Innholdsfortegnelse for April 22-May 5, 2024 i New York Magazine

1 New York’s tenth “Yesteryear” issue reminisced about over a century of city restaurants and, just as important, the people who dined in them (“Who Ate Where,” April 8–21). Commenter lornajane wrote, “At the time, it felt like those restaurants would last forever,” while richbachelor said, “I was just noting today how odd it feels to have outlived most of one’s favorite restaurants.” Some readers lamented the absence of their own favorites from the story: Burger Heaven, Ratner’s, Junior’s, Wo Hop, Cafe Luxembourg, Dojo, Dave’s Corner, Rose of India, and the Royal Canadian Pancake House, among many others. Still more readers waxed nostalgic. Commenter mcdoo said, “I remember being up top at the Empire State Building in the 1970s and seeing a birds’ eye view of a ring of yellow…

I LIKE TO COOK. It’s how I show love,” Pierce Abernathy tells me while deftly slicing an eggplant. I try not to swoon, staring at his hands. I mean … his knife skills. “I was going to butcher a whole fish for you. I thought that might be a little too much,” he says. We’re in Abernathy’s full-floor Crown Heights apartment—high ceilings, pocket doors, big fireplaces (he says it once belonged to a fur trader)—making a couscous salad. With a message. This particular couscous we’d be eating, he informs me, comes from a women’s farming collective in Palestine. “Good grains!” he chirps. Pretty much everyone I know has a crush on the 29-year-old Instagram chef and model these days. Scroll his socials—he has 454,000 followers on Instagram and 3.5 million…

One afternoon nearly 20 years ago, a lawyer named John Robert Nelson began to lead a double life. He was 37, working for a small firm in a small town on the coast of Northern California and earning so little that he had to get up at three every morning to deliver newspapers. The alter ego he created led a more glamorous existence. “Enty Lawyer,” as that persona was known, was the author of Crazy Days and Nights, a Hollywood-gossip blog that would go on to acquire cult status among devotees of celebrity dirt. In his first post, Nelson wrote that he’d started the blog because he was in a “unique position of being able to tell you what really goes on behind the scenes and what even the gossip…

CELEBRITY SHOPPING Typology Tinted Lip Oil, $28 “It comes in just a few shades, and it’s really good for everyday wear. I have the red and the pink; they’re subtle and moisturize your lips. I’m not a strong-lip-color-in-the-light-of-day kind of girl.” Axel Arigato Dice Lo Sneaker, $310 “I love finding off-the-beaten-path sneakers. I first got introduced to Axel Arigato through my stylist; these are an easy pair that’s versatile and fun. I was really taken by the design and the lines and just the vibe of the shoes. They can go into a street look or something that’s a little more refined.” My Medic Trauma Pro Med Pack, $130 “I can’t not stop if someone needs help, so I’m studying to be an EMT. I learned that every person should…

“I love these understated frames made of high-grade titanium. They are light and have some engraved details on the bridge and temples. A true everyday pair of glasses.” “This style harkens back to movie stars of the 1950s. The glasses are handmade in Italy from a dark tortoise, which works well. Black would feel heavy.” “Oliver Peoples is one of the most classic eyewear brands on earth, so it’s hard to choose just one style, but the Finley will look good on anyone.” “I have had several pairs from Moscot in my time and can attest to their quality. This style is a slightly funky shape if you’re feeling playful.”…

I HAVE A SERIOUS aversion to overhead lighting; it feels wrong and makes me twitch. Wall sconces are the ideal antidote, but installation can be expensive. This is why I love plug-in sconces. They’re perfect for renters and for homeowners who want atmospheric lighting without hiring a professional. These are the wall sconces I’ve used in my own home—and a couple I’m eyeing, too. OWN IT WANT IT…

FOODRESTAURANT REVIEW The region we now call the Levant—from the French for “rising,” like the sun, a nod to its placement on the eastern edge of the Mediterranean—stretches across Israel, Palestine, and Lebanon, through Syria and Jordan. It is a place of civilization’s beginning, part of the so-called Fertile Crescent, home to some of mankind’s earliest agricultural experiments as well as the site of current and intractable conflict. It’s heartening, at a disheartening moment, to visit Huda, a “new Levantine bistro” in Williamsburg. Its owner, Gehad Hadidi—who in 2019 bought midtown’s La Bonne Soupe, a more traditional bistro with Burgundy snails, niçoise salad, and moules frites—is of Palestinian and Syrian ancestry with a Jordanian passport; its chef, Omneyah Hassan, who previously cooked at Celestine and Pasquale Jones, is of Egyptian…

EVERYBODY KNOWS THAT we love old things,” says the burlesque artist Angie Pontani, who is showing me the exuberant, family-hand-me-down-filled Marine Park house in in Southeast Brooklyn she shares with her husband, the musician Brian Newman, and their 8-year-old daughter, Sistilia. “And if you give me something, I can’t get rid of it.” “That was my aunt Livia’s,” Pontani notes, pointing out the armchair in the living room, “from when she got her first apartment in the ’80s.” Pontani and Newman had it reupholstered in leopard. The matching ottoman, from her aunt Norma, dates from the 1940s. The bedroom set was her parents’. The chandelier is from Grandma Mary, “who brought it back from Italy in the ’50s,” she says. “There’s also Great-grandpa Paul’s office chair from his restaurant, Casa…

For more culture coverage and streaming recommendations, see vulture.com. MUSIC 1. Listen to Radical Optimism One “Illusion” you can afford. Warner Records, May 3. The last time Dua Lipa released an album, the world ground to a halt, and with clubs closed, her fans danced to “Levitating” by themselves. The pop star’s new set aims to bring joy to another stressful year by looking to the psychedelic party music of her native London’s past while working with present-day groove architects, including producer Danny L Harle and Tame Impala’s Kevin Parker. CRAIG JENKINS TV 2. Watch The Veil Special Ops: Lioness, but with Peggy Olson. Hulu, April 30. Creator-writer Steven Knight has been busy this year: first with music-scene drama This Town, now with thriller The Veil, in which Elisabeth Moss…

AS A MATTER of preference, Mehdi Hasan likes a smart opponent. “It’s no fun interviewing village idiots,” he says, for instance, of Marjorie Taylor Greene. He recounts some of his favorite interviews during his three years as the host of The Mehdi Hasan Show on MSNBC and Peacock with the pride of a grizzled prizefighter: the short-lived Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy, Texas congressman Dan Crenshaw, Elon Musk’s newfound mouthpiece Matt Taibbi. Many of them began as Twitter arguments. They would trade barbs and hyperlinks and quote-tweets, and invariably Hasan would bait them into saying something like “Why don’t you invite me on your show, then?”—the cable-news version of “Catch me outside.” There was a schoolyard braggadocio about it, a crotch grab with a bachelor’s in political science. (Yes, they…

I RECENTLY BECAME aware that, for the most part, I am my own boss. And my employee (me) was showing up to work wearing a depressing combination of whatever was around. I needed something I could wear as a Pavlovian signal it was time to work. Then it arrived in my mailbox: the Cardigan from Cou Cou Intimates. I’ve worn it every day since I got it and have bought two more. It’s lightweight and roomy enough to put a shirt under but tight enough to wear by itself. It’s serious without being boring. On its own, there’s the sheerest hint of nipple (very important). I’ll wear it with a tank and a small black skirt or alone, no shirt, with jeans. It’s flung over the edge of my bed…

WHEN I STARTED the process of finding the best egg poacher, I landed on eight models worth testing. I sent most of them out to colleagues and kept two options to test myself. When the results came in, the feedback was disappointing. The eggs either stuck to the contraptions or ended up soft-boiled, not poached. It wasn’t until I tested the final poacher that I found a beacon of hope. This bright-yellow OXO model is affordable and compact and, crucially, it works. It creates actual poached eggs with a fully liquid yolk that streams out beautifully upon contact with your fork. My set now has a permanent spot in my kitchen cabinet.…

IN NAME, Sammy’s Roumanian was a steakhouse, but in practice, the subterranean dining room always felt more like a midnight bar mitzvah, or an episode of Twin Peaks if David Lynch had been born Dovid Lipsky, where every customer eventually had to dance the hora. Because of its many fans, as well as all the caddies of schmaltz that dripped onto the floor during its 46 years in business, it seemed as though the restaurant would be stuck in its Chrystie Street basement space forever. When it closed in 2021, it was as shocking for the dining public as it was for owner David Zimmerman. He says he was depressed for a year or two, especially after he packed nearly half a century’s worth of mementos into his own basement.…

FROM folklore to Midnights, Taylor Swift leaned into her Über-visibility and started choosing her friends wisely. Or at least intentionally. Since 1989 (Taylor’s Version), she has streamlined the main characters in her life. Previous known squad members Karlie Kloss, Dianna Agron, and Cazzie David don’t seem to have made the cut. Pop stars like Katy Perry, Camila Cabello, and Lorde appear to have been demoted. Her closest, oldest friends, though, have appeared to rally around her. Strategically, newcomers are either professional ties or friends of her besties. Everyone has their role. This celebrity thing only works if we all play along. KEY…

IT WOULD BE EASIER to take a cab, I said in the morning, but they insisted on taking the subway. “We’re proud of you,” my father said. “We love you,” my mother said. She may have meant it, but it was hard to believe it was true. My mother had not grown up saying love to her parents. As a child, she had never heard it said to her. With me, my parents made it a point to speak it frequently. My father was the more convincing. Even with her perfect American accent, my mother said it unnaturally, as though love were a foreign word. For her it was, doubly. On the street, we said our goodbyes. I watched them wheel their suitcases away until I could no longer make…

➸ Teapile’s Travel-Bottle Set ($20) looks exactly like the dozens of other options that pop up when you type toiletry bottles into Amazon. But the frequent fliers whom writer Katherine Gillespie interviewed say this 17-piece collection is in a class of its own. It comes with a mix of secure containers, tiny funnels for easy transfers, and a clear carrying case. Writer Rachael Griffiths uses the three-ounce silicone bottles for shampoo and conditioner and the two-ouncers for facial cleanser and moisturizer. The plastic tubs are handy for eye cream, and the 20-ml. pump-top bottles hold her setting spray. And most important, no matter the container, the caps screw on tight: Griffiths has taken the set on 11 flights and has never had a spill.…

Quince earned our “Best in Class” crown for its cooling percale sheets. Writer Lauren Ro says the sheets are “the crispest and most lightweight of all the bedding I have tried over the years.” This crewneck is our favorite accessible cashmere sweater for both men and women. Writer Arielle Avila describes it as “supersoft with a slight slickness to it.” Quince’s silk pillowcase recently won “best overall” in its category. “It’s less than half the price of the Slip,” says writer Tembe Denton-Hurst, “but just as luxurious and gave me near-identical results.” Writer Liza Corsillo says these separates are temperature regulating; they kept her warm on chilly nights and cool on hot ones. She likens their texture to “blueberries or grapes early in the morning that have a little frostiness…

IF I DON’T immediately shower after hitting the gym, I wind up with a lot of pimples on my forehead. But then I heard that spritzing an antibacterial hypochlorous-acid mist post-workout—like Tower 28’s SOS spray ($28)—can help prevent clogged pores and breakouts. Intrigued, I found a $12 version from E11ement that has the same ingredients as the SOS spray and smells, pleasantly, like a chlorinated pool. The nozzle is powerful enough to put product on your face without it feeling like you just shot yourself in the eye with a water gun. After a few weeks of use, I’ve noticed that fewer whiteheads have cropped up. I’m excited to put it to the test this summer when I’m out and about and feeling sweaty.…

MAYA JOHNSTON Venture-capital investor, Noho What were you shopping for today? I was looking for a reception dress. It came down to this one and a longer, more traditional silhouette that ultimately won. I wanted something with a little sparkle that could move but still be regal. I’m getting married at a castle in Northern Italy. Wow, that’s quite a venue. It’s where my family’s originally from, so my grandma and cousins still live there. We’ll have a beautiful dinner on the terrace and then I’ll be changing for the after-party in the wine cellar. I want to have a bit of a Studio 54 theme for that. I was trying to ask these old-lady wedding coordinators at the castle, like, “Hey, could you order a bunch of disco balls?”…

THANKS TO DROPPING rents and the arrival of some younger residents, the UES’s reputation as a sleepy restaurant desert is changing. Take Hoexters, a tavern that mixes martinis with smashburgers and mortadella plates in a room adorned with a 17-foot mural that once hung in the original Hoexter’s Market (it was around the corner), depicting that restaurant’s regulars. Alexandra Shapiro’s father owned that spot, and with his blessing, she revived the name in an effort to recapture a bit of that bygone energy. What’s the biggest thing that’s changed since then? “Probably less drugs,” she says, “from what I understand about the ’70s.” Here, a handful of places that are helping to shake up the neighborhood a little more. 1. Soledad 1825 Second Ave., nr. 95th St.; soledadnyc.com Toloache chef…

THE WRITER JUSTIN KURITZKES became obsessed with pro tennis after watching Naomi Osaka beat Serena Williams at the 2018 U.S. Open in an infamous match fraught with argument. As Williams pleaded her case to the umpire, Kuritzkes realized how cinematic the situation could be: how alone each player was, yet how linked to each other. He started watching tennis all the time, and when he ran out of big matches, he found smaller ones like the Challenger tournaments—low-budget events that could help someone qualify for the highest level of competition. Some of the players there may be among the top 300 in the world, but they’re fighting for prize money that won’t even cover their expenses. Kuritzkes knew the feeling. At the time, he was a well-regarded playwright who struggled…