Sir Patrick Stewart and My Baking

I was sorry to read of the death of Sir Patrick Stewart on Thursday. Although I never met him, we had a memorable missed connection – at least, memorable to me! In one of my first jobs in publishing, I was the New York City and Westchester sales representative for Penguin USA. My role was to visit all the bookstores and review all the forthcoming books with staff, coax them to order new books and reorder older titles (backlist). I loved visiting all these bookstores, although sometimes carrying heavy bags of catalogs and books all over town was less fun (we did not have computers yet and I did not have a car).

One of my favorite bookstores was the Drama Book Shop, owned by one of the sweetest couples I ever met, Arthur and Rozanne Seelen. He was a former actor who was known for his amazing collection of suspenders (I remember a pair with Romeo and Juliet illustrations that someone bought him). Rozanne had been an injured dancer needing a temporary job, and met Arthur at the store. You never knew who would be in the shop browsing – the first time I was there an action-hero actor called Dolph Lundgren hit on me and Rozanne came over to introduce us, maybe hoping for another bookstore romance.

That December before I headed home to Boston for Christmas, I made loaves of banana bread for all my favorite bookstore buyers in Manhattan but I ran out of bananas so baked brownies for Arthur and Rozanne. They were pleased to see me and urged me to stay – in an hour, Patrick Stewart was coming in to perform excerpts from his one man show of A Christmas Carol. Without complex costumes, sets, or makeup, Stewart single-handedly portrayed over 40 distinct characters (including Ebenezer Scrooge, Tiny Tim, and all the ghosts) while also serving as the narrator. It sounded fun but I had a train to catch, so I hugged them and dashed for Penn Station and Amtrak.

When I got back to my apartment, there was a message on my answering machine telling me that Patrick Stewart had arrived hungry, perhaps squeezing his visit between matinee and evening performance, and ate the entire box of brownies. According to Rozanne, he had never had one before, and said he was sorry he’d missed the baker! Me too – I could have caught him between marriages and imagine listening to that voice all the time!

Mystery Chef Brownies

½ cup margarine
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
2 ounces melted unsweetened chocolate
½ cup flour (there is no baking powder)
½ teaspoon vanilla

Combine in that order. Preheat your oven to 350°F (175°C). Lightly grease an 8-inch square baking pan. Bake about 25-30 minutes.

So that is how my brownies impressed a famous actor! Arthur died in 2000. Rozanne kept the shop open for years after his death but high rents in the theater district was going to force it to close in 2019 when Lin-Manuel Miranda, a frequent customer, organized a group to buy the store and keep it open. It is now located at 266 W 39th Street and I believe Rozanne, now 90, is still involved in the store.