Good luck affording a weekend trip upstate! 🍂
A night at some of these hotels is more than my rent.
Good morning everyone. Reminder that Feed Me is hiring a freelance morning news assistant. If you’re interested in that role, there’s a description here.
What else do I have to tell you guys… the responses to yesterday’s letter were great, thank you to everyone who participated in that original survey and the conversation that followed. What strikes me as important is that Feed Me has an audience with wildly different opinions and life experiences, and it creates a really dynamic product, and healthy debate.
I have a new habit of walking the perimeter of Prospect Park every day. Not trying to be hyperbolic, but it’s been life changing. I’ve really been digging Yasmin Gagne’s new series at New York magazine about “The best [x beauty treatment] in New York.” I booked a massage with Sophie at Raquel New York (Raquel’s facials are diviiiiiine) yesterday, and that came with some tough realizations about my posture and one of the best treatments of my life.
Also a few of my readers asked yesterday where most of my readers work from:
I think that’s it. In today’s letter: Taylor Lorenz left WaPo this morning — I spoke to her about her plans for Substack, The New York Times is doubling down on their IP to screen pipeline, and the Hearst Magazine ad sales team secured some big nicotine money.
Girls, move your lunch plans to the border of Koreatown and NoMad...
Bridgewater, the world’s largest hedge fund, is opening their first Manhattan office. I guess they’re cutting back on the cult indoctrination in the woods of Westport, Connecticut. This office addition might be for convenience for the top rich people at the company who are based in New York and tired of commuting, but it’s more likely a war for talent – it was increasingly hard to get people to take the Bridgewater bus from Columbus Circle or 14th St. As far as I can tell, the Connecticut office will still be the mothership.
I heard all the guys who work at Bridgewater are fucking crazy, but if you’re into that, maybe plan some lunches in Rose Hill, a neighborhood I wrote about in this letter. New York magazine just published their guide to the best new restaurants to eat at in October and two are in Bridgewater’s new neighborhood.
This is where I propose to you all: let’s read The Fund for the next Feed Me book club. This excerpt that New York magazine ran last year about Bridgewater’s founder Ray Dalio always stuck with me:
“There’s piss on the floor.
So read the email from Ray Dalio, founder of the world’s largest hedge fund, Bridgewater Associates, and a billionaire many times over. It would be read by more than 1,000 of his underlings at the company.
Everyone at Bridgewater would soon learn the backstory. Dalio had excused himself from a meeting and walked to the nearest restroom at Bridgewater’s sprawling, medieval-stone-style headquarters near Westport, Connecticut. After relieving himself at the urinal, Dalio glanced down. There was piss on the floor.
This couldn’t be allowed to go on, Dalio said. Whose was it? And who had permitted it to happen?
“If people can’t aim their fucking pee, they can’t work here,” Dalio proclaimed.”
Anyway, speaking of Connecticut, it appears that the hospitality money pouring into the Hudson Valley is starting to trickle east. Earlier this summer, the Foxfire Mountain House team (at least two Vogue weddings have taken place here) opened Lost Fox Inn ($475/night); next spring, nearby Troutbeck ($600/night) will open Belden House & Mews; and this September, the Salt Hotels team (run by Andre Balazs’ former COO) has turned the town of Litchfield’s historical courthouse into a boutique hotel, restaurant and rooftop bar, called The Abner ($300/night). And over in Washington, CT at The Mayflower ($1000/night), Markarian’s Alexandra O’Neill was put in charge of holiday decorations. Fun fact: a friend of mine who owns a few properties in the Hudson Valley told me that The Academy sends nominees on the East Coast to The Mayflower when they get nominated for Oscars.
While we’re on the topic of weekend getaways from New York, isn’t it astounding that one night at some of these New England hotels that
suggested costs more than what some people pay for a month of rent? Just book a flight to Paris for god’s sake.If we had a water cooler, I’d talk to you about:
- announced this morning that she’s exiting The Washington Post to launch her own publication on Substack: . I texted Taylor this morning about what the game plan is, and she told me:
“I want User Mag to be a newsletter about the internet for people who actually use the internet. I’m going to be covering all the ways the online world is upending our culture, economy, entertainment, media, and political systems. And I’ll be diving deep into weird online phenomena and under the radar trends. If there’s something you want to see me cover please reach out on hello@usermag.co!”
I guess McNally Jackson’s events are going well – they’ve especially ramped up programming at their Seaport location – because they’re hiring a full-time Director of Events. It is sort of cute that they served a Sally Spritz at the recent Rooney reading.
Josh Safdie and Darren Aronofsky have taken over downtown Manhattan for two separate movie sets. Safdie’s “Marty Supreme” takes place in the ‘50s, and stars Timothée Chalamet, Gwyneth Paltrow, and Mr. Wonderful himself, Kevin O’Leary. Meanwhile Darren Aronofsky is making “Caught Stealing,” a ‘90s New York crime ring movie starring Austin Butler and Zoe Kravitz. Really excited to see these guys going the extra mile with custom storefront signs on Orchard St. and plenty of graffiti on the pre-Giuliani New York streets. I love these photos.
Pepsico is acquiring Siete for $1.2B. Awesome. I’ve interviewed the family behind Siete a few times and they’re great.
The New York Times is beefing up their film development team.
Curious about Social Studies, a doc about Los Angeles high schoolers in the wake of COVID and their relationship with social media.
I feel like my coffee preferences (creamers, flavored syrups) are finally being recognized. Flavored syrup company Torani just surpassed $500mm in annual revenue (and has never had a layoff in 99 years), TikTok has turned the coffee creamer refrigerated section into one of the hottest places in America.
First it was London, then it was New York, but now it seems like the most important members’ club city in the world is Milan. Nadine at The Stanza (an awesome Milan-based newsletter) has been covering this topic really well, but obviously Air Mail is trying to own the conversation: last week, Milan’s sciure (well-to-do ladies) remained entirely unfazed by the mania of Fashion week, “Instead of complaining about the crowds, most were preoccupied with something else: the status of their pending club-membership applications.” Three Hill Capital Partners (which is a major investor in Sant Ambroeus and Wagamama) backed the Wilde, a new club located in the former villa of Gianni Versace’s older brother, Santo. New York’s Core Club and Soho House are planning to open next year. “There are three clubs and two on the way,” a Milan-based consultant at Roland & Berger told Air Mail, “no one in Milan is used to being left out. So they’ll just join all of them.” Do any of you live in Milan? I would love to visit this fall and hang!
Look at this weird Zyn ad on ELLE, positioning the nicotine product as a vacation essential.
The New York Times and Vox both published full essays about the state of chicken fingers/nuggets.
The suits are going to starve — The Bryant Park Grill is in danger of closing (the $3mm rent is steep), and Danny Meyer’s Battery City location of Blue Smoke is toast.
Fun fact: The Mayflower in CT was where Amy Sherman-Palladino stayed when she was inspired to write the Gilmore Girls pilot.
The Zyn advert is very “hopped up Don Draper spitballing for Life Cereal”