Simpson's, a 200-year-old London restaurant, reopens.
"Jeremy King is 71, and people weren’t sure if he could handle Simpson’s. I am here to tell you he can, masterfully."
Good morning everyone.
Yesterday, I went to the Financial District to investigate if this lobster statue in front of Arturo Di Modica’s charging bull on Wall Street was real. By the time I arrived downtown, there was no lobster. It was the first time in my life I really questioned my ability to decipher AI-generated content from real photos. Turns out it was real, but removed before I got there. Several people on Instagram were tagging Red Hook-based artist Andrew Logan (who posted about and then deleted the lobster) as the man behind the sculpture, so I reached out to him and have not heard yet.
Then! this morning, Taktile CEO Maik Taro Wehmeyer posted on LinkedIn taking credit for the stunt. “Today, Taktile launches Taktile Labs. We dropped the lobster on Wall Street yesterday to ask the question: are banks ready for autonomous agents?” Taktile is an AI-powered financial decision-making platform, that has raised almost $80mm in funding. I guess it connects well to the company’s mission: Are banks ready for AI? The bull and the lobster? Decent symbolism.
Today’s letter includes: A former Condé Nast editor lands an Editor-in-Chief role at Playboy, why David bars are making you gain weight, Substack is on a manhunt for the fashion writer who spoke to New York Magazine, and an early review of Simpson’s in the Strand.
Have a story you want me to look into this week? Reply to this email or text the anonymous Feed Me Tip Line: (646) 494-3916
Playboy announced this morning that Phillip Picardi is the magazine’s new Chief Brand Officer and Editor-in-Chief. The public peak of Phillip Picardi’s career for me will always be when he was Chief Content Officer at Teen Vogue. This was circa 2018. Elaine Welteroth (who now runs Birth Fund) and Marie Suter (who ran creative at Glossier for over seven years and now has her own creative studio) were also shaping the magazine, as the editor-in-chief and creative director, respectively. Since his time at Teen Vogue, Picardi has been the founding editor of them., held roles at Out Magazine, Weight Watchers, and WME, and studied at Harvard Divinity School. Picardi told ADWEEK, “The idea that we need a publication that is able to explain sexuality as a cultural force, especially as our younger folks are facing a sex recession and loneliness epidemic—it felt like the right challenge.” Earlier this year, I reported on Playboy’s Substack launch.
There has been class action lawsuit filed against David Protein. According to the lawsuit, the bars contain “significantly more calories and fat than advertised.” Real Coach Carr moves. (Disclosure that David has advertised with Feed Me before)
And I thought this new Clavicular video was a David Protein partnership tease. David founder Peter Rahal confirmed to me that it is not.
