Fore Play.
Golf is heating up on the American sport heat map.
Good morning everyone.
Today’s letter includes: Substack has over 50 people on the platform making $1mm/year, apparently it’s golf girl summer, amazing news for London readers who like ordering late-night martinis and burgers, the New York City department store that opened a wine shop, and Ha’s is opening a new restaurant.
I got a nice text last week from someone whose number I didn’t have saved.
He sent along some photos from the magazine of Jacques Pépin, Roger Fessaguet (one of the pioneers of New York’s opulent French fine-dining scene), Pierre Franey (former TV chef and New York Times columnist), René Verdon (JFK’s White House chef) and Jean Vergnes (who opened Le Cirque!).
I made a documentary about Gardiner’s Island a few years ago. The massive island is located right off of the Hamptons, and it’s America’s oldest privately-owned island. The same family has owned it since the 1600’s. I have been thinking about filmmaking a lot recently, so I was grateful that someone whose number I didn’t have knew I made a movie. Usually when people whose number I don’t have text me, they’re asking me for something.
The picnics were a small part of my movie, and I always loved how my subjects spoke about these summer parties. “They felt so relaxed out here,” Richard Barons, East Hampton historical society’s executive director (and one of my film subjects), told the Times a few years back. “You see a sense of jubilation.”
Amazing news for my London readers: you’re going to have much longer nights this summer. Friend-of-the-letter Rebecca Dolan (she came to my party in London last month) wrote a story for GQ today about how restaurants in London are extending their hours for serving food. In New York, it’s not unusual to order a martini at 9pm, followed by a burger at 10:30pm, but many kitchens in London have last-call for food orders by then.
This looks like a Hitachi wand made by an evil government in a sci-fi movie. Doris Dev (the product designers behind brands like Soft Services, Canopy, and Pattern Brands) launched a new personal massager brand today called Rally.
