"The Bridgehampton restaurant with it's bright and airy, laid back atmosphere has long been favored by Manhattanites, among them the rich and famous who have second homes in the Tony Resort area. After years of inquiries as to when Bobby Van's would come to New York City, a personal invitation by Leona Helmsley swayed owners to open a second location in her Park Avenue & 46th Street building." -- http://bobbyvans.com/rest_experience.php?r=1
The Boss was a big symbol of working class authenticity esp. during that awful 80s "heartland rock n' roll" movement that sucked in people like John Cougar Mellencamp and had people destroying imported Japanese cars, etc. Bruce is supposedly down with blue collar folk (tempting to say "volk" in this instance).
He's oddly attained a kind of cultural currency as a symbol of the US working class, hence why a lot of the left loved it when he did "American Skin ("41 Shots")" a few years ago about the police shooting of Amadou Diallo (even Maoists suddenly loved the guy, if I remember my bad left wing newspapers correctly from around the year 2000) and the right hated it. He wasn't supposed to sing about how cops could be bad; he was supposed to wave a flag from the back of a Ford truck while wearing sleeveless flannel or something. Like how the Dixie Chicks were also supposed to be God & Country, but went off that script for a little while. Still, Bruce has a lot of cultural cache as a volk symbol; eating at Bobby Van's is kinda funny, like imagining Dubya the rugged Texas rancher as a Yale male cheerleader in a white collegiate sweater.
-B.
Carrol Cox wrote:
"So?"
Doug Henwood wrote:
"[from the Post's Page Six "Sightings" feature] BRUCE Springsteen, in Bridgehampton to see daughter Jessica compete in the Hampton Classic, posing with fans after dining in a back corner of Bobby Van's . . ."