The day of dining and confrontation began at Gino's, a popular
Lexington Ave. eatery frequented by politicians and movie stars.

When President Clinton's former paramour started talking on her
cellular phone during lunch, a gray-haired man at the next table
started to laugh, witnesses said.

"Do you find this funny?" the raven-haired
Lewinsky reportedly snapped.

Without missing a beat, the neighbor diner
retorted, "As a matter of fact, I do."

No one could hear what Lewinsky was saying
on the phone, or to whom she was speaking.

Things then went from bad to worse for the
scandalized 25-year-old, who has been
popping up at fancy city eateries and shopping
meccas in recent days.

After the cell-phone tussle, Lewinsky bolted Gino's — which
doesn't take American Express or Visa, just cash — along with a
woman believed to be her mother, Marcia Lewis.

When she noticed a photographer, Lewinsky backtracked into the
zebra-wallpapered eatery and began flinging wild accusations at
workers, witnesses said.

Customers Cindy Bulson and Ginny Clarke, sitting at the bar when
they spotted Lewinsky eating lunch at a nearby table, described
what happened next.

"When she left the restaurant, she saw the photographer and got
really upset," said Bulson, 30, of Rockland County. "She came
storming back in the restaurant. She brushed by me and said,
'Excuse me!' and headed straight toward the manager."

Bulson and Clarke, 26, who work at a nearby law firm, said they
had spotted Lewinsky earlier shopping at Bloomingdale's. While
Lewinsky made no purchases at the Lexington Ave. department
store, she carried an Ann Taylor bag stuffed with goodies.

"She was wearing dark slacks, red coat, white shirt, dark baseball
cap," said Clarke, of Manhattan. "But we knew who she was right
away."

Lewinsky's culinary tour continued last night, when she, her
mother, stepdad Peter Straus and several others dined at San
Domenico, a posh Central Park South Italian restaurant.

But if they wanted to go unnoticed, they picked the wrong
restaurant — at the exact moment they walked in, a gathering of
Italian journalists was sitting down to eat.

The Lewinsky party's table was next to the window, and several
stunned passersby stopped to look as she feasted on rack of lamb
and, for dessert, souffle polenta with chocolate sauce, witnesses
said. Her table did without wine, sticking to expensive Italian
bottled water, they added.

Photographers gathered outside. When the party left, Straus lost
his temper, grabbing one shooter by the arm and pushing several
others out of the way as they went to a cab, witnesses said.

Bulson, Clarke and the patrons of San Domenico are now among
the select few who have actually heard the voice of the woman
who almost brought down a President.

"She sounds normal, not like a little girl's voice. She has a mature
voice, but not deep," Clarke said.

But they won't be the last. The House Judiciary Committee said
this week it is prepared to release secretly recorded tapes of
Lewinsky chatting with friend-turned-Judas Linda Tripp about her
Oval Office romance.

-- Bill Hutchinson { Daily News } - 11/11/98