Big day

KATHERINE LEWIN, Big Night

WORK • Tuesday Routine

KATHERINE LEWIN • Founder & CEO • Big Night 
Neighborhoods you work in: West Village, Greenpoint, Brooklyn Heights 

It’s Tuesday morning. What’s the scene at your workplace?
Today is a particularly special Tuesday because my book, Big Night, is out today. It’s a modern guide to hosting at home, with 85 dinner-party-ready recipes. It’s a day I’ve been thinking about for two years, and it’s very surreal now that it’s here. 

I founded my shop — also called Big Night — in Greenpoint in 2021, and after three years, I think I’ve finally managed to figure out something that at least vaguely resembles a routine. That routine always starts with exactly one cup of coffee (in my favorite Hotel Ceramics mug) and working from home. I use the first few hours in the morning when my business brain works best to get through emails and calls (once I go to the shops, all desire to sit at a laptop goes out the window as I want to constantly rearrange things, chat with my staff, etc.). And as of late, all of this morning time has been spent planning and plotting the launch of the book. 

What’s on the agenda for today?
I’m prepping for a TV appearance — we’re delivering a whole dinner party tablescape over to the set and blocking out exactly how it will appear on air when we tape the segment tomorrow. Trying not to be nervous.

But! On a more typical Tuesday you can find me in the West Village. Now with two Big Night locations (in Greenpoint and the West Village, which often feel like they’re on different coasts), I have to plot out my week geographically. Tuesday is my West Village day. If I’m doing an in-person lunch or coffee meeting, I like to go to Buvette or St. Jardim or B’Artusi. Then I head over to Big Night to check in on the shop: How is the visual merchandising looking? What new product have we gotten in the last couple of days and how is it selling? Oh god, is that a/c really still leaking? The store experience at Big Night is so important to me, and I’m always obsessing about how our customers feel when they walk through the doors. Afterwards, I head over to keep working at The Malin West Village, where I also do 1:1s with my team.

Any restaurant plans today, tonight, this weekend?
I’m always scheming my next restaurant meal. I just moved to Brooklyn Heights (after living in Greenpoint for almost nine years), and I’ve been loving discovering new favorites and rediscovering old ones all over South Brooklyn: Frankies 457 is still fantastic. Swoony’s blue-cheeese-stuffed olives are reason enough to go sit at the bar there. Poppy’s makes the most delicious Arnold Palmers. Sushi Lin is quietly serving some of the best casual sushi in town. L’Appartement 4F has not only the flakiest croissants, but also baguettes with the perfect tang. I love both Clark’s Diner (old-school) and Montague Diner (brand-new-school). Long Island Bar is always the right answer for cocktails and cheese curds. And Lillo’s pasta just might be the best-kept secret in the area. I’m also just trying to spend as much of my time on the Promenade (sometimes with a sneaky martini in hand) as possible.

How about a little leisure or culture this week?
I’ve been slowly furnishing our new place. I love the thrill of the hunt and my husband and I have recently been doing a silly little Saturday two-stop ritual. The first stop is the Design Within Reach outlet store in Industry City (when you go, ask for Ed, he’s the best). Their stock is changing constantly and they get some pretty insane pieces in. The second stop is Defonte’s in Red Hook. I’ve never had a better sandwich in my life. My current fixation is the prosciutto special (with the thinnest slices of fried eggplant) but I plan to work my way through the entire menu throughout the rest of this summer. In this moment I’m looking for home design inspiration everywhere I go in the city — and seeing the new Quarters space recently blew me away.

What’s a recent big-ticket purchase you love? 
My custom couch. I worked on it with Laura of HiLo Brooklyn. She sources vintage couch frames and then entirely reworks them to fit your vision and space. The process was a real creative joy and now I get to stare at this beautiful striped piece (above) every day. 

What NYC store or service do you love to recommend?
Since we’ve been chatting about home things, let’s keep that theme going. For renovation, I cannot recommend Decorum Design & Build more. The owner Erica Padgett mainly focuses on residences, but she also built our two shops. We hired Sandoukas Painting to paint our apartment — they are the sweetest guys and their team did a fantastic job. 

Maybe this is obvious, given my job, but I really do think one of the best parts of living in New York City is the access to so many incredible local businesses. Whenever a friend asks “Do you know anywhere/anyone who…” and I have the answer(s), those are the moments that make me feel most like a New Yorker.