A London restaurateur cracks down on bathroom photoshoots.
Let us live.
Good morning everyone. What are you giving up for Lent?
Last night I had dinner at Ambassadors Clubhouse. I was starstruck to see Eric Ripert and Becca Parrish dining in the corner. I was sat facing a private room where a group of men who appeared to work in finance (trying not to profile them based on their vests) who looked like they were meeting Santa when they were served table-side Atta chicken, a whole chicken cooked inside of a dove-shaped pastry. One took out his phone and took a video of the presentation.
It’s a really beautiful restaurant. There’s this warm use of stained glass throughout the two floors that reminded me of when my grandma would melt candy for the windows of her gingerbread houses. The menu is quite large and I didn’t feel like making any more decisions after a long day, so we chose the set dinner menu which came with spicy lamb, massive shrimp, and buttery rice. Our dessert was topped with gold-dusted peanuts. I can’t wait to go back with a larger group so I can try more of the menu.
Today’s newsletter includes: Two new wellness resorts in the Hudson Valley, How Long Gone’s new video project, and Lana Del Rey’s new music video.
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How Long Gone is starting a video show called How Long Gone Today. “We could only resist the pivot to video for so long,” Chris Black said in the press release. It will be an expansion of the format that Chris and Jason experimented with last month, which is a little bit SNL’s Weekend Update, a little bit high-school-junior-discovers-how-greenscreens-work. It will be shot in Los Angeles, which means Chris has some airline points to rack up.
The 59th Street Bloomingdale’s might be opening a fourth restaurant. The idea is being “explored,” the department store’s CEO Olivier Bron told WWD. He also said they had their best year in company history, in part due to deeper expansion into luxury brands like Khaite, and warm in-store experiences featuring free cocktails. They’re also renovating multiple stores. When it comes to New York department stores, I still think the shoe section at Macy’s wins, but shopping for wedding guest dresses at Bloomingdale’s is an overwhelmingly satisfying experience. And in the summer, after afternoon therapy sessions uptown, I like to walk to Bloomingdale’s and get frozen yogurt.
Robert Pattinson and Zendaya discussed the strange realities of Hollywood for Interview. When Pattinson asked Zendaya what the most Hollywood thing about her is, she said, “I’ve super-duper stayed to myself, and most of my core friends are my family and people who I’ve known since I was literally born. But I feel like over the past couple of years, I’ve been able to make friends with other actors like yourself whose work I admire and who I think are really cool people, so that’s been nice, to just be like, ‘Does this life also feel so strange to you guys?’ And be like, ‘Oh, yeah. I’m not the only one that feels that way.’”
Emily Wilson researched shrimp cocktails for you.
Lana Del Rey’s music video for her third single on her new album Stove is coming out today. Words mentioned in the lyrics for “White Feather Hawk Tail Deer Hunter” include: Instagram, deposition cocaine, “cooking for my husband,” daddy, and nicotine patch. One of the top comments on the music video page reads, “happy Ash Wednesday, Ramadan, Chinese new year, Mardi Gras, and Lana release.”
Vanity Fair and WSJ both profiled Evie Magazine co-founder Brittany Hugoboom. Last spring, my editor Anna Silman wrote a piece for The Guardian about what she dubbed the “Womanosphere,” the crop of right-wing female influencers and outlets pushing women away from feminism and towards MAGA. Since then, Evie, which has been billed as the “conservative Cosmo,” has received a number of glossy profiles in mainstream outlets. The top stories on Evie’s site right now are about why rich women fake orgasms and why so many women feel worse after therapy. In the VF profile, Marisa Meltzer compared Hugoboom to Camille Paglia. Again, a reminder to all the men who host podcasts about media: Bari Weiss isn’t the only woman media operator to dissect.
Lazy girl burnout feminism is replacing girlboss hustle culture. See where that gets ya.
For the first time in over 20 days, the reported snow depth at Central Park was 0 inches.
Hudson Valley is finally getting a Soho House. The planning board for the town of Rhinebeck approved the project this week. The property is expected to have 32 luxury rooms and, of course, a spa. One town over, luxury wellness hotel group Six Senses is taking over Staatsburg’s Old Stone Farm. The retreat will include horseback riding, yoga workshops, and a full spa.
Could be my hangover, but I cried while reading this profile of Tom Junod this morning. Anything involving Mister Rogers (who Junod wrote an iconic Esquire profile about) usually chokes me up, because we have strayed so far… Junod told writer John Hendrickson, “I always feel that when I’m writing, if it’s good, I’m sort of writing outside of myself, not within myself, and when it’s over with, it’s a certain amount of disbelief that, you know, a guy from Wantagh did this.”
London restaurateur Jeremy King is sick of influencers having photoshoots in the bathroom of his restaurants and diners taking photos at the table. The website for his restaurant The Park now reads, “To ensure a comfortable and enjoyable dining experience for all guests, please note that The Park does not permit photography in any shared public areas of the restaurant without prior written permission. Discreet photos at the table are welcome, as long as the privacy of all staff members and fellow diners is respected.” King wrote that he’s avoiding a stickers-on-phones policy (like San Vicente or Frog Club used to require) but he’s strongly enforcing the rules. I thought this story was especially funny because his daughter, Margot Hauer-King, is the co-owner of New York’s influencer-favorite bar People’s.
antiart reviewed Charli XCX’s new album. “If Charli wants to do too much as a celebrity or public figure, so be it. But now her pursuits are affecting her discography. To put it bluntly, this album sucks.”
For lent everyone should give up taking pictures of their food
Cracking up at “see where that gets ya”