Innholdsfortegnelse for April/May 2022 i Esquire

GENERALLY, WE ARE ON THE SIDE OF THE devolution of power. But a picnic needs a central showstopper around which everyone circumambulates in wonder and awe. Yea, from the darkness of the picnic basket emerges the Party Loaf, long-neglected American classic, the staple of ladies’ luncheons of yesteryear, now reborn for gonzo picnics. The Party Loaf—no two words work better both individually and in conjunction—consists of a loaf of sandwich bread sliced three times horizontally. On each level lives a different spread. It’s like an apartment building of sandwiches. The entire thing is ensconced in a cream-cheese frosting and finished with decorations according to one’s wont. It’s all very magisterial and mid-century, food from when the world seemed simpler. Though it will be the central element of your picnic spread, the…

Going on a picnic doesn’t have to mean Solo cups and paper plates. Adding some real items from the bar or kitchen can make things feel a little more proper. So we collaborated with the party-in-a-box experts at Social Studies to make a picnic kit we have dubbed Field Day Fete. You bring the food and drink; they provide all the plates, silverware, and other accoutrements for a picture-perfect setting. You don’t even have to do dishes–just put everything back in the box and send it back. But our kit features a few cool things you get to keep, including these cheese knives and coasters that will elevate anything from Champagne to a simple can of Bud. social-studies.com…

0% ST. AGRESTIS PHONY NEGRONI The same herby bitterness that helps a negroni cut through late-afternoon heat is here but sans alcohol in small, handsome batch-made bottles. 5.5% BAJA BREWING ESCORPION NEGRO Over IPAs but also don’t want a boring lager? Go with this just-bitter-enough black ale from Mexico. 12% HANA HWAJU MAKGEOLLI Makgeolli, slightly effervescent Korean rice wine, is pearlescent, florally noted, and eminently sippable. Huge in Korea and rising in the States, this is a rare Brooklyn- and female-made version. 12.5% ASHANTA WINES “UNDER CURRENTS” CARIGNAN Out of the wreckage of the pandemic and wildfires, winemakers Chenoa Ashton-Lewis and Will Basanta founded Ashanta. Their first vintage includes a breakout Carignan, tasting of good times and ripe cherries. 18% MULASSANO BIANCO Hot day. Vermouth. Tonic on ice. Unbeatable. Especially…

BEFORE IT WAS INSTAGRAM FAMOUS and got write-ups by The New York Times, Vogue, and the BBC for its efforts to survive the pandemic, Casa Magazines was a place you happened upon. Perched on the corner of Eighth Avenue and Twelfth Street in New York’s West Village, Casa is among the last magazine shops in the city—a shrine to print, a place that is truly analog. It’s tiny, maybe 400 square feet, and smells delightfully of fresh paper thanks to the thousands of magazines lining the walls and piling up on the floor. There is every title you can imagine and many you can’t, like August, a beautiful, coffee-table-sized travel magazine about places like… New Jersey. The owner, Mohammed Ahmed, and manager, Syed Wasim, aka Ali (pictured here), know exactly where…

IT’S BOOM TIMES FOR EVOLVED MINIMALISM. GONE ARE THE restrictive silhouettes and stark palette of days past. In their place are clothes in a range of hues that hang precisely—but comfortably—on the body. It’s all about elevated ease, and the best part about it is that you can do it for pretty much any price. Sure, you could spend five grand on something extra fancy. But you can also get a “Holy shit, I can’t believe it’s that affordable” version of the vibe with around $500 in your pocket. Here’s how. THE ÜBER-AFFORDABLE, ÜBER-COOL SUIT A suit for less than $150? You’d expect something fit for humming fluorescent lights and humdrum office parks, right? Well, now that Christophe Lemaire—king of high-end minimal luxury with his own label, Lemaire—is at the helm…

THE FIRST HOUSE IT IS 1992 AND A HOUSE BUILT ON HOPE IS CRACKING UNDER PRESSURE. A frightened young family huddles in the living room, hiding beneath a torn roof, praying to survive. The floors are lifting, the carpet is flooding, and as one wall then another splinters, this family’s dreams start to collapse. Outside, Hurricane Andrew: the sound like a freight train, loud and ominous, relentless and otherworldly. It is coming for them, this force of wind and rain and some other power that feels unstoppable and ungodly, spiteful even. A tree spins through violent gusts, snapped cleanly from its roots. Manicured lawns in the housing development explode. Sidewalks heave and ripple. Windows shatter. It’s impossible to know where inside ends and outside begins. Time has stopped, yet everything else…

Website description: landscape hotel. Translation: You will be staring into the woods a lot from your modern, Scandi-style box-on-stilts cabin with floor-to-ceiling windows, your body wrapped in an unbleached cotton robe reminiscent of Obi-Wan Kenobi’s. How long can one stare into the woods, you might ask? Long enough to spot chipmunks or get a visit from an owl. You will ask yourself: Should I write a poem about the wind? Built on a former bluestone quarry that was once Mohican land, Piaule’s minimal yet warm design produces maximum calm. Your trip will be incomplete if you don’t shuffle in your slippers through the spa to a hot tub with one side open to the elements and the mountain across the valley below. When you are done gazing at the wilderness,…

So much has changed, and we are filled with nostalgia. Nostalgia for a simpler time and place, with the ordinary rituals of life. Here is the good news: There is such a place. A place where those rituals, which seemed such trouble then, have taken on the tone of ceremony. I am talking, of course, about airport security. Come travel with me, and share that old-timey feeling of removing your shoes, your belt, your watch in a sweet Bushera striptease! Has it changed? As someone who has traveled extensively during the pandemic, I can report: It has not. While some terminals have “simplified” the process—with upgraded lines—smaller airports still offer the “classic” service. The best part is, you never know which one! San Francisco? Big boots, no problem. Frankfurt? Get…

Many come to ski. I was enchanted by the hot tubs. There are two, fairly sized, that flank a vast outdoor heated pool, and in the winter and cooler spring evenings, they are a sublime way to take in the crisp, clean, sky-high air and the awe-inspiring jagged mountains. (They don’t call it Hell-U-Ride for nothing.) And while the Auberge Resorts Collection hotel could have easily rested on its prime ski-in, ski-out location and detail-oriented service, it recently went through a vibrant classic-Alps-meets-Colorado-chic renovation. Hot tub not relaxing enough? Check into the Recovery Ski Lounge for some post-workout therapies that will get you back on the slopes. Rooms from $1,500…

Nestled on the Pacific Coast Highway, this collection of bungalows began life in 1949 as the Malibu Riviera Motel. After a 2019 overhaul, the original spirit of the Riviera was left intact, but many of the details have been upgraded. Luxurious amenities abound: Aesop products in the bathroom, hammocks on most of the private patios, morning coffee and muffins in the lobby. There’s even a heated pool and deck, a rarity for development-phobic Malibu. But the real draw here is the atmosphere. The June is an ideal mix of unfussy and posh, an escape where you can de-stress and decompress. Is it any wonder that Bob Dylan holed up in bungalow number 13 in 1974 to write Blood on the Tracks? Bungalows from $570…

the table is laden with slabs of beef, trays of oysters, and copper pots of pommes aligot. A waiter in a tux, tossing a Caesar salad. Iceberg’s in the air. Diners grinning at the show. One, a doubting Thomas, cuts into his rib eye, scarlet under char, and wonders, “Is this really rare?” Limbs are limber, eyes shine bright, the Barolo is empty. If Caravaggio were alive today, there is no doubt he would take his talents to a steakhouse. There is no other restaurant that better captures all that is primal, all that drama twixt life and death, all the revelry mankind can summon, all the pleasure mankind can feel, than a steakhouse. And yet the past few years have not been kind to the American steakhouse. The plant-based…

THERE’S A LINGUISTIC HABIT I’M HEARING a dozen times a day, and now so will you. Someone is telling a first-person story, talking about something that’s happened to them or they’ve witnessed. The action begins: I opened the door; I picked up the phone; I turned right. But then, when the story gets dramatic, the narrator is no longer the protagonist. You are. I opened the door, and you could see everyone running. I picked up the phone, and you could hear him laughing. I turned right, and you saw smoke in the distance. It is an unconscious sleight of hand, a conversational do-si-do we don’t do on purpose: We sprint away from first person and slide right into second. Survivors of school shootings tell their stories: “I ran out of…

1 Cut a Pullman loaf horizontally into four equal slices, with no crust. Milk bread would also be ideal. 2 Add a ¼-inch spread of your choice to each layer. (Pictured at left is mortadella mousse, pasta salad, and anchovy and egg salad, but you can do whatever you’re feeling.) 3 Stack the layers and refrigerate for an hour. 4 Remove from the fridge and spread cream cheese evenly over the loaf. Optional: Garnish with hard-boiled egg, anchovies, or some pickled zucchini. 5 Slice, serve, party. It’s probably easiest to eat with a fork and knife, but you do you.…

For nearly 20 years, Noma’s René Redzepi and his merry band of weirdos have been deep into fermentation. A visit to the Copenhagen restaurant wasn’t complete without a tour of shipping containers filled with old stuff getting better with age. Now you can try some of that at home. Smoked Mushroom Garum is the first of Noma’s pantry products. Garum is an ancient Roman fermented fish sauce. This version, however, is made with mushrooms, fermented with koji for six to eight weeks, then cold-smoked and strained. It’s an umami superfluid, turning everything at your picnic, from a pasta salad to chili, tangibly more delicious. It isn’t the Mick Jagger, but it is the Merry Clayton. That is to say, the secret, soulful, and best part. $24 for 250ml; nomaprojects.com…

BEFORE YOU ASK, SOLOMON HUGHES is three inches shorter than Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. Yes, he played basketball professionally, and his sky hook is nearly as effervescent as the original. No, actor Kareem hasn’t spoken to real Kareem. No, you’ve never seen Hughes before, because HBO’s Winning Time: The Rise of the Lakers Dynasty, on which he plays Abdul-Jabbar, is his very first acting gig. And sure, he felt a tiny bit of pressure when his very first acting gig required him to become arguably the most influential basketball player who’s ever lived. With that out of the way: It’s the morning after the debut of Winning Time—the über-stylized series about the Showtime-era Lakers—and Hughes, 43, is telling me how a man goes from D-I baller to Harlem Globetrotter to Stanford lecturer to…

SWEET PICKLE BOOKS, MANHATTAN If you’ve ever thought, This book would pair well with an artisanal pickle, then have we got the bookstore for you. The Lower East Side gem sells gently used books, rare volumes, and housemade pickles. Be sure to snag some merch—Sweet Pickle’s tees sell out quickly. CAFE CON LIBROS, BROOKLYN This indie, Black-owned staple in Brooklyn has an eclectic, curated selection of everything: antiracist children’s books, one-of-a-kind greeting cards, and, as the name indicates, top-notch coffee. RIZZOLI, MANHATTAN Located in a dreamy beaux-arts space, Rizzoli is the mecca of coffee-table books. Not in the market for a showstopping art book? Have no fear: You can pick up European magazines, too.…

THOUGH IT MAKES CLOTHES, calling Aspesi a fashion brand isn’t quite right. “Anti-fashion” is more accurate. From its founding in 1969 by designer Alberto Aspesi, the label has refused to be pigeonholed by anything as shallow as trends. American-born, Milan-based designer Lawrence Steele knows a thing or two about that approach. After logging time at Moschino and Prada (not to mention his own eponymous label), Steele worked as a consultant for Aspesi from 2004 to 2017, helping the team fine-tune everything from the shirts the company has made since the very beginning to the military-inspired outerwear that’s become a modern-day Aspesi specialty. And over those 13 years, Alberto became not just a boss but a friend and mentor. “Mr. Aspesi was all about the authenticity of the process,” Steele explains, “about…

FOUR ANGRY PIMPLES ARE PEPPERING MY FACE RIGHT NOW. IT’S BEEN YEARS SINCE I’VE BROKEN OUT like this. But I’m stressed. And thanks to the current state of the world, there’s a very good chance you are, too. Which means you might also be having skin issues. The culprit? Biology. “When we’re stressed, our adrenal glands increase output of the stress hormone cortisol,” says dermatologist Dendy Engelman. That’s fine if you’re a caveman running from a hungry bear. But if you’re a modern man working at a job that keeps your cortisol level high for days, weeks, or months, it brings about inflammation inside your body and outside on your skin. The havoc this wreaks can range from oily skin and premature aging—a high cortisol level can result in wrinkles,…

__ I’VE BEEN THERE, BOUGHT THE T-SHIRT. If you ever need to have a chat about anything, I’m your man. __ ONE DAY, I’M IN SCHOOL having a cigarette and minding me own business. I think I was fifteen, sixteen. A couple of lads were looking for a bit of a fight. We got into a fight, and one of ’em hit a hammer over my head. Then a couple of weeks later music started creeping in. It hadn’t before. I’m like, You know what? I like that song, that’s pretty cool. Whoever it was whapped me on the head, I’d like to thank him. __ I ENJOY GETTING UP EARLY. I like the morning. I like the quiet. You go out at eleven and all the lunatics are out.…

During the mid-twentieth century, the fifty-two-story First National Bank Tower in Dallas was home to sleazy tycoons. But by 2010, the tower was mostly empty. With a recent $450 million renovation, it was reborn, dazzling like Lazarus. Floors ten through twenty form the new, 219-room Thompson Dallas—the kind of place that has an outdoor pool with a neato window on the side to look into. The hotel is also home to one of the best bars in the state (Catbird). And this might be a small thing, but the toiletries are D. S.& Durgha’s Bowmakers, an impossible-to-get fragrance (I tried for months) that smells of a violin workshop and alone warrants the trip to Dallas. Rooms from $650…

Rome shimmers in the July heat. You are fifty-three—a father since you were nineteen. Some friends have toddlers; yours are off to grad school. For thirty years you dreamed of this trip but had neither the money nor the time. And now? Four countries in two weeks have you wrung out. The Berlin airlift was easier than getting your wife, three kids, and a son-in-law to Europe. Tonight, the family plops down at a side-walk six-top outside a busy trattoria. Baskets of hot bread appear, chilled Primitivo. Toasts are made, and when you glance at your pretty Italian American wife, she is weeping. Suddenly, it’s all worth it. And not just the trip. This reverie repeats every day at cocktail hour: Aperol spritzes in front of misting fans in the…

Yearning for a spot far from the madding crowd where you can indulge in the great outdoors, sleep on 160-GSM sheets, and enjoy a Michelin-worthy meal? There’s no better bet than the Green O. Each of the dozen modern units (dubbed “hauses”) features a massive floor plan, Sonos sound system, gas fireplace, and private hot tub. The nucleus of the hotel is the Social Hause, a sort of restaurant-slash-gathering-place where executive chef Brandon Cunningham whips up intensely creative seasonal fare. (Opt in on the tasting menu.) In winter months, you might snowshoe, go horseback riding, or learn the basics of dog-sledding. Warmer weather might have you fly-fishing, mountain biking, or shooting skeet. Thankfully, the spa is open all year round. Units from $2,005…

The architect Addison Mizner was a bon vivant, and his masterpiece, the Cloister at the Boca Raton, is proof. Open since 1926 and revitalized this past year, the Mediterranean-revival building is the heart of the resort, now home to a beach club, bungalows, and a yacht club. It’s a fabulous old-school haunt where you wander through hidden gardens, spot folks partying in a retro dining club, and grab a Gibson at the lobby bar with soaring beamed ceilings before making your way to the Flamingo Grill. There, pink-jacketed waiters make you believe you’re a power player even though you’re just on spring break. For all its history, the Boca Raton feels alive–a museum it is not. Rooms from $799…

To understand the mission of the 1 Hotel, you just need to look around. A local woodworking studio has transformed fallen Toronto trees into one-of-a-kind pieces throughout the hotel, engraved with their source location. There is a garden that supplies herbs and crops to the property’s restaurants, and even the coffee-machine instructions are printed on napkins. But it’s not all greenery and reflection—there is a stylish rooftop lounge and pool overlooking the city. The rooms are spacious, comfortable, and calming even when the popular lobby bar downstairs is at full tilt. Doubles from $360…

With all due respect to the Bangles, Monday does not have to be manic. Capitalism decrees that weekends are meant to serve as our collective days of rest, but I’ve found that the real rest takes place when everyone else is crawling back to work. Not long ago, seeking refuge from twin toddlers and work-from-home monotony, I booked a room for a Monday night at the Rivertown Lodge in the Hudson Valley. As soon as I checked in and savored the afternoon stillness, I knew I’d made a good decision. I worked for several hours, then I blissed out during a solo dinner at the tavern. Chef Efrén Hernández makes a dish of shaved raw Brussels sprouts crowned with a thin sheet of foie gras. I slowed down and pondered…

CARNE MARE Manhattan The Gorgonzola-cured Wagyu at Andrew Carmellini’s Italian chophouse is a new classic. And the roast duck d’Ivan is a very worthy detour. GAGE & TOLLNER Brooklyn One of the most beautiful historic rooms in the country serves some of the best cocktails—get the turf martini—and inventive steakhouse twists from chef Sohui Kim. COTE New York and Miami Chef David Shim and restaurateur Simon Kim have created buzzing Korean steakhouses where table-grilled aged meat and decadent wines and cocktails promise an irresistible night out. BAZAAR MEAT Chicago José Andrés’s latest midwestern outpost has Kobe beef grilled on ishiyaki stones and million-dollar views of the Chicago River. MILLER & LUX San Francisco All the beef is sourced from northern California at Tyler Florence’s ultraluxe steakhouse, but if that isn’t…

THE SHIP WAS MONUMENTAL, like Atlantis risen from the depths, its own island, its own nation, a miracle of every kind of human labor and ingenuity. Even the sea was impressed. The waters calmed to make way for it and when it slashed across the horizon, the pelagic creatures appeared in their slippery legions to disport themselves in its wake. Dolphins rocketed alongside. Sea lions barked. Whales bobbed up like corks to salute its monumentality, then dove deep to escape the crushing impact of its bow. In port—and it was in port now, indefinitely—its vast hull attracted the attentions of mollusks and crustaceans and its decks the loose-boweled gulls whose excreta would have buried them knee-deep but for the unceasing attentions of the ship’s crew. Can you say Yokohama? I…

THE SEX PISTOLS DIDN’T INVENT PUNK ROCK. That honor goes to American upstarts at CBGB. But the Pistols deserve—and accept—the blame for bringing it to the ’burbs. When a teen turns up with spiky hair, a dog collar, and a leather jacket, the response is “What are you, the Sex Pistols?” It’s a generic term now, like Xerox or Kleenex. The band blazed that trail. With flamethrowers. The Pistols’ antiestablishment attitudes sprouted from their working-class upbringing. Steve Jones was a prolific thief who claims to have walked off with David Bowie’s equipment and used it to start the band. Paul Cook was bound for the electrical trades. In the early seventies, the two childhood friends frequented a London clothing store called Let It Rock. Its owners, designers Vivienne Westwood and Malcolm…

For the items featured in Esquire, please consult the website or call the phone number provided. Blueprint, p. 32: Sease jacket, sease.it. P. 34: Wales Bonner jacket and pants, walesbonner.net. Wales Bonner vest, netaporter.com. Moral Code sneakers, moralcode.com. P. 35: Tod’s jacket and pants, tods.com. COS polo, cosstores.com. Tecovas boots, tecovas.com. Jacques Marie Mage sunglasses, jacquesmariemage.com. Ahluwalia jacket and pants, ahluwalia.world. G.H. Bass Originals loafers, ghbass.com. P. 36: Aspesi polo shirt, aspesi.com. Aspesi trousers, jacket, and shirt, +39 0331 464286. P. 38: TAG Heuer watch and strap, tagheuer.com. P. 40: The Frankie Shop jacket and shirt, thefrankieshop.com. Uniqlo sweater, jacket, shirt, and trousers, uniqlo.com. Zara coat and trousers, zara.com. Banana Republic belt, bananarepublic.com. Timex watch, timex.com. Everlane shoes, everlane.com. On the Move, p. 79: Dior Men jacket, shirt, tie, and…

THERE WAS A TIME WHEN THE CURVACEOUS, UNDULATING seating of the mod era could only be found in the most outré and louche cinematic interiors. Think Bond villains, Barbarella, A Clockwork Orange. These days, however, you can’t gawk at a high-end property without seeing it. These nonlinear scene-stealers have emerged in all the cutting-edge interiors that matter. Kanye West sold his Maybach to bankroll a Jean Royère polar bear sofa. “My favorite piece of furniture we own,” he tweeted. (A 1947 original sold for $1.1 million at Christie’s in November.) Supermodel Elsa Hosk perched on her bouclé circular sofa for 7.3 million Instagram followers. Mega designer Yves Béhar anchored his manse in San Francisco’s Cow Hollow with four Ubald Klug for de Sede couches contoured in cognac leather waves, plus a…

PIMENTO CHEESE SWEET GRASS DAIRY Georgia’s Sweet Grass Dairy substitutes its own Tomme for the more traditional cheddar, but with Sir Kensington’s mayo and piquillo peppers, the pimento holy trinity is all present and accounted for. $9; sweetgrassdairy.com SMOKED WHITEFISH SALAD RUSS & DAUGHTERS The OG smoked-fish merchants from the Lower East Side add a touch of kippered salmon to their wildly popular, nationally shippable spread. $26; russanddaughters.goldbelly.com ’NDUJA TEMPESTA ARTISAN SALUMI The Fiasche family has perfected its ’nduja—spicy spreadable salami—over five generations, first in Calabria and now in Chicago. $33; tempestaartisansalumi.com…

JAM: MUSICAL There’s a song called “4th of July” by my friend Meg Duffy, known as Hand Habits. They’re an incredible guitar wizard and one of the most gifted lyricists. It starts off as a softer folky song and it explodes into an entirely different kind of jam. It’s genius. JAM: CULINARY To be honest, I don’t really fuck with jam. I’m definitely more into dips like this Yumm! Sauce from Eugene, Oregon—they ship nationally—that’s made with almonds, garbanzo beans, garlic, and lemon juice. I’ll dip toast and tortilla chips into it. It’s my all-time favorite dip.…

’50/’60s YANKEES Sorry, A-Rod, we need a true period drama. Give us Mantle versus Maris, a DiMaggio-Monroe fling, and Steve Carell as Yogi Berra. ’85 BEARS Pull up YouTube, type in “Super Bowl Shuffle,” hit play. The series writes itself from there. ’90s BULLS Obviously. Bonus points if the series picks up on a downbeat: MJ’s baseball year. ’90s/’00s U. S. WOMEN’S SOCCER TEAM Is a faithful adaptation of Nine for IX’s “The ’99ers” too much to ask for? ’90s ISLANDERS Everyone’s up for a good true-crime yarn nowadays. Let’s see the story of John Spano, who managed to fraud his-way into owning the team.…

SEASE IS A LABEL THAT COULD ONLY HAVE EMERGED FROM ITALY. ITS founders, Franco Loro Piana and his brother Giacomo, are sons of the famous cashmere dynasty, but their approach is far from traditional. Sease fuses performance and elegance for skiers, sailors, surfers—just about anyone with a passion for the outdoors. This spring, the brand has created a collection of high-spec sportswear made from recycled ocean plastics in partnership with the maverick environmental crusaders at Sea Shepherd. The nonprofit organization takes to the ocean to disrupt—often at great risk to its crew—the operations of illegal industrial fishing fleets. It also retrieves nets, which are recycled into usable yarn before being transformed into pieces like the spray top here. The reflective skull-and-crossbones logo emblazoned on the chest and back is a declaration of…

SIX MONTHS AFTER THE APPLE WATCH debuted in 2015, TAG Heuer introduced its first connected watch—a bold early entrée into a market that most of the Swiss watch industry initially dismissed. The old guard thought the Apple Watch was a fad. Now we know smartwatches are here to stay. And while personality-free designs still predominate, TAG Heuer has proven that you can have all that technology in a watch that actually looks stylish. There’s a hitch, though. Swiss-made watches are designed to last a lifetime. Many lifetimes. That isn’t the case with smartwatches. Apple, for instance, has put out seven generations of its watch. TAG Heuer has sought to extend the life of its smartwatch—to make it last for, if not a lifetime, at least longer than others in the market.…

SELECT Our brand-new membership club, Esquire Select offers boundless access to what you already love about Esquire including award-winning journalism, big acts of storytelling, celebrity interviews, fashion advice, cultural commentary, cocktail recipes and so much more. But we've also added a few things we hope will up the ante. Become A Member Today AND GET THE BEST OF ESQUIRE IN ITS ENTIRETY ET INCLUDING: The best damn magazine on the planet, six times a year Unlimited access to Esquire.com Access to every Esquire story ever published via Esquire Classic—plus a weekly newsletter Members-Only Discounts and Deals Unlimited access to Politics with Charles P. Pierce, including Last Call, a members-only newsletter Join now to be a part of this new chapter in Esquire’s story. Head to esquire.com/signup or scan to join.…

Charleston is a city with a great many great things. Lively oyster bars. Pastel-hued townhouses. Harbor views. If it ever lacked much at all, really, it was perhaps quirkiness. That changed in the spring of 2021, when the Ryder hotel opened its doors. Vibrant and eclectic—the ninety-one-room property takes its name from Jack Kerouac’s Dharma Bums hero, Japhy Ryder—this is no quiet, traditional southern outpost. Here the lobby is small but bright, the rooms spacious and welcoming, and the location unmatched. But Little Palm, the poolside bar and restaurant, is the main reason you come back. The indoor/outdoor craft-cocktail haven isn’t just hopping nightly—it’s the talk of the town. Doubles from $299…

You know exactly what I’m talking about. You walk into a hotel lobby and take in the impressively high ceilings. You make some judgments about the decor, the mood. And then you spot the carafe of cucumber water. It’s not water with lemon wedges in it; that would be obvious. Lemon water is something your grandmother drank, and while you recognize its refreshing advantage, it’s a little hacky. Overdone. No, no, this is cucumber water. The moment you see it is the moment everything changes. The bumpy flight, the taxi ride—none of that exists. The thrill of hotel luxury and aspirational living overcomes you. In nonhotel life, you can’t remember ever drinking cucumber water. Who among us has sliced cucumbers and placed them in water? Literally nobody. And yet: Your…

Benjamin Bratt is solid. Since his breakout role in 1993’s Blood In Blood Out, he’s been a familiar face in cop shows, romantic comedies, and whatever Halle Berry’s Catwoman was. Esquire checked in with him ahead of his latest project, DMZ, in which he plays Parco, the leader of the Spanish Harlem Kings in a war-torn Manhattan. DAVE HOLMES: You’re working a lot. BENJAMIN BRATT: Do you really think so? This is going to be fascinating for me. DH: We may not see you in four things a year, but I don’t think of you as someone who’s struggling. It seems like you have the luxury of choosing carefully. Is that accurate? BB: That is a perception I share. Early on as an actor, I had this notion of ascension:…

Not every restaurant that serves steaks is a steakhouse, just as not every song with rhythm has swing. A steakhouse is a narrowly defined dining institution with a constellation of distinctive elements. Decorwise, we’re talking rich, dark tones. There is often wood paneling and banquettes, which are particularly important, as a steakhouse is not simply about the act of eating, which can be done solo, but the act of dining, which involves being seen and seeing others as one eats. In some ways, a steakhouse is no less performative a spectacle than a drag brunch but with money instead of makeup. This also explains the singular service of a steakhouse, waiters boasting an alchemy of sartorial splendor, a magician’s tableside flair, and the brusque delivery of a bus driver. Bow…