Recho Omondi addressed $55k gate.

Free letter today.

Good morning everyone. Free letter today.

Today’s letter includes: A luxury apartment complex replacing a beloved Dimes Square business, Frog Club erasure in a story about The Corner Store’s expansion, soon you’ll be able to buy thongs and get Botox at the same store, and why

Bella Freud

makes me hopeful that artists can make valuable media projects.

Before we begin, a small letter of recommendation for anyone who has a stacked fall wedding lineup: pre-bankruptcy Brooks Brothers clutches from eBay. I hate the concept of clutches, but they are a necessary evil for weddings. I like mine to be able to carry my phone, a pack of cigarettes, 2-3 lip products, and a hotel key.

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📱 Have a story you think I should look into? Text the anonymous Feed Me Hotline: ‪(646) 494-3916‬ 📱

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• How did this Bloomberg story about the Eighty Six, the restaurant taking over the former Frog Club space, not mention Frog Club once? I am happy for Eugene Remm, the man behind The Corner Store, the Soho restaurant with lines down the block for sour cream and onion martinis and five cheese pizza rolls. I’ve never been, but I hear the food is good. Remm is opening a new restaurant this fall in the former Chumley’s space, which was more recently Frog Club. The anti-selfie hotspot, which stickered diners' phones in an attempt to feel like a members club, was open for 10 months.

• Recho Omondi addressed $55kGate. Earlier this week, the designer and podcast host of The Cutting Room Floor posted a TikTok describing a role she was hiring for – part office coordinator, part operations, part booking and logistics, part administrative assistant – that would pay $55,000 annually. The TikTok has since been deleted, but you can probably find clips of the announcement being dissected by creators who were shocked by the disconnect between job description and salary. This morning, Recho announced that she is no longer hiring for this role, even though hundreds of people applied. “We kind of made a mess out of this unintentionally, and we feel it’s best at this time to just freeze the hiring,” she said. “Internally we have a lot of work to do. We’re going to work with recruiters and get our HR in order to redefine the job description."

• You can buy thongs and get Botox at the same store.

• Giorgio Armani bought Italian nightclub La Capannina di Franceschi.

• Violet Grey is rolling up beauty retailers. Per WWD, the luxury beauty retailer quietly purchased The Detox Market earlier this year and is rumored to be in the process of acquiring Cos Bar.

• If you’re unfamiliar with Bella Freud’s podcast, you should read this explainer on how she approached her production style. There’s this default talk show style of podcast video that has permeated all of our newsfeeds. There’s Jake Shane’s mid-century modern therapist’s office, Alex Cooper’s rich-millennial library, and Theo Von’s set-in-a-box full of books and plants. But all of these are the same format of two people in chairs looking at each other. Bella does something different – she has her guests lie on their backs. Her background in film influenced the lighting and atmospheric feeling of each episode. I learned this morning that when Bella stopped doing runway shows, she started doing short films directed by John Malkovich to present her collections. It’s cool to know that artists can make podcasts that also have value to mass media companies.

• Ina Garten’s clarity is such a gift in a sea of bad food writing. I’m digging her short, service-oriented newsletter on Substack. This week she suggested an alternative to the often-stressful Saturday night dinner party: “Instead of having dinner parties on Saturday night, choose a time that has less social pressure and no one is expecting a three course meal. I like Saturday breakfast, because I can mix up the batter for Raspberry Corn Muffins beforehand.” This is the advice I’m looking for.

• Audrey Hobert’s archive site reminds me of 2004 in the best way.

• This Adam Friedland interview with Ritchie Torres is a remarkable piece of modern media. Here are some responses from Twitter.

  

  

  

  

• If you weren’t invited to the U.S. Open by a liquor brand or a bank or your boss, you can get a Honey Deuce at Balthazar.

• “Like, this is sad, but I’d rather smoke a cigarette than smoke a vape — because, aesthetically, that doesn’t really work for me.” Young people are discovering cigarettes.

• An East Hampton Star reporter wrote about doing a ride-along with a police officer for a night. Good fodder for someone’s movie script about what happens among the 1% between the hours of midnight and 4am.

• Mackenzie Thomas
  visited a Dimes Square landmark, A&N Fruit Store, in its last weeks of being open. I love these photos of downtown residents drinking icy slushies on the hot streets of New York. I really loved the big sleepy cat that was always hanging out outside of that place, and I loved buying beers there before going to house parties at my friend’s apartment upstairs. As Mackenzie reported, “Unfortunately, A&N announced earlier this year that they’ll be closing their doors forever in October to make way for a luxury apartment complex.” There goes the neighborhood.

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Hi. Exciting news: I’ll be joining a panel with

The Ankler.

’s Janice Min, moderated by Axios media reporter Kerry Flynn, at Axios’ first-ever 'Media Trends Live' in NYC on Sept. 18. The lineup also includes Evan Spiegel, Tracee Ellis Ross, Shari Redstone, and Joseph Kahn.

Want to attend? I have an exclusive code for you: the first 25 people to use FriendsofEmilyS get 25% off tickets. Click here to get one.