In celebration of our first year on the Internet, The Black Table cordially invites all of our readers, contributors, supporters and friends to a party this coming Friday. (Yes, this means you.) Please stop by and say hello, so we can thank you for preventing us from being a tree that fell, unseen and unheard, in these vast electronic woods. Without your letters and comments and traffic to sustain our meager egos, we would have thrown ourselves into the dustbin months and months ago, when the work began to eat into the time we usually spend drinking. In conclusion, please, please, please, please come to our party! Please. Here are the details:

Friday, January 9, 2004, from 6 p.m. until 10 p.m.
…then perhaps even later, since there will be dancing and even more people at the bar as midnight approaches. Come early to taste complimentary samples of the bar's excellent pub-influenced cuisine or show up late to have drunken, struggling writers flirt with you.

Pioneer Bar at 218 Bowery, between Spring & Prince.
…which is not only right around the corner from Black Table World Headquarters, but also has its own Website, a listing on CitySearch, and is accessible by many, many trains, including the 6, N, R, J, M, Z, V, F…