Food + Hospitality Things I’m Into

Welcome back to food + hospitality things I’m into right now — a weekly restaurant and hospitality-adjacent newsletter from me, Kayleigh, a food + travel writer based in New York.

There’s a swath of new openings this fall, but more than that, the places we already know and love are finding creative ways to stay buoyant: book clubs, singles nights, block parties.

Here’s what’s hot during this post-Labor Day, but still early September era.

New York Food + Hospitality Things I’m Into

• Book-and-wine pairings. Service95, which is Dua Lipa’s art / culture / literature hub, is hosting a wine pairing — not with food — but with books at Gigi’s on September 14th. I’m a big fan of how Dua uses her platform: Encouraging people to read more, think critically, and stay engaged in the arts.

  • But Dua is not the only one unlocking budding friendships, possible romance, and wine tastings by way of books. Book Club Bar is hosting “Singles Night” tonight, September 8th, “Book Crush Bar” on September 14th, and a “Bookshop Meet Cute” on September 17th (and a few more dates).

• The movie The Taste of Things. Set in a French country house at the tail end of the 19th century, the film traces the decades-long culinary and romantic partnership between a cook and her gourmet. It energized me, compelled me to roast a whole chicken and wear an apron. If you care about food and cooking but find yourself uninspired and burnt out, go back to the basics. Return to seasoning a chicken, simmering broth, remembering food is a slow art and a practice of devotion.

  

• My *favorite* place to drink and eat (and sometimes, spill out onto the sidewalk and smoke) in Paris, Aux Deux Amis, coming to New York. I gasped when I saw it. It’s the weekend of the 25th and I am just praying they’re running the beef tartare I had in Paris.

• Restaurant block parties! Ernesto’s is hosting a no-RSVP, open-invite block party on September 12th with pintxos and pop-ups, while Claude x Penny are hosting a ticketed wine party that same day.

• New York barbecue. As a North Carolinian, my heart skipped a beat with the news that Kirbees, a Texas barbecue joint, just opened in Greenpoint this August.

  • Don’t tell my hometown folk, but I lean Texas barbecue. This brick-red building will be a hit, and I think a smokey brisket will bode well for all of us as we enter yet another fall and yet another sports-watching season.

• The coffee-to-wine pipeline, all at the same place. Now, this is not a novel idea, but it’s one that exists less often than you’d think. Pony’s, the new cafe x wine bar in Red Hook, is doing a fabulous job at this. Anais in Boerum Hill and For All Things Good in Bed-Stuy, too. Raf’s in Nolita is exquisite and French. Even Bar Pisellino has frothy caps by day and clean negronis by night.

  • It’s the epitome of sit down and stay awhile, which is precisely how I like to be treated when 1) drinking coffee and 2) drinking wine.

  

• A post-run coffee in Brooklyn Heights. Specifically, the earl grey latte from Nako. Mind you, Joe Jonas was ALSO there when I was there.

  • I’m training for a race in Rome (!!!) because I find that immediate pleasure (food, drink, fun) is much more gratifying when done in conjunction with delayed pleasure (running, friction, hardship). I’ve been running to Brooklyn Heights from Bed-Stuy, toward the nerve-settling waterfront Brooklyn Promenade area, and finishing with a sweet treat at Nako.

• Cafe Mado’s steak dinner on Mondays. I recently dined solo for the INSANE figs and foie gras salad at the bar, but my server nudged me to come back on a Monday for their signature $85 steak dinner.

  • It includes prime-quality beef, two starters, a spread of seasonal sides, and a really great mesh of industry people and neighborhood locals coming together on a Monday. I miss when Mondays were my Saturday when I worked in restaurants.

• Vegetables in my dessert. Nothing like a bit of shock for a final palate cleanser.

  • In Charlotte, I just downed chef Callan’s melon sherbet that leads with sansho pepper at Rada. It made me think of all the other savory additions to ice cream I’ve had in the past year. At Luminosa in Asheville, parsnip ice cream was the staff’s favorite finisher. At Baby Bistro in LA, chef Miles Thompson added this eyebrow-raising cucumber whip atop a sugar cookie. I’ve devoured white asparagus gelato from Foxface Natural (rip) and a wasabi ice cream in Durham, NC.

    

• The bold, brazen new wave of young restaurant owners. Specifically, I’m thinking of George McNally who just opened Faux. George is Keith McNally’s son, but beyond that, he is sharp with good, gritty taste. It is both rare and bold to open a restaurant, and even more so to do it under 30 years old. Stakes are high, and, according to what I’m hearing, execution is too.

  • I was just in Charlotte and went to Huckleberry bar, where the beverage director, Sean Teague, is 25 years old. There’s an eagerness, relevance, and hunger to young culinary talent that gives their concepts an extra sheen.

• Mili opening in the Lower East Side. With combined histories at Estela, Tusk, The French Laundry, and Altro Paradiso, duo Alexis White and chef Jorge Luis Pabón will open this neighborhood restaurant in LES in late September.

May you eat well and be well!

Kayleigh