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Show: Jazmine Sullivan “opening for Mary J. Blige is a perfect tonic for those who miss old Mary—you know, Mary before she said no to more drama, back when all her songs had at least one verse about all the crying she’d been doing. Sullivan has a very Mary-esque combination of intensity and vulnerability, and their big, throaty, gospel-trained voices are not dissimilar,” writes Jessica Hopper.
Dinner: Henri “The ‘energetically American, French-influenced’ Henri is more than an elegant follow-up to its boisterous neighboring sibling, the Gage. It’s a smart kick in the dangling prairie oysters of gastropubbery: chandeliers, Laguiole knives, velvet walls (with faux gator skin in the bathroom), salt and pepper shakers, ballotines, bouillabaisse, and escargots de Bourgogne?” writes Mike Sula. “If the food and drink at a place like this were to suck, we’d call it the whole thing antiquated, inauthentic, or even cynical. I’m going to call it neoclassical—and a pretty fun place to eat.”
