mr. Godsill were busy chatting with their fans, but they weren’t off the clock, keeping a close ear to the whispers around them.
