According to Bon Appétit, Andrew Tarlow invented Brooklyn, and you don’t want to argue with Bon Appétit: some enemies you do not need. Plus, it’s true that with the restaurants Diner, Marlow & Sons, and Roman’s, among his many enterprises, he is a titan of Brooklyn food. Yet what drew me to him was not the cuisine – although it is delicious – or his savvy thinking about local sourcing, but his sense of sociability as the essential element of urban life. We spoke on stage at the Brooklyn Historical Society.

• Person: Patty Gentry
• Place: Kinderhook Farm
• Thing: his bicycle

•  Randy’s Thing: the Intensity brand vibrator