Innholdsfortegnelse for Winter 2023/2024 i Esquire

01_STANBYME LG PORTABLE TV Gifting a TV is a big gesture. Gifting a self-contained, WiFi-enabled briefcase TV is a major flex. We tested a lot of futuristic TVs in 2023, and this was our favorite. It can be used on a camping trip, in the backyard, or anywhere at all, really. We’re living in the Jetsons era now. $1,200 02_HERMÈS TIE Here’s the thing about ties: Nobody wears them anymore. Which means you don’t put one on by accident or out of obligation. A tie is a noticeable statement. And if you’re going to make a statement, make a very good one. A finely printed silk tie from Hermès will definitely cut it. $240 03_ZEGNA X THE ELDER STATESMAN BEANIE Zegna is famous for its exquisite cashmere. So is the…

AMONG ICONIC WRISTWATCHES, THE ROLEX Cosmograph Daytona sits at the top of the heap. Built to track the times of race-car drivers—hence the central chronograph hand, tachymetric bezel, and triple registers for logging laps and the like—it’s evolved into a bona fide grail that collectors pray they may someday acquire. You can thank Paul Newman for that. He cemented the watch’s legendary status when he famously wore one in the 1970s. Or put it down to the increased appreciation for purpose-built watches that balance form and function. Either way, folks want a shot at the Daytona. And lucky for them, they just got a new chance to grab the prize. The Daytona turns 60 this year, and to mark the occasion, Rolex has introduced a series of anniversary watches in…

FLASH BACK TO 2013. MY DEBUT NOVEL, THE Residue Years, is coming out. I worked for 13 years on it, and it was like, “How am I going to mark this occasion?” So I buy these shoes I can’t afford, Prada studded loafers, and I wear them for my first national press tour. A few months later, I’d just finished my class at NYU. I was an adjunct professor in New York, commuting between teaching at three or four schools. I’m sitting at the West Fourth subway grading papers because that’s what you do when you teach part-time. I have the shoes with me because they cost like $1,100 and I want to preserve them by getting taps—sole protectors—applied. The train arrives, which I didn’t see coming because I was grading,…

REALNESS CAN BE THRILLING. AND fortunately, radical authenticity is surging in the world of American dining. Perhaps chefs are becoming braver and more willing to put their personal stories on the plate. Or maybe there’s an unconscious impulse afoot to fend off the existential threat of artificial intelligence and virtual worlds. Whatever the reason, we’re all the beneficiaries of a culinary moment that revels in raw honesty. The collective dining experience right now is visceral, vulnerable, downright weird at times—and so very human. Nothing is more real than a whole fish, a dish that makes an appearance, in various forms, on many of the menus featured in the forty-first edition of our Best New Restaurants—reported, as always, by real humans: Jeff Gordinier, Joshua David Stein, Omar Mamoon, and yours truly.…

Hitokuchi SAN DIEGO FROM THE STREET, YOU MIGHT SEE THE drive-through for a fast-food spot, but Hitokuchi is squeezed in the back. Pass through the heavy door and you’ll find some of the most exquisite cooking in San Diego’s Convoy District. Chef John Hong does not hold back when it comes to premium ingredients, and the prices reflect that. But his uni-and-caviar dish is a local legend for a reason: Imagine a tower of sushi rice in which each individual grain has been coated in oceanic luxury. —j. g. Gift Horse PROVIDENCE SEAFOOD SPOTS IN NEW ENGLAND tend to be encrusted with centuries of tradition. Nothing wrong with that. But at Gift Horse, chefs Ben Sukle and Sky Kim scrape off the barnacles and start anew. The result is a…

Kiln SAN FRANCISCO DEEP IN THE KITCHEN, AT THE BACK OF the bare and spare, dark and moody, high-ceilinged, concrete-walled space, chef John Wesley asks himself how much he can do with the absolute least. Like a fillet of mackerel quickly cooked over the hearth until crispy skinned. It sits on a spoonful of a caramel-like concoction made from water and bones reduced over the course of a day. It looks simple, but days of prep and years of experience go into this single dish, along with the other nineteen or so courses. Kiln is a study in restraint and an exercise in fine-dining minimalism. —O. M. Yess LOS ANGELES IT’S A CLICHÉ TO REFER TO RESTAUrants as “temples,” but Yess actually feels like one, with its beamed ceilings and…

IT’S 7:00 P.M. ON A FRIDAY AND YOU’VE ARRIVED AT THE AIRBNB. YOUR FRIENDS have unloaded the groceries, the wood-burning stove is chugging away, and you’ve claimed the king-size bed. Dinner will be ready in an hour and the beers are ready now. What’s this? A hot tub? The listing didn’t mention that. But shit, you don’t have a bathing suit, and this isn’t the crowd for undies. Everyone else brought their suit, and you hear Steve-o declare with a triumphant “Whoop!” that the temperature is perfect. Amanda turns on the jets. You stay inside and scroll through Elon Musk’s tweets, growing more miserable by the second. You know what Steve-o and Amanda did that you did not? They brought a bathing suit just in case. Always bring a bathing…

LENNY KRAVITZ HAD JUST FINISHED PUTTING ON A RED GUCCI SUIT when I entered his dressing room inside a large Brooklyn photo studio. It was a rainy September day, and he was being shot for this month’s Esquire cover story. Lenny makes easy conversation. He’s warm and friendly, even deferential—odd, I thought, for a rock ’n’ roll legend. And of course, he’s extremely cool. But you already knew that. After we chatted for a few minutes, I threw a question at him that I ask everyone: colleagues, bartenders, superiors, celebrities. “What have you been listening to lately?” This is small talk, yes, but the answers can be revelatory. They have led me to discoveries, like the time the designer Todd Snyder recommended the Parcels. Plus, musical taste says a lot…

ORDER A MARTINI AND YOU MAY BE ASKED: GIN OR vodka? Shaken or stirred? Wet or dry? Olives or a twist? Perhaps it’s the ritual of hospitality—which is the unspoken ingredient in every martini—that makes it a sacred cow of cocktail culture. Treat the martini with respect and it will respect you. There’s an efficient beauty to the ol’ standards of martini personalization, but it’s a lot like trying to riff within the confines of classical music: rigid. The martini is an American invention, is it not? Does making one have to feel like playing chamber music? Time passes. The youth revolt (or forget). And thanks to a growing number of bartenders who pay less reverence to the gray-flannel-suit era that the martini has been amber-sealed within, this era’s martinis…

After the success of his film Weekend, Haigh produced and was the lead writer-director on the HBO series Looking, about a group of gay men in San Francisco. The reaction was an eye-opener. “We felt quite battered from all sides about people’s reactions to the show,” Haigh says. “Some people absolutely adored it, some people viciously hated it, and that was a very fascinating thing to be in the middle of. It was a period of time when lots of change was happening very quickly, and there was a lot of debate about ‘What type of queer person are we going to be in the world right now?’ All of the characters were imperfect. They were making bad choices.” Ultimately, while queer audiences were ready for representation, they may not…

I’M THINKING ABOUT GETTING AN AMERICAN flag. It should be an easy choice: A flag would be a handsome, charming addition to my home, an 1860s farmhouse in a one-stoplight village. And it makes sense: I’m a presidential historian. My career is an expression of my patriotism. Raising a flag in front of a house financed by my books about presidents would be another. That’s if I get a flag. I’m worried about the optics, but there’s time. I have until 2026, when the Declaration of Independence will turn 250. Donald Trump is thinking about the anniversary, too. He’s planning to party all year long—from the Oval Office. I thought our collective memory was the only thing at stake during the semiquincentennial, but it turns out the whole American experiment…

LENNY KRAVITZ DOES NOT BLEND IN. WE’RE SITTING IN Bemelmans, the iconic piano bar at the Upper East Side’s historic Carlyle Hotel. Here, things are done properly. Have been since 1947. Waiters wear white coats. Cocktails, served exclusively in etched crystal glasses, arrive on silver trays. Fancy little bowls full of fancy little bar snacks adorn the tables. Murals by Ludwig Bemelmans—of the Madeline children’s book fame—decorate the walls. And some of the country’s most celebrated jazz pianists still play the black and whites nightly. It is a place completely synonymous with old-school New York City glamour. It’s also maybe the last place you’d expect to spot a certified rock god during daylight hours. But this is where Kravitz wanted to meet, so here we are. It’s 3:00 P.M. on…

Ilis BROOKLYN YOU COULD SELL THE IDEA OF ILIS ON PEDIGREE AND ambition alone. Mads Refslund, a cofounder of Noma, the mothership of New Nordic cuisine and an apex of luxe dining, bases his dream restaurant on a concept he’s been incubating for nearly a decade: Locally sourced ingredients are graced by either the fire of burning wood or the raw coldness of ice. (“Ilis” is a mashup of ild and is, the Danish words for fire and ice.) It’s how prehistoric humans might have cooked, although a periodic puff of liquid nitrogen may emanate from the kitchen. Housed in a former rubber factory in Brooklyn, Ilis conjures its magic honestly. Yes, it’s fire and ice, but it’s also nose to tail, smoked and fermented, upcycled and DIY. Between projects,…

Superiority Burger NEW YORK COMEBACK OF THE YEAR, EAST COAST YOU’D EXPECT PEOPLE TO BE SAYING, “Eh, I liked Superiority Burger better when it was a shoebox on Ninth.” No one is whining that they preferred Brooks Headley’s first album. Because this album rocks harder. The second iteration of Superiority Burger—with way more seats, a longer menu, and decor that pays tribute to the weird vibe that has never quite been squeezed out of the East Village—has hit Avenue A like the return of Pavement. Malted date shakes and a sweet potato with labneh and pickles? This is the food of the past and the future and, more than anything, the now. —J. G. Foxface Natural NEW YORK YOU COULD SURMISE THAT THIS IDIO-syncratic restaurant is the result of combining…

BODY 1_D.S. & DURGA DEEP DARK VANILLA Winter cologne is all about lending warmth and coziness to your vibe. The rich vanilla of this elegant scent is anything but sweet. Smoke and woods play into a layered concoction that’s way more “cocktails by the fire” than “baking cookies.” $190 2_ORIGINS GINGER MOISTURIZING HAND CREAM Don’t neglect your hands, which can get dry and cracked quickly when you’re out in the elements. A good hand cream, like this great-smelling one from Origins, heals them when they’re dry and provides an additional protective layer to help keep them from losing more moisture. $20 3_NEUTROGENA HYDRO BOOST BODY GEL CREAM “Everyone thinks a shower or bath is hydrating for the skin, but evaporation is inherently dehydrating, so it’s actually going to dry you…

Tatiana NEW YORK WE’VE TALKED ABOUT THE FOOD. THE curried goat patties, the short-rib pastrami suya, those succulent oxtails. Now let’s talk about how Tatiana makes you feel. Because long before this restaurant had its revolutionary debut at Lincoln Center, chef Kwame Onwuachi was involved in crafting every element of the experience, from the menu to the playlist to the design of the space. And what he and his team created is a spot that feels simultaneously exclusive and inclusive. As in: Here’s the best party in the city, but everybody’s invited. In New York, there’s nothin’ you can’t do. —J. G. Asador Bastian CHICAGO STEPPING INSIDE THE ELEGANT FOUR-story townhouse that Asador Bastian is ensconced within feels like trespassing, but any impostor doubts subside once an ice-cold martini is…

Hungry Eyes NEW ORLEANS EATING AT THE EIGHTIES-THEMED Hungry Eyes feels like you’ve stepped into a music video by Duran Duran. The Patrick Nagel pop art on the walls, the pink neon glow from the mirror behind the bar—it’s lit. Literally. The team has cooked up a lively, stonery DIY dinner menu. Save the garlicky toum dip that comes with your fries, order a side of roti, and make fun sandwiches with the pastrami, which is grilled until crispy on the outside. Who does that? The same folks who brought you NOLA’s stoner darling, Turkey & the Wolf. —O. M. Pietramala PHILADELPHIA WITH PIETRAMALA, CHEF IAN GRAYE and his crew deliver the Fugazi of veganism: honest (no fake meats!), straight-edge (if you want wine, bring a bottle), and delicious enough…