Joy Bryant is hungry. It's noon on a recent spring afternoon and the actress parks her fold-up bicycle in the entrance to the restaurant Gemma while we wait for our table. Gemma is the rustic Italian restaurant in The Bowery Hotel, a few blocks down from the Lafayette House where Bryant is staying while in town to be a judge at the Tribeca Film Festival. The actress started her morning with a Kundalini yoga class at Golden Bridge Yoga: "I woke up and went straight to yoga. I haven't eaten anything yet.” A tall glass of freshly-squeezed juice (half orange, half grapefruit) is rushed to our table with a pot of coffee. Joy continues, "We held one posture for 11 minutes today. That's the longest I've ever done. The posture wasn't that hard, but mentally it was. Your mind wants you to stop. So I got to push myself, which is great."

She explains that Kundalini yoga uses the breath of fire while holding various poses to strengthen and detoxify the mind and body. “In your life, the breath is the most important thing. The inhale and exhale,” she says, diving into a basket of warm coal-oven-baked bread that she dips into a plate of olive oil. The waiter comes over to read us the specials: “Grilled scallops with corn and red peppers. . .” he says. "That's what I'll have," Joy replies instantly.

Bryant was first introduced to Golden Bridge Yoga in LA, where the native New Yorker has lived for the last five years. "I had just broken up with this guy I was seeing and was bummed out. Around the same time, I got a role and had a couple of months to get my head together. I found Golden Bridge online and went once then a few times a week and from January to March, I was going every day." A milky white appetizer of burotta arrives and Bryant elegantly–- especially for a famished woman who's just been holding yoga postures on an empty stomach–- slices herself a bite. "Delicious. Tastes exactly how it's supposed to taste. Melts in your mouth. I hate it when you go to a place and order burotta and it's mozzarella."

The part Joy used Kundalini to prepare herself for was her first comedic role, opposite Martin Lawrence in Welcome Home Roscoe Jenkins. "To do this movie where I'm working with all these amazing comedians was something no one was expecting [from me], so I had a lot of pressure. But because I had been working on myself doing Kundalini everyday, I felt stable and grounded-- centered." The day’s scallop special arrives-- three round juicy grilled scallops on a bed of chopped grilled corn and red pepper. There are a few minutes of silence while she eats, until the waiter comes over and asks how everything is. "Terrible," she says, then flashes an ear-to-ear, killer smile. "This should really be on the permanent menu. So yummy."

Bryant plans on making Golden Bridge Yoga class part of her daily routine while in town, just as she plans on making Lafayette House her home away from home. "It takes the boutique hotel to the next level," she says. With a squeaky stairwell, antique-filled rooms, and slightly chipped ceilings, the 15-room brownstone building is more New Orleans than New York. It is the secret inn from Maritime and Bowery Hotel owners Sean Macpherson and Eric Goode. There is no concierge and room service stops after lunch. "But this is New York. Everyone delivers. I love how it's quiet and home. The rooms have fireplaces and the staff is really sweet. It feels like you’re in someone's cozy townhouse apartment."

Finally panna cotta with berries is served. “I have to come back for this meal tomorrow,” says the actress, who has a binder of materials from the festival to review and is deciding whether to take her bike and find a patch of grass in Battery Park or go back to her room’s "super-comfortable bed.”

“I see you hated it," the waiter says, taking away the spotless empty plate. The actress replies deadpan, "Awful. Just absolutely awful," with a twinkle in her eyes.

~Sara Costello


Second photo by fragvine via Flickr
Third photo by Gregory Goode
Fifth photo, still shot from Welcome Home Roscoe Jenkins
All other photos by Sara Costello