Wildly delicious
Bridges, Dish of the Fall, Cha Cha Tang, FOUND Paris & London, Vivvi, Walker's, Dante White Plains, Noreen Wasti, bespoke cakes, MORE
RESTAURANTS • First Person
Surprise party
Every now and then, a new restaurant opens in New York City with little pretension and an unclassifiable style of cooking that can best be summed up as “wildly delicious.” Last year, that restaurant was Foxface Natural. This fall, it’s Bridges.
Opened two weeks ago, the newcomer occupies a surprisingly sleek storefront on Chatham Square in Chinatown, steps from the Chinatown war memorial arch, the brutalist apartment buildings Chatham Towers, and the gaudy Dim Sum A Go Go. It’s an unlikely setting for an unlikely restaurant.
Running early, I took a seat at the end of the curved wood bar by the windows and surveyed the scene. Frosted glass cubes right out of a 1970s rec room divide the front area — which includes that bar and two bar tables — from the back dining room. I couldn’t help but notice every other arriving guest either embrace the maitre’d or say hello to the bartenders. Given the hospitality industry pedigree of the team here, it makes sense: Chef Sam Lawrence was previously the culinary director of Ignacio Mattos’s local restaurant empire (Lodi, Altro Paradiso, and pioneering restaurant Estela).
It’s hard not to think of Mattos when trying to classify the cooking at Bridges, which (like Estela) is underserved by labels like “modern” and “European” — if not most labels, as we’d soon find out.
Enjoying the vibes at the bar, we decided to forego our table for dinner. From the list of four starters atop the tight menu, we ordered “Sardines with anchovies and peppers.” That simple description knowingly undersells the sophistication and excellence of the dish, in which a glistening sardine lies atop a roasted pepper (and, somewhere in there, anchovy), all served atop a thin piece of toast. My dining companion and I made eye contact: This meal was on.
The next three plates all came from the menu’s middle, starting with Kabocha squash and puntarelle with Brabander goat’s milk gouda — an incredibly artful autumnal salad of sorts. Next, the compté tart, styled as a cheesecake (crumbly crust and all), and chanterelle mushrooms draped across — a masterpiece and early contender for Dish of the Fall. Then, smoked eel dumplings with horseradish, a tribute to Chinatown, I’d wager, but really more ravioli than dumpling (and fantastic regardless).
On reflection, all four dishes tasted so good that, had they brought us a repeat of any, I wouldn’t have complained.
Good thing they didn’t: We wrapped things with a main from the bottom of the menu, roast duck with cabbage and XO sauce, two beautifully cooked pieces of duck with a final surprise: a sausage wrapped inside a lettuce leaf.
It’s those surprises I’ll be back for at Bridges, a very exciting newcomer, right where we never knew we needed it. –Lockhart Steele
→ Bridges (Chinatown) • 9 Chatham Sq • Tues-Sat 530-10p • Reserve.
RESTAURANTS • Intel
DIM SUM REDUX: After opening for dinner in the old Hancock St space in August, the Wilson Tang-John McDonald mashup Cha Cha Tang (Greenwich Village) is adding brunch this weekend. It runs Sat-Sun 1130a-330p. Another new addition: “Happiest Hour and a Half,” kicking off this Friday and then running M-F 5-630p, with special drinks and dim sum. Reserve.
RESTAURANTS • The Ticket
Cosme’s Salón Arcoíris at the Rainbow Room • Mexico City-style dance salon celebrating 10 years of Cosme in NYC • Rainbow Room (Rockefeller Center) • Fri 10/18 @ 9p, $350 per
Four Horseman Cookbook Launch Party • party with snacks, drink ticket, and with or without cookbook • Brooklyn Brewery (Williamsburg) • Wed 10/23 @ 6p, $37/$75 per
Special Wild Game Menu • antelope, venison, boar, MORE, plus optional wine pairing • Foxface Natural (East Village) • Wed 10/30-Sun 11/3, $160 per
NYC RESTAURANT LINKS: Danny Meyer to remake rotating restaurant atop Marriott Marquis in Times Square • La Grenouille building sold, likely to become new Chinese restaurant • Noted Indian restaurateur coming to U.S. with restaurant on West 37th • The time to start aging your eggnog is now.
GOODS & SERVICES • FOUND Sponsor
Water & all that we love
Ryan and Arjan here, the co-founders of Jolie, a beauty wellness company focused on purifying the quality of one’s shower water for better skin and hair. We’re both fans and readers of FOUND, which is why we decided to sponsor this newsletter to reach like-minded folks like you.
As much as we love discussing water’s impact on skin and hair, we’re equally enamored by the connection of water to all else that we love in life — art, coffee, surfing, food, oysters, ceramics, and so much more. That’s why we created a fun video series, Water &, which looks at these topics through the lens of water. Some highlights:
We spent an early morning in Montauk with artist Joe Henry Baker who used the salty ocean water to paint with and wet his canvases, resulting in a crystallization in the painting as it dried.
We spent an evening with Esben Piper, the founder of the renowned Danish coffee company, La Cabra, at their Soho location in New York. Did you know that the parts per million of minerals in water (or the water’s “hardness”) made to brew La Cabra’s coffee is finely tuned to extract flavor while not making the coffee taste sour?
We joined designer Cynthia Rowley for a morning surf out east on Long Island, where the water is both a calming force for her and “balance” to her planned out, calendared work days.
We’ve always loved oysters, but we loved them even more once we started spending time with both the Billion Oyster Project and Montauk Pearl Oyster’s Mike Martinsen. Oysters clean the water by filtering water as they eat, removing ecosystem-destroying pollutants such as nitrogen. They also act as a natural storm barrier and help foster biodiversity. (The Billion Oyster Project, our non-profit of choice, is restoring the oyster reefs in New York’s harbors to clean the Hudson and East Rivers. Last we checked, 122 million oysters have been restored in New York’s harbor over the last 10 years.)
You can watch all of our Water & videos on our website here.
We worked with these partners because we think they are the best at what they do. If you are thinking about buying a Jolie, we encourage you to do so via the link below. We are picking five FOUND buyers to gift a year’s worth of La Cabra coffee to make at home.
The role of water is all around us. –Ryan Babenzien & Arjan Singh
→ Shop: The Jolie Filtered Showerhead (Jolie) • available in brushed gold, modern chrome, brushed steel, jet black, and vibrant red • $148.
WORK • Going Global
Onward to Paris & London
Another lifetime ago, when we were building Curbed, Eater, and Racked, we fanned out across the country, eventually launching local sites in 30 markets. There was Eater Nashville and Curbed Detroit and Racked Philly, each dedicated to obsessive coverage of their respective markets.
There were also national versions of all three brands, which we created in part to establish credibility with advertisers, who we thought were more apt to spend on EATER than on Eater PDX.
After we sold to Vox Media, the local sites kept chugging along (some of the Eater locals still exist), but VC-backed Vox was mostly interested in scale. The advertising team (and management) had a hard time figuring out how the city-specific approach fit with the business. (This was in a time before digital subscriptions, except at a few outliers, like the NYT, which launched their offering in March ’11.) Over time, the national gloss drowned out much of the local flavor.
We created FOUND to return to our earlier approach of meeting readers where they are. In New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Miami, we wake up every morning thinking about how we can help our subscribers get more out of these great cities.
But this time, instead of dotting the U.S. map with local sites in vibrant secondary markets, we’re going global. The world is smaller than it was then, and as much as we love Charleston and Austin, we’ve got our eyes on Paris and London next.
In fact, we’re planning launches in both markets this winter. As of right this second, we’re looking for savvy local contributors in Paris and London who have something to say about restaurants, shopping, real estate, getaway travel, culture and leisure, and the modern workplace. If that’s you, hit reply or email us at found@foundny.com. (Or, if you know someone who fits the bill, pass this along!)
In the meantime, we haven’t sworn off FOUND Nashville; if our friends at Vox are reading and are ready to give it up for good on the local Eaters, drop us a line. –Josh Albertson
WORK LINKS: Long-dormant tech firms are stirring in NYC office market • Signs worst may be over in retail leasing • Are directors of founder-led companies being set up to fail? • A stint at McDonald’s is now a badge of honor • Some of the carbon credits were fake.
WORK • Tuesday Routine
Veni, vidi, Vivvi
CHARLIE BONELLO • co-founder and CEO • Vivvi
Neighborhood you work in: Tribeca
It’s Tuesday morning. What’s the scene at your workplace?
I was born and raised in NYC, and I’ve lived everywhere from Bensonhurst to the Upper East Side to the West Village and Stuyvesant Town, but after the “surprise” of having twins three years ago, we moved to Westchester. Like many parents, on Tuesdays, I’ve lived a thousand lives before I get to our Vivvi offices in Tribeca. My kids go to school at the Vivvi across the street, so I’m up at 6a to get them fed and in the car. We spend the commute singing — they’re going through a Frank Sinatra “New York, New York” phase right now — and I’m usually at my desk by 730a.
As soon as I eat breakfast, I’m already thinking about lunch. I’m a creature of habit, and my colleagues joke that it’s either “old bodega” (honey turkey and American with mayo and mustard on a hero) or “new bodega” (chicken Caesar salad wrap). If I’m feeling ambitious, I’ll check out @a_man_and_his_sandwich to see what his latest favorites are; the founder runs a NYC sandwich tour and is also a Vivvi dad. Otherwise, I have Court Street Grocers on regular rotation. There’s nothing more satisfying than scarfing down a Droopy while watching celebrities work out at The Dog Pound across the street from our offices.
I work from home on Monday and Friday, and our kids go to our Vivvi up in Westchester those days; I’m still scoping out the food scene in Hartsdale, but I’m so far loving Dante’s in White Plains.
What’s on the agenda for today?
In between meetings at the office, I do my best to get out and about around the city and stop into some of our schools. We just acquired a few new locations, so on any given day, I could be anywhere from 96th and Lexington to South Slope, meeting the teachers and getting to know new families.
Later on, I’m going to head out a little early to pack for a trip I have scheduled to pitch a potential new corporate client. I try to use my travel time to listen to an audiobook or catch up on a few business podcasts, but I’d be lying if I didn’t also indulge in some quiet contemplative staring on the plane; it’s basically the only time I ever get to do that.
Any restaurant plans today, tonight, this weekend?
When I’m in the city, I try to take advantage of the chance to meet another founder or investor. My favorite local Tribeca spot is Walker’s; it’s classic and consistently excellent. I’m a big fan of the French dip and a Manhattan.
My family spends a lot of the weekend here in the city too, since most of our friends’ kids and our kids’ friends go to school here. But in the version of my life where I didn’t have to rush back to get them home — and the version where someone else took them home for me — I might get dinner and drinks with some friends. When I was younger, I loved Sammy’s Roumanian, and I’m a little bit curious about the reincarnated version. But since I’d most likely be disappointed, and I don’t get that many weekend nights out, I’d rather go for a sure thing like Minetta Tavern or head over to Nat’s on Bank — the seafood tower is always a crowd-pleaser.
How about a little leisure or culture this week?
A lot of the culture I get these days is ballet and art for the 3-5-year-old set. But when I do have an afternoon free, I love to take in a Yankee game. Vivvi provides child care for the players and coaches during the home games, and as a lifelong Yankee fan, it’s pretty much the coolest thing I’ve ever done in my career. I always hit Stan’s before and Billy’s after, and I can honestly say that the best seats in the house are the bleachers. I’m good for a hot dog, a canned margarita, and lots of serious baseball talk with the Bleacher Creatures. Make sure you get there for roll call, which happens right after the first pitch.
What’s a recent big-ticket purchase you love?
I’m a pretty basic guy and I don’t believe in spending a lot of money on what I wear. But I did just spring for a pair of Thursday boots and I’m impressed. They’re resilient, comfortable, and go with everything.
What NYC store or service do you love to recommend?
I love to support parents in our Vivvi community. I just tried Regina’s Grocery, which is located right near our new Carnegie Hill campus, and it was unbelievable. I’ll be building it into my sandwich rotation for sure.
GOODS & SERVICES • FOUND Larder
Flavor profile
For the last three years, self-taught baker and content creator Noreen Wasti has been selling via Instagram a limited number of her stunning, imperfect, textured, maximalist cakes layered with richly flavored curds and pastry creams, seasonal jams, and compotes. “Cakes need a little crunch,” Wasti says, and hers always include an unexpected texture, like toffee or nut brittle. The cakes’ flavors — like the especially popular vanilla bean and cardamom cake layered with a seasonal jam, pistachio crunch, and orange blossom Swiss meringue buttercream — are inspired by Wasti’s Pakistani heritage and time spent living in the Middle East. As with most of the custom cakes Nines below, there’s no website or menu, just Instagram posts and DMs between you and dessert glory. –Kat Odell
→ Shop: @noreenwasti • DM with inquiries and for flavors • prices begin at $250 per (serving 8-10).
GOODS & SERVICES LINKS: Upscale dispensary Gotham opens at Refinery at Domino • Sabyasachi Mukherjee on the opening of his West Village store • Astor Place Wegmans now featuring live tuna cutting • Stop drawing lines in your closet and start living • Alert: There’s a global butler shortage.
GOODS & SERVICES • The Nines
Bespoke cakes
The Nines are FOUND's distilled lists of NYC's best. Additions or subtractions? Hit reply or found@foundny.com.
@Ileene.cho, The Noortwyck pastry chef’s side hustle; seasonal, minimalist entremet layer cakes