The author is a man of particular tastes: Room accents include serving trays from a 1930s Douglas DC-3 airliner, a WWII-era coffin trolley turned coffee table, and reclaimed jet navigator chairs used as bar stools.

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My anxiety was not eased by the presence of steak knives with heavy wooden handles and sharp serrated blades, and a sort of diabolical trolley that was wheeled, steaming, to the table by a stout man with a pencil mustache who with the flourish of a gleaming knife indicated the meat and demanded to know where I wanted it carved.

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