December 6

I am not a morning person, and regardless of what I may or may not have done last night I did not appreciate having to go to the opening of David Burke at Bloomingdale's at 8:30 this morning.
It's a dual-concept place. On the right is a fast-casual sandwich-salad-pizza shop. On the left is a wine bar and restaurant. Servers were squirting David Burke's new flavor sprays on various items — bacon flavor on the omelettes, for example.
I had difficulty sustaining conversation so early in the morning, but I did manage to meet a guy who said in a Russian accent that belied his claim to have been in the U.S. for 26 years: "I am inventor."
It turns out that he invented the trays on which the prosciutto-and-fruit skewers were being passed. He said they actually were meant to be little individual tables for people to carry around at parties. They were easy-grip pedestals with lipped trays that had room for your plate, glass and fork, so you could hold them comfortably, shake the hands of new people and otherwise be freed up to be as gregarious as you like while carrying food around. It even had a light in the center, in case a nighttime party moved outside. Imagine them at a picnic, or a concert, or in a dark bar.
One of the staff members seemed concerned that Russian Inventor was playing with one of their trays and politely took it away from him and began offering the skewers to guests.