Cappuccino Thoughts 69: On Astounding, Addictive, Action-Packed April
Recs in culture, creativity, and coffee this month
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Bookstores:
First, a quick bookstore challenge update. I am at 49/53! Tantalizingly close. A work event way uptown gave me an excuse to finally hit the Sisters of Uptown and Wordup Community Bookstore. I met one of the leaders of Wordup and he was very proud to tell me how they’ve been serving the community for 17 years. A new bookstore also opened! Bibliotheque is honestly more cafe than bookstore. (The books kind of seem like props and it’s not totally evident they’re for sale, but I’m encouraging of anything that gets people close to reading.) It’s a nice addition in Soho.
Will I complete the challenge next month?! Let’s see.
Culture:
I was lucky this month to see jazz at the Django in the Roxy Hotel and at the Aman. The Django was lovely, especially because a father and daughter duo performed (heartwarming!). The Aman was pretty special because of the locale and also because it was a fairly light crowd and my friend L. asked if we could sit right in the front, so close we were practically onstage. It made for a very intimate performance and the musicians even came over and chatted with us after. I really love jazz and there’s nothing quite like a live performance.
I saw some okay theater this month. I did enjoy Uncle Vanya, especially the second half. My compatriot M. seemed to like it more than I did. I thought Steve Carell was a highlight and balanced the comedy and drama well. William Jackson Harper (Chidi on the Good Place) also brought a lot of energy to his character and to each person he interacted with. I just didn’t love the liminality of the 19th century play sort of reset in the modern era, but not quite fully, so the audience was left in a strange in between.
F. and I went to Mary Jane during previews and honestly it’s the worst show I’ve seen in a long time. I can’t believe it’s a New York Times Critic’s Pick. It is so depressing and Rachel McAdams was fine but not as fabulous as she usually is. I met someone who works in lighting design and sees a lot of shows and I was gratified that she agreed it was awful. It was quite naturalistic—it felt like spending 90 minutes with a down-on-her-luck friend who won’t stop talking when all you want to do is leave.
Also in the depressing vein, L. and I went to Fire Shut Up in My Bones, the opera based on NYT writer Charles Blow’s book, and I did not know what I was getting myself into. It was actually quite cool to see a modern opera and there were some standout parts like a step sequence, which was honestly amazing and made the audience absolutely raucous. It was pretty surprising and awesome to see something like this on the stage of the Met Opera (you can see part of it here). But there were some very dark themes that also made it a pretty depressing night.
On the complete opposite end of the spectrum, I took R. to a silly live show of a fashion pop culture podcast I enjoy, Every Outfit. I enjoyed their awareness of the parasocial relationship podcast listeners have with the hosts.
I enjoyed another lovely day upstate with J. The brief was: cute bookstores (found in Catskill), diners (discovered in Cairo after a missed turn, oops my bad), antiques, and a hike (walking the bridge that separates Frederic Church’s Olana from his mentor Thomas Cole’s estate surely counts, right?). And we enjoyed visiting the Hudson River Valley School artist Cole’s historic house.
Finally, on the eccentric side, L. (btw I have four different L.’s in my life, this is not all one very kooky person) hosted a “pinot noir night” where everyone had to bring a bottle of pinot. It was all fun and games until 16 people showed up and suddenly we were tasting sixteen pinot varietals until the wee hours of the morning. Honestly, a great idea for an alternative to just going to a bar, but now he has sixteen half-empty bottles of pinot to contend with.
Creativity:
I randomly met a co-founder of Salt & Straw, Tyler, at a pre-opening for their new West Village location coming this summer. He was so sweet and passionate about ice cream. I do believe that they pump out the smell of their waffle cones onto Fillmore Street in my neighborhood in San Francisco, and I’ve always complained about their prices. But this was a “dollar a scoop” event, and at that rate, it was a great value!
Liv, who runs the store where I sell my bags, hosted Reworked Runway, a show celebrating sustainable fashion. It was the most Brooklyn thing to ever have Brooklyn-ed, featuring dancers and a voiceover about the perils of letting our climate crisis continue, but I really enjoyed it and it was an immense display of creativity.
On my way over there, I stopped in at Cardinal Gift Shop, which had a cute selection of interesting clothes and gifts. I find it increasingly difficult to find good independent boutiques, but this one hit the mark.
If I ever update my Gramercy guide, I’ll have to include Takamichi Beauty Room. I can’t believe I hadn’t seen it before, as it’s just off Irving Place. They sell very special Japanese and French gifts, mostly beautiful things for the vanity. It’s absolutely ludicrously expensive, so it’s definitely more of a look don’t touch situation, unless you’re looking for a gift for the person who already has everything.
I went to a tag sale hosted by former Refinery29 co-founder Christene Barberich. She has amazing taste and now writes a newsletter
about vintage fashion and thrifting. She was so sweet and gave me a Schiaparelli scarf when I told her about my bag brand. I also found an incredible antique quilt that has a tag on the back that says, in handwriting, that the woman who made the quilt was born in 1888! Wow! A cool piece of history to take home.On the first sunny day of the season, S. and I begrudgingly gave up our seats at Le Dive as the waiter semi-politely turned us out for not ordering enough, and we made our way over to Il Labortorio for ice cream. They had crazy flavors like cheddar cheese, which I of course had to try, and immediately regretted (WHO is ordering that?!). I stuck with chocolate and black cherry and was a happy camper.
Coffee:
It was a good month for coffee. L. (oh, actually I have five L’s in my life! And four S.’s. What’s up with that?). and I had a Business Brunch at Smor in the East Village, which, despite a massive line, was well worth it and quite tasty.
I caught up with a former boss of mine and picked up a lovely iced berry matcha from Remi Flower + Coffee (okay, not coffee, but still a good coffee shop) and walked the East Midtown Greenway—so pretty! Great views! I shared my retirement plan of moving to Roosevelt Island (who knows!) and T. seemed intrigued by the prospect as well…
I am spending more time in the West Village as my new office is over there. I had quite a good cold brew at Oslo. I also checked out the new Air Mail Cafe. I actually just saw the one in London and enjoyed, but this one is even better as it’s quite spacious and has a beautiful full coffee bar and strong magazine collection. Will be returning.
Not coffee, but in the hot bevvie realm, M. and I enjoyed discussing the latest fashion gossip at Hideout Chai Bar on the Lower East Side. And, finally, L. (this is the final L I promise) and I had the best matcha I’ve had since Japan at Setsugekka in the East Village.
Everything Else:
Coffee with a friend quickly turned into a more spiritual afternoon when she asked me if I wanted to come to her meditation class starting in fifteen minutes. Why not! I ended up going to four meditation classes at Sage + Sound because they have a trial offer to pay $100 for a week of unlimited classes. I think my friend managed to go to a dozen! I would never pay full price, but I did find it much easier to get to a deeper state with a live teacher versus all the different apps and YouTube videos I’ve tried. The cafe next door, Isle of Us, was also quite tasty.
On the other side of the spectrum, I had a very enjoyable $8 noodle roll dinner at Mei Lei Wah in Chinatown, followed by a reflexology session at Yan May Foot Spa. I have my big 32 mile walk coming up again, and a slight pain in my left foot almost certainly caused by traversing Asia and Europe in my mary janes, so I considered this practically a medical expense.
I had not one but two delicious panini in the West Village, one at Sogno Toscano ($$$) and the other at Cafe Panino Mucho Gusto ($). Only go to Sogno if someone else is picking up the bill, but man that mortadella sandwich was dreamy.
My old work gang and I said “yesyesyes!” to Nonono in Flatiron for a much-needed catch-up dinner. This tasty Japanese spot was great for sharing a number of dishes, especially the cod roe pasta. For a free version, we also congregated in Prospect Park for a picnic—there’s something about just sitting around watching the many different kinds of people live their many different version of life that makes me fall in love with New York even more. Finally, we also enjoyed dinner at M.’s house, which was basically just an excuse to use her oven to bake hojicha mochi cake made with mixes by my friend D. Very delicious and easy and would make a good present.
A friend and I took a break from a photoshoot(!) to grab a slice of pizza at Bleecker Street Pizza. At first bite, we were stunned into silence. Shockingly delicious, and equally shockingly, for the West Villy, not too expensive! Genuinely excellent New York pizza.
Finally, F. and I were set up on a friend date (cute) by S. and we all met at Sahara’s, a Turkish restaurant we should honestly go to more. You can always get a table, the food is generously sized, and the waiters are really nice. 3/3, a rarity in NYC!
Updates on the bag brand
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Fresh inventory is back on the site! I am super excited to introduce The Coco. Longtime readers may remember the bag that I made in a workshop in Paris last spring. To this day, it’s the bag that I get the most comments on, so I’ve long dreamed of producing more.
I took a leap of faith and sent my beloved bag, along with some tweeds I purchased, to my manufacturer in Turkey. And I couldn’t be more pleased with the result! To me, it’s the perfect mix of classic with a slight edge. Look at how good that chain is!
There are three in stock, and, if you guys like them, I’ll make more. (Different colors? How chic would a lavender version look?)
Look of the week
This little girl cracked me up. She looked straight out of Eloise and had the hugest smile on her face. I loved her Mary Janes (very in) with frilly socks and color-coordinating snow colored coat. I think the furry cuffs and collar can be hard to pull off, but she rocked it with confidence. I respect the choice to let the coat do the talking—although as you can see by the woman in the background, this was nowhere near weather appropriate. But when you’ve got an outfit in mind, sometimes you just have to do it! Would love to know what she went shopping for, and, indeed, what the cool kid stores are these days.
What’s on the bedside table
Good Material is Dolly Alderton’s third book and second effort at a novel. I loved her first book, Everything I Know About Love, a memoir about her teens and mid-twenties. I found it largely relatable. I was quite sad when her second book, Ghosts, turned out to be practically unreadable. This third book is written from the perspective of a 30-something man whose girlfriend recently dumped him. Not a headspace that’s particularly enjoyable to inhabit, but you can still hear Dolly’s droll observations poke through. I don’t think it’s a spoiler at this point to say that the perspective shifts to the ex-girlfriend in the final 100 pages, and I wish the entire book had been written from her perspective. This book was an easy read as we ease into summer, but not a must. Three stars.
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This week I am….hosting New York magazine restaurant critic Matthew Schneier at the Yale Club. DM if you are desperado to come.
Catch up on recent issues:
32 mile walk!?!