A duck out of the fashion and art parties swirling around the City as the Armory, Clio, Art on Paper and other smaller shows launch alongside Fashion Week, led to a discovery of a cozy little Argentinian restaurant called Porteno, which is what the locals in Buenos Aires call themselves. Two large televisions playing the Argentine-Chile soccer match were seemingly background lights to the ten tables and bar filled with diners enjoying the surprisingly reasonably priced and surprisingly not beef based Argentine fare, that is, until a goal was made and seemingly out of nowhere nearly everyone shouted, cheered, and sang that sing-songy ayay-ayayoyayoyay that permeates soccer games across the glob, outside the US. A quick snack turned into a transportive moment, watching these happy fans take a moment away from their otherwise New Yorker lives to flash back to their home base and cheer their futbol team to victory. For a moment we felt like we were somewhere else, the camaraderie in the room was joyous. Then we paid up and stepped back out into the City, dodging the rush of traffic and wizzing bikes of Tenth Avenue, and the moment was a memory in an instant.
Malbec & Soccer Triumph
