The New York Diet

Actor Josh Hamilton Plays a Clam Digger, Doesn’t Eat Shellfish

“Manganaro’s is one of my favorite places — an oasis in the ever depressing mall-ification of New York.”haha Photo: Melissa Hom


Josh Hamilton has appeared in everything from indie classics such as Noah Baumbach’s Kicking and Screaming to studio flicks such as The Bourne Supremacy to TV shows such as Sex and the City. In Diggers, out today, he plays a Long Island clam harvester. Ironically, Hamilton wasn’t eating any shellfish at the premiere party, since he’s a “don’t-ask-don’t-tell vegetarian”: “I’m sure I eat chicken stock sometimes,” he says, “because I just don’t bother to ask. I know that must sound wildly hedonistic.” As it turns out, Hamilton’s latest week of eating was rather indulgent — even as he was performing in Tom Stoppard’s Coast of Utopia, he somehow found time to hit more restaurants than most of us do in a month.

Wednesday, April 25
We ate everything at home, which always feels like sort of an accomplishment. My girlfriend, Lily, made scrambled eggs and toast (eggs from Blue Ribbon, bread from Amy’s) and coffee. Later I had fresh mozzarella on whole-wheat toast at home. At 6:30 p.m. we made red rice, black beans, avocado, and steamed kale — a solid pre-show meal. Then at midnight a really good cupcake from ‘sNice. It’s a great vegetarian sandwich place. I go through phases where I eat there every day.

Tuesday, April 24
I had coffee and Nature’s Path Optimum Power cereal at home and a soy latte from Empire Coffee. We had auditions for a new play by my friend Jonathan Marc Sherman that is going up next fall, so at 3 p.m. we had lunch at the West Bank Café, an old standby on Theater Row. I had a portobello panini with a spinach salad. Later Lily and I split a green-tea yogurt with mango from Pinkberry and walked around.

Around 6:45 p.m. we had cheese ravioli with butter and a salad at home and some tasty Italian cookies from Manganaro’s. It’s one of my favorite places — an oasis in the ever-depressing mall-ification of New York. It’s been open since 1893 and has been in the same family for four generations. They have great homemade pasta and sandwiches.

Monday, April 23
I had coffee and Optimum Power cereal. Around 1 p.m. I had leftover Indian food, then did press for Diggers at the Regency Hotel and nibbled on cookies and stuff. On the way home I stopped at Manganaro’s. I had cheese-and-mushroom tortellini and a limonata.

That night was the Diggers premiere, and I had some cheese and crackers and little tomatoes and some wine at a pre-movie thing and then some vodka at the post-movie party. It was at Lure Fishbar, which meant there was nothing for me to eat. At one point I think someone put a lobster hors d’oeuvre in my mouth. When I got home around 2:30, I had cold tomato soup from Tea and Sympathy with leftover basmati rice mixed in.

Sunday April 22
I had brunch with Lily and our son at 5 Ninth. I had skillet eggs with mushrooms and a latte. A lazy day. At 7 p.m. we ordered in from Lassi. This is some of my favorite Indian food. I had tofu in tomato curry, chickpeas with banana raita, potato naan, and some mascarpone-chocolate-chip cake, which didn’t seem very Indian but damn was it good.

Saturday, April 21
We had a marathon — all three Coast of Utopia shows starting at 11 a.m. — so at 9:45 a.m. I had coffee, a red grapefruit, and Optimum Power cereal. I brought a few bags of apple-cider donuts to the theater and had a couple of those. Between shows one and two, I ran home and had some fantastic spanakopita that Lily had made the night before and some fried potatoes and some orange juice mixed with water. On marathon days, the theater caters in food; I had some rigatoni with eggplant, mashed sweet potatoes, and grilled asparagus and then mango and blueberry sorbet with chocolate-chip cookies. At midnight I had vodka gimlets and onion strings with the cast at the new P.J. Clarke’s on 64th Street.

Friday, April 20
I had coffee and Nature’s Path Optimum Power cereal at home. It was a power breakfast. It was a really nice day so Lily and I walked around with our baby, and at 2:15 p.m. I had Thai black rice with edamame and a spinach- and-piquillo-pepper tamale from Rice on Mott Street. I love tamales, and it’s hard to find good vegetarian ones. Later we split a butter, sugar, and cinnamon toast from Blue Ribbon Bakery. Then I had a blood orange. They blew my mind when I was kid, and I still find them sort of amazing.

At 7 p.m. I had a tofu club with avocado instead of onions from ’sNice. At the Coast of Utopia, I had some Darjeeling tea, which apparently is the Champagne of black teas. At home after the show, I had some red wine and mint-chocolate Newmans O’s.

Actor Josh Hamilton Plays a Clam Digger, Doesn’t Eat Shellfish