My dad used to bring me here when I was a kid, so I've been coming here for pretty much 20 years. I was growing up in Canada with my mother and whenever I visited my father we would always come here. To me it always represented the fabulousness of New York and my father's sophisticated universe.
My parents are both folk singers - my dad is Loudon Wainwright III, and my mom is Kate of Kate and Anna McGarrigle. You would imagine that we would always be in restaurants on the road, but my mother made a conscious decision not to tour so much because she hates eating out, and really loves to cook. My father is the polar opposite. He even wrote a song called 'I Eat Out'.
Omen was one of the earliest restaurants to start the whole SoHo thing, and it hasn't changed at all. The decor is the same: it's very Zen Japanese, the lighting is very good, and the food is just incredible. It has its own signature style of cooking; they don't have sushi, for instance. There's lots of mixing and matching, like potatoes with sea urchins with radish, asparagus wrapped in fish.
And there's always another celebrity there Only one usually, so I don't feel totally overshadowed, but I also can relate. Willem Dafoe's avant-garde Wooster Group theatre company is right around the corner, and he comes, and Patti Smith and David Byrne. Kind of off-the-wall, edgy people. They close quite late, so you can pop in after the theatre, or it's a nice place to go after a long plane ride. It's very quiet and subdued. I live not too far away, and come here with my boyfriend Jorn. I think I've brought every boyfriend here, but it has such an individual style in terms of Japanese food, if someone's not acquainted with Japanese food, it's two steps more advanced. I've brought a couple of dates here who immediately didn't call me back. So it's not a sure-fire seduction place. No, no, that's Italian food, a whole other subject.
We've been together two years, and I'm happy and in love and we're living together and being horribly conventional and domestic, and, you know, bickering. I really had no hope and had decided to just give up on the whole game of love, and surrender to my ineptitude. Oddly enough, as soon as I did that, Mr Right came along.
It was pretty preordained that I would be a singer, a musician. Mainly because I had sung at an incredibly young age, like six months. My mother would sing 'Old MacDonald' and I would sing 'E-I-E-I-O'. And there's tons of pictures of me as a toddler reaching out towards the piano.
I was three when my father left and my parents divorced. I believe that divorce for all the parties involved is one of the most tragic things. It's something you never really let go of, in a certain way. I think it's actually better to stay together.
One of my best-known songs, 'Dinner At Eight', expresses all my anger and resentment at my father. It wasn't actually at Omen. We had dinner at a restaurant in Shelter Island, New York, at which I got quite tipsy and announced to him that he must be so happy to be back in the spotlight because of his son. He was not happy that I said that, which was completely understandable. I didn't see him for about six months. But it was what had to happen. You've got to kind of explode the volcano before you rebuild the city. It's not quite as towering as it once was, but it's definitely got good foundations.
Omen, 113 Thompson Street, New York 10012, 001 212 925 8923
History
This Kyoto-based noodle restaurant, which opened in New York in 1981, is well known for reinventing traditional Kyoto dishes using healthy, seasonal ingredients. The owners have even imported their own secret tofu recipe. The calligraphy displayed on the walls is by the owner's father.
Popular dishes
Traditional Omen Udon noodles, raw tuna with Japanese yam and quails' eggs, avocado and shrimp with miso sauce. Desserts include mango and blueberries with purple rice syrup
A la carte from $3. Prix fixe menu $50
Who eats there
Willem Dafoe, Patti Smith and Talking Heads' David Byrne
Opens
Daily 6pm-1am
· Release the Stars by Rufus Wainwright is out May 14
