My Last Night At Elaine’s

Jodi Garner

Jodi Garner is the author of “The 45-Year Old Intern” published in The 52 Weeks by Karen Amster-Young and Pam Godwin (Skyhorse Publishing 2014). Jodi is also the producer of The Smart Kids Guide to Grownups, Off-Broadway, in production; associate producer, Disaster! A 70s Disaster Movie Musical, Broadway, in production; associate producer, The Jazz Singer, Off-Broadway, in production; producer Danny Boy, 2005 New York Fringe Festival Audience Favorite; and associate producer, Stephen Schwartz’s Captain Louie, Off-Broadway. Jodi is also a board member of The W. Eugene Smith Memorial Fund for Humanistic Photography. Jodi lives in New York City with her fourteen-year-old twins and was at Elaine’s on the last night before it closed in May 2011.

B, R, AND our friend A, who had also joined us many a night at Elaine’s from 2004 through the end, and all of whom always stayed way later than me, were on hand for the last night at Elaine’s. B made all the arrangements for us to get in that night and she, R, and A got there early. I had to get the babysitter settled so I arrived later. By the time I got there, a crowd had gathered, the likes of which I hadn’t before seen in front of Elaine’s. TV crews and cameras were on hand to document this momentous occasion. While there was a festive air in Elaine’s that night, a tribute to when Elaine’s was Elaine’s, there was also a sadness. Elaine’s was a refuge; a community. For the regulars, holdovers from the go-go years, and the more recent additions like myself when almost anyone could get a table along the wall, there was almost a nervous merriment. What would happen to us all when Elaine’s was gone? Where would we all go to be connected, to be a part of the community?

I wasn’t particularly sad that last night. Elaine and Elaine’s had come into my life for a season and a reason. Elaine’s was there when I needed it and Elaine Kaufman was Elaine’s.

Without Elaine, there just couldn’t be anymore Elaine’s.