Suddenly, the Women Got Up and Wished Me a Good Night '

This week’s Metropolitan Diary gathers several New York City moments, from a long-sought dinner aspiration to quick street-level mysteries. At Rao’s, a notoriously hard-to-book Italian restaurant on Pleasant Avenue near East 114th Street, a writer finally gets a bar seat after years on a wish list. The bartender refuses bar dining—unless one waits, with a list said to be 10 years—so the night becomes drinks and conversation with two women from the neighborhood. Afterward, the writer eats White Castle sliders while walking home. Elsewhere, another diary tale recounts spotting a single sneaker on a subway platform until a man exclaims it’s his.