Stephanie Danler

“I'm sick of that, I said. Young, young, young, that's what I get, all day, everyday. But I know your secret....You're all…

— Stephanie Danler

“I had created a life that was bent in service to all my personal cravings.”

— Stephanie Danler

“I knew from books, movies, and Sex and the City how I was supposed to answer. I’ve always dreamed of living here,…

— Stephanie Danler

“You can’t cultivate them. The farmers used to take female pigs out into the countryside, lead them to the oaks, and pray.…

— Stephanie Danler

“Remember this, I told myself. Remember how quiet today is. I had the newspaper, which I would keep for years, and I…

— Stephanie Danler

“My palms were damp. That was the moment I realized I wanted the job. That job, at that restaurant specifically.”

— Stephanie Danler

“These books were…I don’t know…totems of who I was….I…”

— Stephanie Danler

“I don’t know what it is exactly, being a server. It’s a job, certainly, but not exclusively. There’s a transparency to it,…

— Stephanie Danler

“The lilacs shed as I walked the bridge. My phone buzzed twice and I turned it off. The city was radiant and…

— Stephanie Danler

“You will develop a palate. A palate is a spot on your tongue where you remember. Where you assign words to the…

— Stephanie Danler

“You will stumble on secrets. Hidden all over the restaurant: Mexican oregano, looking cauterized, as heady as pot. Large tins of Chef’s…

— Stephanie Danler

“Every beautiful animal knows when it's being hunted.”

— Stephanie Danler

“Veiled melancholy has her sovereign shrine”

— Stephanie Danler

“When you’re older you will know that at some unconscious level not only did you see it coming, but you created it,…

— Stephanie Danler

“You will encounter a fifth taste. Umami: uni, or sea urchin, anchovies, Parmesan, dry-aged beef with a casing of mold. It’s glutamate.…

— Stephanie Danler

“How impossible it is to forget the stories we tell ourselves, even when the truth should supersede them.”

— Stephanie Danler

“I had a ritual—and having any ritual sounded so mature that I told everyone about it, even the regulars. On my days…

— Stephanie Danler

“I came here in a car like everybody else. In a car filled with shit I thought meant something and shortly thereafter…

— Stephanie Danler

“Get out of your head. If you don't you'll always be disappointed. Pay attention.”

— Stephanie Danler

“The sky was so blue. It’s only been five years. My skyline was never marked with an absence. Remember that wine school?…

— Stephanie Danler

“It's always the simple things, well executed, that are memorable.”

— Stephanie Danler

“Two-dollar beers that tasted like barely fermented, yeasty water. We salivated. There was no coursing - in ten minutes plates started pounding…

— Stephanie Danler

“It’s not hard to like these foods once you open your mouth to them: the anchovies, the trotters, the pig’s head terrines,…

— Stephanie Danler

“Does anyone come to New York clean? I'm afraid not. But crossing the Hudson I thought of crossing Lethe, milky river of…

— Stephanie Danler

“How am I going to live here? I wondered. Something is going to have to change, them or me.”

— Stephanie Danler