A former food editor launched a CPG gifting suite.
A former food editor launched a CPG gifting suite.
+ The Cut's new hire wants your girlboss stories, and Prada restaurant rumors.
Good morning everyone. One of my friends who came to the Feed Me party in Montauk over the summer recently got his film developed and sent me this:
Today’s letter has ample gossip for your group texts, cocktail parties, and first dates this weekend.
Oset Babür-Winter, a former Food and Wine editor, launched a CPG-focused gifting suite called Prix Fixe. The site reads, “Prix Fixe is the first invite-only gifting suite that helps guests discover the very best food, beverage, and home products.” It also promises that there will only be one brand per category, which is a better deal for the brands paying to be involved in the suite. The gifting suite brand that I’m most familiar with is Marta Freedman’s (co-founder of Dieux) Air Milkshake, which includes brands like Vacation Sunscreen, Sofie Pavitt, and Dr. Jart.
“I feel like these experiences exist for beauty and wellness brands, but not so much for food, home, and beverage, so I saw an opportunity to bring some more curation into the mix with Prix Fixe,” Babür-Winter told me.
When I asked how Prix Fixe would be choosing the influencers invited to the suite, she said, “Actually the list isn’t just influencers! It will be editors, CPG-focused investors, and hospitality professionals. The influencer guest list segment is definitely not just food and beverage focused influencers — everybody eats and drinks, and I’m more focused on folks with strong community engagement.”
After spending 7 years at WSJ, Jacob Gallagher is going to The New York Times. Jacob is really, really good at what he does and I can’t wait to see what he publishes over at Styles.
And after almost 6 years at The Rolling Stone, Ej Dickson joined The Cut as a senior writer. On her first day, she Tweeted, “If anyone has any story tips about cults/scammers/influencers/crazy parenting shit/girlbosses girlbossing/literally anything, my email and my Signal are in my bio.”
Hollywood and Broadway producer Scott Rudin is offloading a lot of art. And real estate. The Times reported last year that he was selling his Bank Street apartment (which formerly belonged to Air Mail’s Graydon Carter) for $37mm, but today it has dropped to $29.7mm.
In 2021, The Hollywood Reporter reported that Rudin fostered an abusive workplace, allegedly verbally and physically abusing staffers (“Ryan Nelson, who was Rudin’s executive assistant in 2018-19, says he experienced and witnessed so much mistreatment, including the producer throwing a stapler at a theater assistant and calling him a “retard” that he left the industry altogether.”) Sorry for the language.
Rudin’s production resume includes No Country for Old Men, Uncut Gems, and The Social Network. His art collection includes Rick Lowe, Katherine Bradford, and Georg Baselitz – mostly newer works. Annie’s breakdown on artnet gets into the details of P+L’s on those pieces if you’re into that. It sucks to not get work in Hollywood, doesn’t it?
Speaking of the art world, I hear that the talented Anna Weyant (who used to date Larry Gagosian) is dating Jason Isbell.
It’s a good day for Cat Marnell fans. Jane Pratt, one of the most influential editors of the last few decades, launched a Substack called Another Jane Pratt Thing, and she’s bringing some of her most well-known xoJane writers with her. Courteney Cox, Courtney Love, and Michael Stipe will all be contributing. I’m curious how a publication — media business — positioned like this will thrive alongside the revamped Cosmo and Seventeen (which recently appointed Willa Bennett as EIC), The Cut, and other lifestyle Substacks.
The most-visited news website in the United States is trying out a paywall.
I heard a rumor that Prada is taking over the Lure Fishbar restaurant, which wouldn’t be that outlandish because they 1. Share a block, and 2. Prada has already experimented in the hospitality game in London and Milan.
It’s not just you – the prices of hotel rooms are out of control. Over 20% of hotels in major U.S. markets now charge an average of $200 or more per night. I texted my friend who spent some time working in hospitality VC to get a rundown on what’s going on here. He told me, “Lower- end travel brands are getting wrecked because savings rates are drying up. Rich stay rich and travel, but people are trading down. And poor people are just not traveling. This story is less about price gouging and more about inflation overall. Keep in mind the costs to run a hotel have increased a ton too (food, dry goods, wages, linens, etc.)”
Eames chairs, thimbles of soup, blood tests and steam rooms at one of the world’s most intense retreats focused on gut health.
The Face sat down with a group of teenage boys aged 13-18 and discussed depression, careers, and politics. Great way to conduct a story, the round table is a lost art. Some standout quotes:
““I feel a bit detached from climate change – not in an apathetic way, but in a way that I don’t feel directly impacted by it, even though that’s kind of selfish.”
“Sometimes I just want to curl up in a ball and not go outside and not talk to anyone, because it’s easier than having to face the world.”
“Young people are always overlooked by the government. It’s probably why people my age aren’t really interested in the elections or anything that is happening.”
This one from a 13-year-old named Fabian made me cry. “[I want to be] out of the ordinary. There’s nothing wrong with being ordinary. But I ask my friends: ‘What do you want to do when you’re older?’ They say: ‘Have a job, a house, have kids.’ I feel like I have to become something remarkable. I have to do something worthwhile.”
Have a nice weekend everyone, see you in the comments.
Did not have “finding out about beloved country music artist Jason Isbell’s divorce from longtime collaborator Amanda Shires from FeedMe” on my bingo card for today
aw fabian! me too