It’s probably not easy for Apple CEO Steve Jobs to slip in & out of anywhere these days, but when he heads to New York to meet with newspaper publishers only days after announcing the iPad, it’s gotta be even worse.

New York Magazine is reporting that Apple recently booked the cellar dining room at Pranna for a talk with “50 top executives from The New York Times” -- and even the restaurant’s management didn’t know who the VIP guest would be.

But on Wednesday night, Jobs came strolling in for his dinner meeting wearing what their source calls “a very funny hat -- a big top hat kind of thing.” The Apple executive then proceeded to order a mango lassi and penne, neither of which are on the menu at the trendy Southern Asian restaurant.

The whole affair was an “intimate, family-style gathering” according to the New York Magazine source, with Jobs sitting at the head of the table along with Times publisher Arthur Sulzberger. Jobs demonstrated the iPad and its functions and spoke at length about how it could “serve the future of media.”

While The New York Times certainly isn’t an iPad exclusive -- rumors abound that the Times executives are wary of cutting such a deal with Apple -- the paper was featured prominently at the media event to unveil the device.

And ironically, Jobs himself confessed to his Times buddies that while he reads the paper online every day, even he likes to hold the Sunday edition in his hands. So much for the iPad killing print, we’d say...