Manducatis

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Going to Manducatis (Latin for "you eat") is like going to a friend's house for dinner—except your friend is from Naples and really knows how to cook. And while the place may be known for its dining room, it feels more like one big living room, complete with lace curtains, houseplants aplenty, a wood-burning fireplace—and a fully stocked bar. Since 1977, this is where Vincenzo and Ida Cerbone have hosted the curators, sculptors, and painters from P.S. 1 Contemporary Art Center. Usually a place puts photos of its favorite (or famous) customers on the wall. But in the case of Manducatis, the reverse has happened: previously P.S. 1 exhibited eleven candids of Vincenzo and Ida surrounded by art types enjoying red wine and great food; the black-and-whites, taken by Howard Gross, date back to the late seventies, when the school building was getting made over while the Cerbones were renovating a German bar two blocks away. As Vincenzo puts it, "They were working in one mine and I was working in another." — Alexandra Ringe