The National 9/11 Memorial Plaza at the World Trade Center site in New York (Richard B. Levine/Newscom)
During the year leading up to what we now solemnly refer to as “9/11”, I was a constant fixture at a downtown Manhattan restaurant that was at the time, the center of my social universe.
Given the proximity of the place near my East Village apartment, I spent many nights there meeting friends for dinner, or ending a late night of New York carousing at its bar for one last drink. The people who worked there were my friends. And as most who toil in the behind-the-scenes world of NYC restaurants, many of these friends were undocumented immigrants.
