The Grub Street Diet

Playwright Adam Rapp Relies on Kit Kat Bits, Gets His Veggies From the Juice Press

Adam Rapp outside Cafe Mogador.
Adam Rapp outside Cafe Mogador. Photo: Melissa Hom

Adam Rapp says his diet has been a little wonky this week, what with being in tech rehearsals for his latest play, HotelMotel, which opened for preview last night in one of the guest rooms at the Gershwin Hotel. “I don’t weigh myself compulsively, but I will weigh myself just to make sure that I’m staying healthy,” he tells Grub Street. “This week I haven’t played ball that much. I’ve only played once” — he usually plays basketball five times a week. “I was like, Oh, I probably put on a bunch of weight.” But, he says, “I lost weight. I was really surprised.” You’ll be surprised, too, once you’ve read through this week’s New York Diet, which includes plenty of Junior Mints, Reese’s Pieces, French fries, root beer, and booze — and that’s just Monday.

Friday, July 29
I had an iced coffee with milk from Atlas on Clinton Street, between Stanton and Houston. That’s where our rehearsal space was, over on Clinton Street. And then I had a chocolate brioche from the same place.

I walked home after rehearsal, and I had a Green Giant, which is a pressed juice from this place called the Juice Press that just opened up on my block, which I love. They do these pressed juices, and they’re really good. I’m trying to be healthy.

That was like a snack, and then I had more of a snack when I got home: I had five slices of hard sausage. I don’t know where it was from. I think my girlfriend got it somewhere and just left it in the fridge. And then I had an unidentified chocolate-chip cookie. Again, I think it was something that was brought home and left out, and I ate it. And then I had a coconut drink from the Juice Press.

I went back to rehearsal and we did a few more hours. And then, this’ll be fun: I went back to Clinton Street, and had the cavatelli and sausage at Frankie’s. That place is incredible. And then I had a side of broccoli rabe, and I had two glasses of Montepulciano red wine. That was probably around nine o’clock.

Saturday, July 30
I went to St. Dymphna’s on St. Marks Place for a brunch meeting. I had the eggs Norwegian. It’s basically, they put hollandaise sauce on salmon on an English muffin. And I had an Americano and a large glass of orange juice.

Then I had a slice of pepperoni pizza from Stromboli’s, on First Ave. and St. Marks. I had a juice from the Juice Press, a gazpacho juice. I had guilt because I went for pepperoni pizza, and I thought, Oh, that’s not going to be good for me and my cholesterol. I’ll go get a healthy juice from the Juice Press. I think I was doing a little of that.

After that I went to my rehearsal at the Gershwin Hotel, and I had a blueberry muffin from their coffee shop, and I had an iced coffee with milk. That was our first day in the Gershwin.

We needed to have Domino’s prop boxes for my hotel room, so the company ordered, like, six Domino’s pizzas, so I had three slices of Domino’s pizza. So that would have been my fourth slice of the day. I had two sausage and a slice of pepperoni. This is the embarrassing part: I had a bag of Kit Kat Bits, and then I had a bag of white Cheddar popcorn. We didn’t get out of there until about one o’clock, so the sugar comes in handy. Oh, and I also had a Boylan’s ginger ale.

Sunday, July 31
I got an iced cappuccino, and I got a sugar doughnut from Tarallucci, which is on First Avenue and 10th Street, which is right on my corner. Good place, good coffee.

Later, I had a tuna-fish sandwich on wheat from a deli on 29th and Fifth, and I had another Boylan’s, except I had root beer instead of ginger ale. And I had a bag of sea salt potato chips, Cape Cod. I was on my way back to the Gershwin, and I ate that during day two of tech.

We took our dinner break, and I had a Subway sandwich, which is probably not the best thing for me. I had a double meat ham and turkey with mayo, mustard, black olives, and salt and pepper. Then I came home at the end of my dinner break and I had three juices from the Juice Press. And they’re like seven bucks, and some of them are twelve bucks, so it’s almost like a nutritional meal replacement. That one I had — the Meal. It’s spinach, cucumber, celery, carrot, apple, spirulina … it says, “always chew while drinking our juice,” because there are chewy bits in it.

Then what happened was, we ended tech early, and I went to Great Jones Café with my assistant director and I met someone there for a meeting, and that’s where I had roast chicken, I had sautéed kale, two special margaritas, and I had a bourbon pecan pie with whipped cream. It was really good. That place is amazing.

Also, I take vitamins every night before I go to bed. I take a lot of them because, you know, I’m a middle-aged basketball player, so I take glucosamine and all this stuff to keep my knees good and all this stuff.

Monday, August 1
I had a late breakfast at Café Mogador, and I had the Moroccan eggs, which are my favorite breakfast. It’s a spicy tomato sauce, and it’s on poached eggs, and it comes with little triangles of pita. And I had an iced cappuccino.

Then I went back to the Gershwin Hotel, and as soon as I got there, I got another muffin, but this one was an apple goat cheese. It was actually pretty good. I decided not to have another source of caffeine, so instead I had a Boylan’s root beer. More teching, then I went back to that deli and got another tuna-fish sandwich on wheat, and I got another bag of potato chips, the same sea-salt ones. Then I got a coconut water, because I was realizing that I was not drinking enough water, and I needed to get really hydrated because I was having a lot of caffeine and not any water. When I’m in stressful situations, I go back to the same foods, so that’s what’s happening with the tuna sandwich, and also that turns into Kit Kat Bits.

Then that night, I met my girlfriend at ’ino, and I had a bunch of stuff there. I had fig and prosciutto, I had taleggio with sun-dried tomato pesto, I had braised fennel with tapenade, and summer squash, mint, and chile-flake bruschetta. And I had a glass of Montepulciano d’Abruzzo. And then I was still hungry, and I had an egg salad with asparagus tramezzini. Then we went to go see the new Miranda July movie at the IFC Center right around the corner, and I had a box of Junior Mints, and a bag of Reese’s Pieces, which is embarrassing. And I also had a large root beer.

Then we went to A.O.C. after the movie, which is on Bleecker, just west of Seventh Avenue, and we had a drink, and I had two French martinis. It’s like, pineapple juice and whatever else is in that martini. It was really hot, and it just seemed like that would be refreshing. And then I had some French fries, and I had a cheese plate, which was … You know what it is? I had a basketball game over the weekend, and sometimes I forget to eat. When I play I lose my appetite for several hours, and then my blood sugar drops and then I have to eat tons of stuff. I think that’s what happened; I hadn’t refueled enough, so I went into kind of a low blood sugar place after the movie, and I was starving, so we went there and I had two drinks and just put a bunch of bad food in me. But I love that place, too.

Tuesday, August 2
I got up pretty late. I went straight to the Gershwin Hotel. I had another blueberry muffin and another iced coffee with milk. It’s become my little ritual over there. Then we teched the show. We took a break, I came back home to walk my dog, and I had sardines in a can and drank a coconut water from the Juice Press, which was very good, and very good for me. Then I turned around and went back to tech after I walked the dog.

After tech, I went to the Ace Hotel, and in their lobby — because it was really, really late, around 1 a.m., and the restaurant had closed — I ordered their famous hamburger, and it was really, really good. I also had a Brooklyn IPA in the bottle, and I had a side salad. And then I went and met the cast and had another drink at the Crooked Knife, and I had a Stella.

Wednesday, August 3
I went to the hotel right away and I had another one of those apple muffins with goat cheese. And then I stopped at Momofuku and got the Momofuku ramen. I literally live around the corner from there.

We had an invited dress, so rehearsal didn’t go really, really, terribly late. I’m doing this project with Karen O of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, and we’re doing something at St. Ann’s Warehouse, and we’ve been meeting a lot at Great Jones Café because it’s halfway between our two places. So tonight I’m going to go there. I’ll have kale, and something not as healthy as kale.

Playwright Adam Rapp Relies on Kit Kat Bits, Gets His Veggies From the Juice