Fly on the Wall—Power Couple With Ice Cream and McSteamy at the Beach

Ran into one of my favorite power married couples in media on the street in NY Thursday night. Variety Associate Editor Phil Gallo and his wife Betsy Bergman, VP of marketing for NBC Universal Television Domestic Television Distribution, were walking on 31^st near Madison, ice cream cones in hand. They’re L.A.-based but were both in town for work and heading back to their hotel.

They had dinner on the lower East side at a casual place that has different microbrews and Belgian beers called Spitzer’s Corner (named for the previous occupant of the space, not the Governor) near where Phil was seeing some bands, Phil says. On their walk back they saw a Baskin Robbins and got some of the good stuff.

Also while in town, Phil had lunch at Jean-Georges with Universal Music execs; dinner at Babbo; breakfast at Michael’s, where plenty of music execs were on hand; and dinner at Great Jones Café for – what else – Cajun food, he tells me.

Phil and I worked together at Variety years ago, and covered NATPE together a time or two. (Phil and Betsy met at a NATPE convention in Las Vegas.) He likes food and drink like I do, and knows a lot about it. I will never forget that he introduced me to the best Po Boy I ever ate while we were in New Orleans for the convention one year. We sat at the bar, it was off a side street and unfortunately neither of us can recall the name of it. Phil says he’s sure it’s not Mother’s, because they only have tables, but that is always a good bet for a Po Boy in New Orleans too.

I sampled an entirely different round of NY restaurants from Phil while in town for the week for B&C’s 18^th annual Hall of Fame (Filet Mignon or some such delicious beef was served at the event at the Waldorf-Astoria, more on that soon) and our Sixth annual Hispanic Television Summit, which we present with our sister pub Multichannel News (chicken that was truly good to eat at the NY Hilton). 

Two different people pointed me in the direction of TV personalities’ restaurants, Anthony Bourdain’s Les Halles on Park Ave and Bobby Flay’s Mesa Grill. The waiter at Mesa Thursday night said we just missed Bobby, he was in the restaurant the night before.  

I also ate a few room service breakfasts while staying at Hotel Chandler, which offered our best corporate rate for my stay; I discovered by watching Bravo on my flight into NY that the hotel is run by a castmember of Real Housewives of New York City, “housewife” Alex McCord’s hubby Simon van Kempen. I never saw Simon but I was also pretty in and out of there.

Had a really nice dinner at Pomodoro on Columbus Ave, too. Hands down, though, the best thing I ate all week: A hot dog from a cart by the Bethesda Fountain in Central Park. 

UPDATE — Super Fly Correspondent Spots McSteamy: Also last week, Eric Dane aka McSteamy from Grey’s Anatomy was having lunch on Friday in Santa Monica at Coast, the beachside restaurant at Shutters on the Beach Hotel. He was with another man, “older, who I didn’t recognize,” and picked up the check, according to one Super Fly tipster who would like to remain anonymous. (For those of you who know who I know, the tipster did mention she was glad to see McSteamy was tall in person … )

Fly on the Wall – Someone’s Not Fasting 
Fly on the Wall – Mel’s Diner Goes to NY