Schiaparelli, museum fatigue, California burritos, Bar Rescue

12 things I've consumed + The Best Thing I Ate All Week

Waiting in a too-long line at Radio Bakery.

🌝 12 THINGS I’VE CONSUMED

🎨 Exceptional Children's Foundation (ECF) Art Foundation

So cool!

From their website: ‘ECF was founded in 1946 by a group of parents and community activists who sought to establish a day training program as an alternative to institutional care for individuals with developmental disabilities.’

The nonprofit’s service offerings have since expanded, one of which includes an art program that showcases their artists’ portfolios online from which you can buy their pieces!

Check out their portfolios HERE. Each artist provides a bio along with their available work.

👜 Embroidered LL Bean Tote

‘jefe’

dark green

zip-top

🧠 mymind

So fun!

mymind is Pinterest-y but angles to be slicker & more intuitive through the muscle of AI. It’s really fun to use, although it’s still a bit buggy. I’m a little confused by their approach to be ‘private’, because a moodboard seems intuitively shareable.

Hopefully they consider unlocking a social feature, because I’d love to share ~ my beautiful mind ~ with you.

👟 Custom Nikes

When I played soccer in high school, I owned a pair of Nike Total 90’s. They were a charm: when I wore them, I’d assume the identity of my favorite Brazilian footballer.

Well, the Nikes eventually fell apart in tandem with my fantasy of playing professionally. This past week, Ash & I ventured into &son in SoHo, where we met the manager, Samuel Falzone.

Samuel tracks down old Nikes- golf, soccer, & baseball cleats- & upcycles them with new Vibram outsoles. The results are unbelievable. While my professional football career can’t be revived (well, it didn’t really exist), I could give new life to a pair of old Total 90’s (top left).

🎞️ A photo in your wallet (or a note)

Keep a photo of a dog, a lover, or a cherry-red Corvette in your wallet.

Or a handwritten note from another.

Take a peek every once in a while, why don’t ya?

🍛 Cafe Himalaya

I believe in gatekeeping. With social media, nothing is sacred & nothing is left unfound. But, I love my readers & think that you should eat healthfully & affordably.

Cafe Himalaya, located across the street from Russ & Daughters, is one of my favorite restaurants. It’s unsexy, cramped, & cheap. The food is equal parts veggies & meats, helpfully asterisked as vegan & gluten-free. The dishes focus on rice, soups, salads, dumplings, & noodles. The food feels clean & nourishing, which is an acute contrast to The Best Thing I Ate All Week…

🎨 Daniel Roseberry

schiaparelli

A post shared by @schiaparelli

Stunning.

🎨 Filippa K Preowned Shop

Swedish brand, Filippa K, advertises their preowned shop as a ‘space to shop and sell second hand Filippa K pieces, furthering our commitment to circular fashion together.’

There are other examples of these secondhand shops e.g. REI, Poplinen, Patagonia, Levi’s, etc. The benefits of these marketplaces are numerous: a community of trusted sellers & buyers, reduced waste, & an opportunity to brand build through an ethos of sustainability.

I especially like the Filippa K shop, because the brand acts as a matchmaker to sellers & buyers. Rather than requiring the seller to send their garments to Filipa K, the seller connects with the buyer directly. This removes an extra leg of transportation (thereby reducing the emissions toll) & streamlining the sale.

🐣 ‘Spell Against Indifference’ - Maria Popova

🧵 Atelier Jolie

Atelier Jolie is difficult to define. Part retail space, part studio, & part cafe, Atelier Jolie is a reflection of Angelina Jolie’s endeavor to a fashion a place ‘To have fun. To create your own designs with freedom. To discover yourself.’

Housed in a building that Andy Warhol bought in 1970, the space later served as Jean-Michel Basquiat’s studio. Inside, the graffitied back walls are protected by full-length acrylic sheets. The graffiti, some of which that is signed by SAMO (Basquiat), adorns the walls in colorful, coordinated commotion.

You can bring your clothing into the shop & the team will embroider a selection of their patches onto your garment. There are cooking classes & workshops in the basement. There is a cafe hat partners with ‘EatOffBeat, a food organization with a Chelsea Market outpost, that hires refugees & helped jumpstart the careers.’ The employee I spoke with summarized the in-store experience as such: “We’re not trying to sell you something & get you out the door. We want to welcome you into an experience & build a community through creating with each other.”

🖼️ Exhausting art

🍸 Jon Taffer on 250 Episodes of Bar Rescue, Fungus the Size of Your Freaking Head, and Being a Total Sweetie Pie

He sounds like a genuinely great guy.

Now grab your BjornQorn for this 2hr Bar Rescue compilation.

💃 Got To Be Mine | Vulfmon & Evangeline

A cute summer bop :)

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🎁 3 GOODIES I WANT

🍹 Margaritaville Belt - $185

I’m including this belt as permission to talk about how I sobbed in Margaritaville. Margaritaville bills itself as an oasis in the hellscape that constitutes Times Square &, to be honest, it delivers. Grub Street describes Margaritaville well:

• In the midst of everything awful, a happier, dumber place; a place that brings the word chillaxing back; an invitation to stop spending untold psychic energy trying to position yourself as cool, savvy, or above it all. It’s bright, cacophonous fun. Climate change caused New York to be reclassified in 2020 as a humid subtropical climate; Margaritaville just makes the most of it.

But when you’re in the throes of existential despair, Margaritaville is a jarringly giddy venue. While it’s a disturbing place for a breakdown, I reckon it is a proper setting for this needlepoint belt with a cheeseburger sunning itself in paradise.

💎 Slim Cera - $280

I have difficulty following the efficacy of wellness products. So many exfoliants, sunscreens, vitamins, light therapy masks, & cryo chambers. So I might as well splurge on the most ridiculous-sounding tool, the Slim Cera.

Per the website description:

• The Slim Cera uses 6 rollers to imitate the motion of a therapist’s hands… The special diamond-cut roller surfaces cleanse and clear the pores from impurities. It even features a solar panel that generates a micro-current with a simple indoor lighting.

Solar power? Diamonds? The ‘elimination of fats, chemicals and toxins from blood’? Sure, why not.

There are very few reviews of the Slim Cere, mostly in French. One from the UK rationalizes their purchase: "Over 350,000 Japanese women own a Slim Cera... And that many women cannot be wrong!” I suppose she has a point.

⚽️ Dime Final Shirt - $110

This ‘come hither’ horned demon soccer jersey is so rad. Coming out of Montreal from streetwear brand Dime, it’s a much better purchase than a USA jersey. Our sad, failing, decrepit national soccer team.

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🦪 THE BEST THING I ATE ALL WEEK

During the first few months of the pandemic, my brother & I took refuge in San Diego. With little else to do besides watch Brendan Frasier films & bike the length of the beach, we needed supplemental activities to look forward to amongst the misery.

Our solution was ‘Burrito Fridays’, a weekly dinner tradition of eating California burritos in La Jolla. A California burrito is a harmony of fat, acid, crunch, chew, grease, & salt. It is an XL flour tortilla parcel weighted by carne asada, guacamole, sour cream, & French fries. A California burrito reminds me of stomachaches at the beach, Negro Modelo, & the expectant unwrapping of foil. It is the signature dish of San Diego.

So it was with great excitement that I tracked down a California burrito at Super Burrito in South Williamsburg. The recipe is straightforward but the details matter: seasoned carne asada, extra crispy fries, & a properly wrapped tortilla. I devoured my burrito in the company of 4 other solo bros, each of us solemnly focusing on the task at hand. Needless to say, the California Burrito was The Best Thing I Ate All Week.

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🪤 THE FINAL WORD

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- jefe