This new media venture sounds like ChatGPT Bret Easton Ellis.
“If you open any door, it’s like a whole weird world: It’s money, power, scandal, weird sh**."
Good morning everyone. I hope you had a nice weekend. Highlights of mine include Syrian pastries from Dukan Syko and the New York Love Stories collection on Criterion. I watched Kissing Jessica Stein on Saturday. Baby Jon Hamm!
Today’s letter includes:
Jack Harlow’s New York City restaurant tour
A partnership suggestion for one lucky ready-to-drink cocktail brand
And another media venture that thinks they can be your go-to source of scoops. I’d love your thoughts on it!
📱 Reminder that the Feed Me Tip Hotline is open for (anonymous) texts and voicemails: (646) 494-3916 📱
“Furniture, interiors, and lighting aren’t just about aesthetics — they shape how you live. “
When I say edible flowers, you probably imagine wedding cakes made for Instagram photos or an overpriced cocktail you ordered once in 2019. On Saturday night, I had a cheese plate with nine tiny edible flowers on it. I ordered it from Quarters, a furniture store and bar off of Canal that I’d heard of several times from friends and my phone, but I wasn’t sure if I’d ever end up going.
Eating inside of a store isn’t novel, especially in New York. Many of us have enjoyed Jean George’s popcorn sundaes inside of ABC Home. I’ve avoided men who spend their Saturdays scrolling their phones and drinking lattes at Aimé Leon Dore’s coffee shop, but I’m sure some of them read this letter. The Restoration Hardware restaurant seems to have been built for people in a different tax bracket than me, with an appetite for brunch that I don’t have. But it exists.
But Quarters felt more… domestic.
It’s noteworthy to me when I go to a new restaurant or bar and leave more curious than when I got there. I’m also curious about the team behind Raf’s because they’re touching a lot of new projects in the city right now — the pastry program at Quarters, the restaurant at Union Square’s newest members’ club The Twenty Two..
After two glasses of Austrian wine, an hour of snacks (90% of them not requiring a kitchen because they were pickled or cured), and a walk down a narrow staircase to the street and into my Uber to the Knicks game, I wondered: Does Quarters have a liquor license? Does anyone ever get drunk and buy furniture? Has anyone ever dropped an olive on a $6,000 couch? I wonder if they’d let me throw a Feed Me party there. and then the inevitable, I don’t think MSG will have any wine close to that bottle I just had.
Last night, I reached out to the team to see if they could answer some of my questions about the concept store. Curious to hear if any of you have been there yet.
First, I’d love to know more about those signature glass lamps all around the space. After two glasses of that Austrian white, I really thought about buying one. But then I had to get to the Knicks game.
Quarters doubles as a showroom for our lighting brand In Common With. Everything in the space is available for purchase and most items on display are products that we make at our studio in Brooklyn. The glass lamps currently in the space are from our Flora collection that Felicia and I designed with our friend Sophie Lou Jacobsen whose le verre glasses we use as water glasses in the bar :)
The energy in the space was really sexy, like cocktail hour at the home of a design-minded friend with brilliant taste. Maybe the house of their cool parents. I’ve only been for dinner, but what time of day is usually the busiest at the bar? Do you plan to expand any of the menus?
Quarters operates as a hybrid space—part showroom, part retail store, part bar, part event venue. Saturday is our busiest day for both the bar and retail side. The bar is usually fully booked at 6pm. Our wine menu is always evolving because we work with smaller producers, and our food menu changes seasonally.
Our kitchen is very petite, but we have a Valentine’s Day prix fixe coming up that I’m excited about, it’s a unique menu for us. We’re also building a larger kitchen on the third floor to support our private events that will open in the fall, which will bring some other bar snacks to the menus. Ultimately, our goal is to make Quarters a place to return to be inspired, connect, and always experience something new.
Last question. I think a lot of people are starting to invest in their homes and objects instead of (or in addition to) their closets. Are there any current home decor trends that you hope will phase out? What do you want your customers to understand about furniture and home pieces that they might not know already?