My birthday brunch Chez Oskar

Outside Chez Oskar with Bill and Michael

Inside Chez Oskar with Erin, Michael, Bill and Reema

Note the pretty rose in the Bellini

Chez Oskar is one of my favorite restaurants in  Brooklyn. An unpretentious French bistro, it serves marvelous French traditional dishes at reasonable prices.   Michael, Erin, and I all chose the salade nicoise composed of salmon rather than tuna.  Bill went with a classic French omelette and my niece Reema with eggs benedict.  We all appreciated our selections and finished our meal with a mouth watering warm flour-less chocolate cake.  What a fun week of dining out in the Big Apple!

After brunch, Bill and I head  to Tribeca to view  the Banksy in New York exhibit. According to Wikipedia, "Banksy is a pseudonymous England-based street, political activist and film director whose real name and identity remain unconfirmed and the subject of speculation."  I first learned about Banksy during a street art tour in Tel Aviv.  Israelis honor Banksy by dedicating  and preserving blocks and blocks of his art. Unfortunately,  Michael Bloomberg, Mayor of New York City, considered street art to be undesirable graffiti when Banksy did a residency in the city in 2013. Sadly,

a lot of Banksy's street art ended up destroyed.  But as the top photo's message states "THERE IS ALWAYS HOPE."