Our story today is called "About a Place Called Gabrielle's". It was written by Robert Paul Smith. Here is Shep O'Neal with the story. There are a hundred places in New York like Gabriel's. Up front is a small bar, in back there are a few booths and a half of dozen tables, the husband is the cook, and the wife takes care of the bar. It has a name which is the first name of the husband or the wife or the town where they came from -- Lois, Tony's, Estelle's, or Maria's, or the Calaberian or the Belonia. To many people in New York, one of these places is the nearest thing to home they would never know. People in New York have two neighborhoods, the one where they work, and the one where they live. The way the city is one man's office is next to another man's home. And the street that is one man's place to make a dollar is also another man's place to make a life. So, each of these little restaurants has two complete and different groups of customers, the lunch people and the dinner people. The lunch people are the ones who work in the neighborhood, they appear during the middle of the day. The dinner people are the ones who live there; they appear at night after they finish work. They never meet although to both groups, the places home. Sometimes the place means so much to some people that they are neither lunch nor dinner people. They really live there. The city is their living room; the place is their dining room. One of the people who once felt that way about Gabrielle's is a man named Jeff Cobby.
我们今天要讲述的故事叫做《关于一个叫加布里埃尔的地方》，作者罗伯特·保罗·史密斯，讲述人谢普·欧·尼尔。在纽约，有一百个地方像加布里埃尔那样的地方，前面是一个小酒吧，后面有几个包厢和六张桌子，丈夫是厨师，妻子负责酒吧。它的名字，是丈夫或妻子的名字，或是他们来自的城镇的名字——露易丝、托尼、埃斯特勒、玛丽亚、卡拉贝里安或贝罗尼亚。对纽约的许多人来说，其中一个这样的地方是他们永远不知道的离家最近的地方。纽约客有两个聚集区，一个是他们工作的地方，另一个是他们居住的地方。在这座城市中，一个人的办公室紧挨着另一个人的家。一个人挣钱的地方就是另一个人谋生的地方。所以，每个小餐馆都有两个完全不同的顾客群体，午餐就餐者和晚餐就餐者。吃午餐的人是在附近工作的人，他们中午来。吃晚饭的人是住在那里的人；他们晚上下班后来。虽然对两个群体来说，这个地方算是他们的家，但他们从未谋面。有时，这个地方对某些人意义重大，他们既不是午餐者也不是晚餐者。他们是真的住在那里。城市是他们的客厅，这个地方是餐厅。一个曾经对加布里埃有过这种感觉的人，是一个叫杰夫·克比的人。
In a place like Gabrielle's the lunch people start coming into eat about twelve thirty. Gabrielle makes the drinks at the bar; she also takes the money. Every day about noon, she begins to worry. If the regular people are not regular, there will soon be no such place as Gabrielle's. It is good to have people coming in off the street, but it is the regulars those who come in everyday who are important. So Gabrielle worries until the six men from the office around the corner come in, and thank God, filled the corner table. These are the people she can depend on. Then in walks the man who comes alone. He eats whatever fish there is, reads the newspaper, and drinks a half bottle of wine everyday. And here is the young man and young woman who have been coming for two whole months now. They are in love Monday, Wednesday, and Thursday. They have a violent fight every Friday. Gabrielle wonders what they do on Tuesday.
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