That's "kwaaah" not "coy"

"That's 'KWAAAHH' rather than 'COY'' "the reservationist gleefully sneers.

"We only serve ELEVEN courses in the DINING ROOM so you should anticipate at least an HOUR FOURTY FIVE for dinner." Like what, you think me the Mr. and out international gourmet buddies can't handle THAT? Bring it on Barbie.

"GOD I LOVE MY JOB " she thinks "some one had to knock these customers down a peg before they get here, and I am just the extremely important Hostess to do it!"

At the door, greeted by no one other than our dinner partners who are dry and stuffed away alone a corner, we think to ourselves this could be a mistake.

A thirsty thirty minutes later, seated in what looks and feels like business class on a PANAM airliner, we are told Coi is an archaic French word for "Sanctuary" (which is apparently why they decided to locate it in the middle of the Strip Clubs and Adult Video arcades on Broadway) a sanctuary from smut we surmise. The waiter tells us that the menu is always based on a concept that the chef puts a lot of "cerebral thought" into. Now we are really afraid, maybe Barbie was right, this isn't for folks like us.

But then there was the food.

The menu was based on summer memories, and each and every one of the courses truly brought back summers past in way that was startlingly moving. Consider that the four diners from Maryland and Massachussetts (the Mr. and I), Spain and Uruguay (our gourmet buddies) met in San Francisco and have never spent summers together. We have all at different times experienced Tokyo during the summer but that is the only culinary thread running through the group - and yet every course held a true and vivid memory for each of us. That dinner was a very special experience, each new taste taking us somewhere for a moment. The items were sometimes amusing or just odd sounding at first - but every single bite delivered an experience that transcended time and place, that stirred discussion, that pleased and intrigued us.

Just by way of example, the first course entitled "Summer frozen in time " was an intensely salty and sweet plum granita that made us all think being kids at the beach all day. Covered in sand and so saturated with salt water that when you'd eat your icee or popsicle you would inevitably lick some salt off your hand too. The Mr. and I agree that it might be the best if not one of the top 3 or 4 dining experiences we have ever had. Sat down at 9 and finished at 1:15 and it seemed like just a moment in time.