Cappuccino Thoughts 89: On Audacious August and Super-fly September
Best new Broadway shows, coffee shops, and why I think you should meet your idols
Cappuccino Thoughts is a weekly newsletter about culture and creativity in New York.
First off, congratulations to the winner of the book giveaway, P.! I will be in touch to send out your books! Thank you to everyone who entered.
It’s been an autumn packed with new adventures. On the culture front:
-August was full of Broadway shows including Stereophonic (loved, felt like seeing a movie in a great way. Good for fans of Daisy Jones and the Six), Once Upon a Mattress (Sutton Foster and Michael Urie are hilarious, but this is a dated, dare I say bad, show), Our Town (also, just not an interesting play. Half the audience was asleep. Jim Parsons was great but Katie Holmes was not), and Cabaret (quite good with Eddie Redmayne as the Emcee. Adam Lambert has picked up the role and I think he would be wonderful).
-I visited the Tenement Museum in the East Village as I dip my toes into the challenge of seeing every museum in Manhattan. My mother wanted to go while she was visiting me and, while it’s not the best museum I’ve ever been to, it’s interesting to see how the city has changed over the course of the last two centuries and how people lived throughout time here.
-I got free tickets to the Volta Art Fair and was happily surprised by how much wonderful art people are producing today.
-If I ever were to move to Brooklyn (spoiler: I will not), I would definitely want to live in Greenpoint. I love the Japanese influence there and low-key cool vibes. I had a lovely evening going to see a movie in McGolrick Park with S. With some time to meander around beforehand, I grabbed a chicken sandwich at Katsu Sando, checked out the beautiful stationery store Yoseka, and stumbled upon the gorgeous secondhand bookstore Leaves.
-Meet your idols!! A question for the readers: which three to five people alive today would you most like to meet? Mine are Nell Diamond, Elif Batuman, Ann Patchett, Sofia Coppola, and Karlie Kloss. I have been very lucky to meet the first three, so when Sofia Coppola announced a book signing in Soho, I braved my first ever epic New York Line. I waited three hours for twenty seconds with her and, honestly, I would do it again. I gave her a pencil case (lol) and I now have an answer to what I would save in a fire (F. first, then my signed copy of Archive). Karlie Kloss, you’re next!
I also went to book talks with two of my favorite authors, Elizabeth Strout (more below) and Coco Mellors (I reviewed her new book Blue Sisters a few weeks ago). Absolutely loved both talks, if not both books. And I went to the launch of Big Fan (also reviewed recently) hosted by 831 Stories at the Ripped Bodice bookstore. It was very fun to see the founders of the company, whose podcast I really love, and, although I’m not a romance reader, I like to support the bookstore since it was founded by two sisters who went to Yale.
I also like
Becky Malinsky
’s newsletter and was excited to stop by her pop-up at Club Vintage with L. Spoiler: I am planning a pop-up with Club Vintage! More details soon!
-I made a quick trip over to LA to see beloved friends A. and D. who live out there. LA is not the city for me (too much driving, not enough opportunities for meandering), but I do enjoy one weekend there each year. This year, I really wanted to see Sunset Tower (absolutely beautiful and a great spot for a special celebration), Chateau Marmont (inspired by Sofia Coppola’s film Somewhere, very much enjoyed having a drink with D. on their patio), and Erewhon (call me basic, but that Hailey Bieber smoothie is ridiculously delicious. I also enjoyed picking up some funky snacks for the plane, the aisle discovery is just so good). A. and I booked last minute tickets to see a Harry Potter film at the Hollywood Forever Cemetery and we brought a little picnic—a perfect Los Angeles night! A. also took me over to Santa Barbara, which was so cute, as well as the Brentwood Country Market (loved, so many fun finds in one place), and the Santa Monica beach and farmer’s market. Okay, so maybe LA can be pretty nice…..
-Here’s a plug to sign up to be a poll worker in your community. I recently went to a training class and I’m so excited to help voters on Election Day! I asked my employers for the day off to volunteer and they very generously agreed—would recommend you try the same! I think Election Day is going to feel very stressful, so I’m glad to have something meaningful to occupy my day.
Dining Discoveries:
-My friend A. and I had a really lovely tradition during our first year in NYC where we would get Saturday morning bagels and coffee during his one free hour a week away from his intense banking job. We recently went to the newly opened Utopia Bagels in Murray Hill and we made the bittersweet conclusion that we are done with bagels. I have a theory about New York’s favorite breakfast item – you know when you have a really bad bagel, but all good bagels are basically created equal (same goes for pizza). After trying many dozens of bagel spots…..we’re sick of them. We’re thinking breakfast burritos next.
-On the other end of the spectrum, I had quite possibly the most delicious burger of my life at Bar Americano in Greenpoint. Great spot for an intimate dinner.
-Work took me to a fancy breakfast at Zaytinya, the new restaurant in the Ritz Carlton NoMad. Extremely lovely, put my usual yogurt and berries to shame.
-For a significantly cheaper option, a shrimp rice noodle roll from Joe’s in Chinatown, followed by a 20 minute foot rub at Yan May is my vote for one of the best ways to spend an hour.
-I guess the Joe’s know how to do it! I enjoyed some lovely blueberry pancakes at Joe Jr. with J. (not a Joe), who has shown me the beauty of old fashioned diners.
-F. and I had delicious tapas at Despana in Soho and delectable pasta at Parm.
-To any dim sum lover, it has always been obvious that soup dumplings are the star of the show. That’s why I was so excited to try Nan Xiang on St. Mark’s Place, an entire soup dumpling restaurant! 10/10. Get anything with the peanut sauce.
-Work and fun both took me to the Aman and I will just say that it is ludicrously expensive but also extremely beautiful and special and the terrace has a gorgeous view over Midtown. Regrettably worth it?
-Once a summer, I try to American-ify F. with a seafood boil (that and a baseball game). The baseball game was a complete fail, but we did have a lovely dinner at The Boil, followed by a walk through Washington Square Park.
-I used to love going to the Urban Hawker in Union Square and getting the Singaporean chicken rice with my closest confidantes in my old job. I tried the location in Midtown and it has even more diverse Asian options for a quick dinner.
-I tried Magnolia’s famous banana cream pudding for the first time, and honestly, it was worth the hype. I don’t know that I’d ever really had banana cream pudding, but now I get it.
Count on Coffee:
-It was a good few months for new coffee spots! Kore in Chinatown has fun innovative options like tiramisu coffee (admittedly, I just got a cold brew with oat milk, so I’m not sure if that’s actually tasty). I really loved Conwell Coffee, which is in a converted bank in FiDi. You order at the old teller stand and they’ve kept some gorgeous murals that look straight out of the Works Progress Administration—definitely recommend. I also visited Counter Culture and Ground Support Coffee in Soho and St. George in the West Village, which were all nice. Would you believe me if I told you I actually think I’ve been drinking less coffee recently?
Updates on the bag brand
There are so many updates to share that I’m behind on some bits. The bag brand was featured in two of my favorite newsletters!
I also commissioned an artist to make illustrations of some of the most popular bags, and they came out so gorgeous!! One of my favorite parts of working on this brand is getting to partner with so many other amazing creative people.
Next week, if you’re lucky, I’ll tell you about waking up to the news this week that I was being extorted by the Turkish government! There’s always something…..😬
Look of the week
Thank you to reader A. for submitting this look of the week, spotted in Zurich! Even the toddlers there are chic! Love those leopard-print pants, oversize white shirt, and little green scarf. Plus velcro shoes, because practicality is a must. I try not to share people’s faces, but this kid has the model pout nailed too perfectly—a star in the making!
What’s on the bedside table
I admittedly picked up this book and read the first 50 pages at least three times before I finally finished it. Elizabeth Strout is one of my favorite living authors and I absolutely love her Amgash series, starting with My Name is Lucy Barton. I recently got to see her speak at a book launch at the Strand (also niche for my fellow Strout devotées, I asked her if Lucy is supposed to take place at NYU Langone Hospital and she confirmed it is!) and was very inspired to recommit to Olive Kitteridge. Reader, it was still a slog. What I love so much about her books are the vivid characters who feel so lifelike. But there was just nothing to like about mean, cranky Olive. Everyone I’ve spoken to seems to have had the same experience. I don’t understand why this is the work from her oeuvre that got selected for the Pulitzer. The only gratifying thing from reading this book is that I got a copy of Strout’s newest book, Tell Me Everything, and the two main characters of her book universe, Olive and Lucy, finally meet. But I would say skip Olive and read her other books. Two stars.
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This week I am hosting war reporter Clarissa Ward for a lecture at the Yale Club and trying to dodge the traffic of UN Week.
Catch up on recent issues: