The farm store is the anti-Shoppy Shop.
Ballerina Farm, Alison Roman, and Paige Lorenze are on to something. 🥕
Hi everyone. Hope you had a good weekend.
and both texted me this morning about Eddington, so I’m going to see it in the theater today and we’re going to go live on Substack tomorrow to discuss it. Watch this space.Today’s letter includes: The death of the power lunch, the revival of Outdoor Voices, farm stores as the anti-Shoppy Shop, and
is hosting the closet sale of the summer.Guest Lecture: Rekha B. Kumar, M.D., M.S.
Guest Lecture is a Feed Me series that captures the spirit of that (sometimes unhinged) guest lecturer who would come into your class on a Friday, drop more knowledge than you’ve heard all year, and then leaves forever.
This week, readers can ask Rekha B. Kumar, M.D., M.S., Head of Medical Affairs at Found and board-certified endocrinologist, anything they want about weight-loss drugs. Earlier this month, Feed Me worked with Found on a survey about GLP-1 usage, and it was one of the most-shared letters of the year so far.
Some topics that came up in the comment section and in emails from readers included how the drugs affect alcohol consumption, cost, and long-term effects. Because this Guest Lecture is sponsored by Found, all readers — not just paid readers — can participate.
There’s a through line in Michael M. Grynbaum’s book about Condé Nast, Empire of the Elite, that traces a deep nostalgia for The Lunch’s role in career (and social) advancement. Last night at a book club I hosted with Grynbaum at The Maidstone Hotel in East Hampton (thank you BookHampton for being our book partner!), I read a few passages from the book about the midday meal that has become endangered in New York.
One anecdote was about the ballet that took place behind the bar at The Royalton before Anna Wintour came in for lunch. A server would start pulling espresso shots ten minutes before Wintour’s reservation to make sure she had a hot cappuccino at her table the moment she walked in. On a bad day, “nearly a dozen cappuccinos might be drawn and discarded.”
Another story explained how the most coveted piece of real estate in Manhattan was, at one point, the right table at The Grill Room (which Puck’s media podcast is named after). Longtime GQ editor Art Cooper had his own table at The Grill Room where he’d hold court — decades later, he’d suffer a fatal stroke in the same restaurant.
Last week, Grynbaum held one of his book parties in the former Condé Nast cafeteria, designed by Frank Gehry. The design of the seating was inspired by the private-booth lifestyle — banquettes for all.
As I hoped, the conversation about the lost lunches of New York struck a chord with the Hamptons attendees. One businessman recalled being asked out by a Condé employee when he was younger – she proposed they go on a date to the Condé Nast cafeteria. He asked Grynbaum if he thought this was a good date proposal, and we all agreed it was. The man then said there were a lot of tall women walking around the room. Sounds distracting.