Good afternoon, everyone.
In today’s letter: Chanel has started advertising on Substack, New York Times Cooking hired a familiar face as its new recipe editor, Honey Deuce price index 🍈, Kallmeyer’s new collection could be a book club catalyst, September 10th will be the busiest day in New York City calendars, J Lee on the local Italian restaurant (LIR), and an A24 vet exits after 14 years.
Breaking down the local Italian restaurant (LIR). By J Lee
Expense Account is a series on Feed Me by semi-anonymous restaurant critic J Lee. He hosts a podcast with the same name. This week, he wrote about local Italian restaurants (LIRs).
Your local Italian restaurant (LIR) is the most important restaurant in the world. I’m incredibly fortunate to have Il Posto Accanto as my LIR. I went with Emily last week. We caught up and talked business. I ate literally the sweetest tomatoes I’ve ever had and squash blossoms stuffed with ricotta and anchovies. And then went back the next day with my wife and her girlfriends for martinis, gossip, and linguine with clams; I saw the cutest little dog. There are dishes that I love more and dishes that I love less, but my LIR is perfect. Please do not tell me that she is not, I won’t hear it, I can’t. The thing is, everyone’s LIR is perfect, in its own way. You go for a date and drink bubbles and eat parmigiana, “you’ve got a little sauce on your face,” it works every time. You go for some spaghetti and meatballs after a long day at the office, you slurp it up, you feel a little lighter. You go on a snow day, when the city feels silent, and nothing else is open, their lasagna warms you up like nothing else. It’s a place where you know you can always get a seat, they’ll fill your glass full of ice cold pinot (grigio or noir) to the brim, and the food will at least be good enough, and sometimes it’ll even be great.
“Fritto misto almost always tastes like the best fritto misto I’ve ever had, I love it, but I can say with a clear head that this one is top tier.”
There are LIRs all over the country, and maybe all over the world, but the LIRs in New York are a special breed. They’re all over the city, they’re everywhere, but you rarely even think about them, or I don’t. If you walked around New York City today, I’m sure you walked by at least one, and didn’t even give it a second thought, but I guarantee you that it is someone’s favorite restaurant. There is someone that goes to this restaurant three times a week, and when they’re hungry they dream about their fritto misto. Ireland has pubs, New York has LIRs. (And also pubs.)
There’s almost nothing more intimate than being invited to someone’s Local Italian Restaurant. This is where they go outside of their home to feel comfortable, or happy, or sad. This is where they go to be fed. I don’t like to use the term “third space,” but their LIR is a safe space. To be invited into someone’s LIR is to know that you are trusted.
