Cappuccino Thoughts 92: On Espresso Thoughts—If Our Mayor Gets Indicted, Do We Get to Keep Our Garden? And Other Questions

It may be our civic duty to stomp the spotted lanternflies, but what if I like my shoes too much?

Oct 14, 2024

Cappuccino Thoughts is a weekly newsletter about culture and creativity in New York.

Seven Grams in NoMad, still the best coffee shop in NYC

Autumn is finally here. I saw one singular leaf in Gramercy Park turn orange. My radiator crackled to life with a bang one morning this week when the temperature dipped briefly toward 40. My summer dresses look tired and overworn. And I have had five weather-appropriate days to wear my favorite cape (think more Kate Middleton, less Dracula). So, with the changing of the seasons, the time is ripe for some espresso thoughts, quick-hit ideas about what’s going on in the world:

If our mayor is indicted, does that mean we get our garden back? I have gone on record over the years as no fan of NYC’s embattled mayor Eric Adams. This is a man who is letting Elizabeth Street Garden be bulldozed, closed public libraries on Sundays and was more interested in clubbing than governing. So it was, of course, extremely personally gratifying to see him finally get indicted on charges of corruption.
He accepted foreign campaign donations/bribes (illegal) then entering them into New York City’s matching program meant to encourage people running for mayor engage with regular New Yorkers (he did the opposite), and benefitted from the scheme by accepting ten million dollars in NYC taxpayer money off these illegal donations/bribes (very illegal!).
I did start to realize I had perhaps talked about him too much when no fewer than a dozen people emailed and texted me articles in the wake of his indictment. Simply put, New York City deserves better!
If you are also fascinated by his saga, I highly recommend subscribing to my friend’s Substack
CAFÉ ANNE
for a hilarious recurring segment “Eric Adams Watch.” You can read the annotated indictment to understand exactly the crimes he committed and the ways he sought to cover them up (hint: if you’re ever trying to cover up criminal behavior, maybe don’t text an aide that you “always do” delete their texts detailing your many crimes), and read this hilarious article by Sarah Lyall reliving the exact perks Eric Adams got from the Turkish government.
Painted portrait book covers are in. Coco Mellors may have ignited this trend with her breakout hit Cleopatra and Frankenstein, which she followed up with the novel Blue Sisters.
I’m especially impressed that each international edition has a different painting.
This novel is definitely following in the Coco Mellors vein.
This seems like a cousin to the painted portrait as cover. It gives me Matisse vibes.

There are no new bagels, only new distribution systems. I’ve written previously about how I can’t stand the thought of another bagel after overdosing on them my first few years in New York. Still, it seems like every other week there’s a new “it” bagel place—Utopia, Apollo, a new Ess-a-Bagel location. But there are only so many ways to reinvent a bagel—swirling colorful dyes into the dough to make them Instagram-ready, adding a tomato, or making them flat. The only real novelty I’ve seen is at Pop Up Bagels. You have to buy four bagels at a time and they come untoasted and unsliced with a tub of cream cheese on the side. The idea is to rip off a piece of bagel and drag it through the cream cheese. I will hand it to them that this is a legitimately new bagel eating method to me, but I still don’t think I’m eager to wait in another bagel line.
NYU is opening a location in Tulsa, which seems like the hardest sell I could imagine. They are advertising “study abroad” in….Oklahoma. Tulsa is a city that, like Detroit, had a legitimately very important role in American history, but is perpetually “on the come up.” The reason to go to NYU is the access to Manhattan. They are aiming for 20 undergraduate students to start in January. I wish them luck. This reminds me of the time my old employer asked for two New Yorkers to transfer to the Atlanta office because there was a talent imbalance and they offered….nothing if you did so. Good luck!!
Sticking with the NYU beat, the three-block stretch between W Houston Street and Washington Square has to be some of the most prime underdeveloped real estate. There’s an opportunity for someone here to buy it and turn it into a high-end mini-strip mall with a Barry’s, Joe and the Juice, and Ganni. Right now, it’s a couple of gross-looking bars and one decent sandwich shop. Someone should work on this.
Rounding out our local news segment, the guy who draws chalk circles in Union Square needs to cheer up!! If you’re not familiar, there is a fellow, whom the New York Times actually profiled last year, who draws enormous circles around Union Square with phrases such as “good luck spot,” “kissing spot,” and “hugging spot.” Sometimes he has “bad luck spots,” and my friend and I always take it very seriously to walk around them. I appreciate a little provocation in the form of bad luck spots, but this week he had much harsher words I won’t include here. We need more levity on the streets!
Moving on, there is nothing chicer than a woman who can pull off a pixie cut. Think of Mia Farrow, Jean Seberg, Emma Watson for that brief era, the coolest person you went to college with. But fewer people can than they realize.
Red interiors are having a moment. See: West Village Postcard, a bakery, and Big Night, a dinner party supplies store (sheesh, only in NYC). Both have eye-catching blood-red interiors. It reminded me of the Parade underwear store on Broadway. Red seems like a weirdly aggressive choice. Maybe it's because this kind of lacquered red stands out more on digital than the expected pastel choice.
From left: Postcard, Big Night, Parade
It is our civic duty to stomp the spotted lantern flies, but I like my shoes too much. That is all.
Your wedding day should not be the best day of your life. How sad if you peak at 25 or 30 or whenever you get married, and on a day when you were essentially moonlighting as an event planner. If anything, two better and more consequential days of my life were the day I met my husband and the day he got his green card and we could finally live together in the same country. Relatedly, if your profile says “2024 bride,” and especially if that year is in the past, I am begging you to get a hobby. It’s not a degree. It is one day in a life-long commitment.
Is there anything worse than sitting in a meeting and watching someone bomb and realizing you’ve been that person bombing? I am working with some students right now and it just reminded me that, as a student, I thought I knew so much, and probably so often made a fool of myself. It gave me a lot of empathy watching these kids.
I actually think New York would be a really great place to raise children. Not that I want to. But there’s so much to do in the city all the time, there’s a lot of culture you can experience for free, there are a lot of parks. NYC kids are exposed to so much from such a young age and develop such a sense for the world you can’t get many other places. I was very charmed by the nine-year old who came up to me at my pop-up last month and politely asked for a “pamplemousse La Croix.”
Sometimes the easiest answer is the one right in front of you. I have wanted to access a private establishment near my apartment since I moved here three years ago. I have concocted all sorts of schemes to get access. And then just last week I figured out that a different organization I was already a part of had reciprocal privileges. Just a reminder going into your Monday that occasionally the most obvious answer is right under your nose!
Cars that block the intersection are the a**hole. As a pedestrian, you have the right to walk slowly around them and glare. The two extra feet they gain are not equivalent to the safety of a pedestrian!
Morgenstern’s ice cream organization system may be the key to an unexpected closet organization system. I love the idea of organizing my clothes by color/mood versus by garment. Maybe I’ll give it a shot.

So much of success comes down to slim margins and luck. I really enjoyed reading this Harvard Business School case about Mercedes’ seven-year long winning streak in Formula 1. (You are meant to pay $11.95, but if you really want it, email me and I’ll send it). So much of what they discuss is the changes they make in order to gain one one hundredth of a second. Their winning streak came to an end when regulations changed and they just couldn’t adapt their car, a lot of which is skill, but at least some of which is luck. Reading about college admissions’ ever-increasing insanity reminds me that getting into my dream university was a whole lot of hard work and a healthy dose of luck when it came down to the tiny margins of difference between students. And it certainly seems like the 2024 election is going to come down to a slim margin and some luck, like where the next winter storm will hit. It’s a good reminder that your success is not entirely based on you and to stay a little humble.
I’m the idiot for ordering Takis ice cream. The NY Post had a hilariously unhinged review of the new Van Leeuwen location on the Upper West Side and its wacky flavors. This week, I went to a new ice cream store and, as I usually do, ordered the thing on the menu I hadn’t tried before. But that was pure foolishness when I took a single bite of the Takis (a Mexican snack food sort of similar to a hot Cheetoh) ice cream and ended up standing over a garbage can shoveling the scoop off my cone and into a garbage cone. Disgusting. (Also, who’s going to do the reporting to find out why they moved their new UWS location before it even opened in the West Village? I stumbled upon an influencer event and got a free scoop on the corner of Hudson and Charles, so I know for a fact that was its intended location. Why are they so committed to the West Side?)
Also, if you are 5’10” or taller, I need you to reply to this email and tell me where we are buying black skirts that won’t get us arrested for public indecency. I’m okay with short, but not get-arrested-short.
The subways are more crowded these days than they were over the summer. I’m curious what causes that: more students back in school, fewer people traveling, business people back from their summer houses. But you would think the venn diagram of those with summer houses and those taking the subway would not overlap.
Relatedly, a thought for this week: walk home one evening this week. If you live really far from your place of work, then walk part of the route. It is so lovely to be above ground and watch the sunset, which is hitting around 7pm these days, just about quitting time. We have only a few weeks of this glorious weather before it switches to frigid.

Also, this is my plug that it’s really easy to sign up to be a poll worker on election day. At least in New York City, you just take a four hour training class and pass an open book test and that’s it. I thought it was a volunteer position, but it actually pays $400 for the training class and Election Day shift if that matters to you. I’m really excited to help people vote in my neighborhood on November 5th. If you’ve been thinking about a way to get involved, this is a low-barrier option.

Updates on the bag brand

“Is this a bribery situation?” I asked.

“No, it’s not,” F. replied very calmly, even though I had just accused his government of unsavory dealings.

My bags had been stuck in Turkish customs for three days. I manufacture my products in Turkey and it’s been an ongoing challenge to get items in and out of the country. To date, I’ve relied on an informal network of friends and family traveling to and from the country. My goal for this autumn has been to figure out a more sustainable supply chain. So, I shipped a big box of more than a dozen bags via mail carrier to Turkey. My biggest fear was that the box would get stuck somewhere in transit and never make it to Turkey. I did not expect this.

The following day, F. woke me up. “So, it is now a bribery situation.” On top of the 60% of declared value customs charge, I was also looking at random other taxes and a pay-off.

“Well, okay, how much is he offering to take off the bill if we slip him something?” I asked.

“No, this is just to get the bags out of customs.”

“Oh, so it’s extortion.” Great.

I looked at what would happen if I just gave up on this endeavor and didn’t have the bags picked up from the airport. “If the receiver refuses to accept the package, the package will be shipped back to the US, taking up to 6 months, or will be abandoned.” That was a no go.

So I sucked it up and I paid the truly jaw-dropping final amount. I learned a very hard, very bad lesson, but I had to try it to find out.

So, if you’ve been looking for a bag recently and it hasn’t come in stock yet, this is why!

And, if you’ve ever wanted to go Turkey, it just got cheaper for you. Given that I will be relying on people going to and from Turkey to transport the bags, I am putting out a standing offer of $250 if you fly to or from Turkey. I will get the bags to you anywhere in the US, and you can drop them back off anywhere, though New York is preferable. Let me know!

Cappuccino Classified

If you are interested in advertising in Cappuccino Thoughts, please email claire@claireakkan.com

Every week, I hear from many of you with burning questions: How do I launch a creative side hustle? How can I break out of a reading slump? How do I make culture a bigger part of my life?

To help you take action, I’m opening up “office hours” — a chance to connect 1:1 for two exclusive 30-minute slots each week. If you’ve got something you want to dive into, now’s your chance to sign up.

These spots won’t last, and I’m not sure how long I’ll be able to offer them, so if you’re ready to get the answers you need, I recommend grabbing your spot now!

Look of the week

Thank you to reader B. for sending in this look of the week! This person has got some impressive footwear going. I can’t even figure out what they are exactly—giant plush slippers? Are there wheels involved? Whatever it is, there’s a lot going on with the color palette and proportions. There’s a giant (perhaps Moncler-inspired?) marshmallowy vest, blocky sunglasses, and a crazy haircut. And a healthy dose of pink between the shoes, long sleeve shirt, and as B. asked me to point out, even a matching La Croix.

What’s on the bedside table

“Should we buy a factory???” I texted J. “Definitely,” he replied. I had done something I did something I always counsel against - I gave someone a book I had not read myself. My friend J. loved American Flannel so much that when he finished it, I immediately asked for it back to read myself. The book is about the decline of textile manufacturing in the United States and the few businesses trying to bring it back. This is of personal interest, obviously (see above, updates on the bag brand), but I do think it’s pertinent reading for anyone interested in industry, especially as we head into this election. There’s so much talk about bringing factory jobs back to the US, and I think this book does a really good job illustrating why they went offshore in the first place (a combination of pricing, trade agreements, and politics) and why they’re so hard to bring back (primarily, the lack of people in the US who are trained in these trades today). This book percolated a lot of ideas for me about my bag business, the work I do with the nonprofit Closely Crafted, and the mark I want to leave on the world. I’m going to get the author to speak at the Yale Club in March. Until then, five stars.

Thanks for reading Cappuccino Thoughts. If you want more where this came from, subscribe here.

If you liked this issue, hit that like button or leave me a comment! It’s really helpful for me to understand what you all want more or less of.

This week I am going with fellow fiber arts lover M. to the Hudson Valley Sheep & Wool Festival, described as “an annual gathering of fiber-arts enthusiasts in the United States that draws approximately 30,000 visitors and more than 300 vendors.” Suffice it to say, I expect to find my people.

Cappuccino Thoughts