Are smash burgers better than regular ones?

Today's comment section debate.

Good afternoon everyone!!!!

Today’s letter includes:

• A conversation around New York’s current status as a spa town (B- at best)

• One of THE books of the summer (two of my favorite Substack writers already wrote about it this week)

• I recorded myself answering your AMA questions

• And the guys in my group text this morning debating which types of burgers are better.

NEWS:

• Dan Frommer just published his most recent Consumer Trends Highlights. These are always the highlight of my inbox when they come out, he’s so thorough. Some insights:

  • Starbucks’ spring lineup of lavender-flavored beverages, especially an iced matcha latté, had performed well — nearly as well, the company said, as its iconic fall seasonal beverage, the pumpkin spice latté.

  • Morgan Stanley recently predicted that ice cream consumption could decline 5% by 2035, and that other categories of sugary products would also shrink. Thanks Ozempic! 

  • People spent 30% more on TikTok Shop in March than they did in February.

• Looks like Hailey Bieber’s beauty brand Rhode is launching blush soon. That will do well, considering Sephora darling Rare’s (by Selena Gomez) best-selling product is blush.

• My eyes are on Romy Mars for the next six months. She looks so much like her dad it’s wild.

• The new pizza box-shaped recycling cans in Central Park are a design masterpiece.

• I really like this Rolling Stone cover story with Charli XCX. She has such a great hold on her image and her fans. It includes everything from Red Scare, to going off of birth control, to East Coast gays, to the debate between motherhood and being free and wild forever (I think about that all the time…).