WOW - thank you everyone for all your opinions! I genuinely appreciate it!

Hi all - can anyone throw out ideas of their favorite Italian restaurants in NYC? A friend who loves pasta wants to have a birthday dinner in the city tomorrow night and I just wanted to get people's thoughts. It does not necessarily have to be something old school, but something that looks nice and trendy inside with good food! Thanks in advance for your help!

A somewhat close friend of mine is in her 20's, an i-banker, attractive, drives a white SL Mercedes, and well is handicapped (not where she is in a wheelchair, however). She has told me of 2 incidences (one of which was from a police officer) where before she physically got out of the car, they harassed her for parking in a handicapped spot and tried to embarass her for doing something so low. Of course, 2 minutes later, she walks out of the car and everyone shuts up because its evident she has the right to park there. She doesn't say anything because she is probably too proud to say the handicapped word.

Anyways, my friend said she chocked it up to the fact that people don't expect her to be handicapped, nor do they expect handicapped people to drive 100k cars, but the point is, either way it sucks and it ruins her day. So, no reason to assume that a handicapped person doesn't drive a white Mercedes. I guess I just caution people to be careful in their jests. Because although there are alot of phonies taking advantage of the handicapped tags, you don't want to say or do the wrong thing to that one legitimate person who may have to much pride or not enough desire to correct you.

My 2 cents.