Cafe Opaline

We ventured out with the baby in his new stroller last weekend, to the Dahesh museum near the IBM atrium in midtown. They have an exhibit of early photography right now, more sociological than artistic, although there were a couple of great photographs by unknown photographers. The permanent collection at the museum is really small and even on a Saturday afternoon there weren't a lot of people there, which made it good for a couple with a stroller child.

On the second floor overlooking Madison Avenue is Cafe Opaline, which serves an afternoon tea as well as sandwiches, pizzas and salads. Some of the dishes seem to have a Mediterranean bent, then there's basic dishes, like my crab salad, which was undressed crab meat arranged on a plate with avocado cubes, capers and mixed greens in radicchio cups. Sounded much better than it ended up being, mainly because there was no seasoning or dressing on the crab or avocado. Looking around the table at others' plates gave me the impression that's common. The banana bread pudding I had, with ice cream, was mushy but delicious, if only the baby had let me enjoy it fully (2 hours in a museum plus 2 hours at lunch was too much to ask of him).

But the setting was beautiful and the teas were fragrant and wonderful. I think I'd like to try their tea service sometime. And off hours there was plenty of space for our stroller, although the service was pretty bad in the late afternoon, too.