A seat at Blanca has become one of the most coveted in New York. It was awarded its Michelin star six months after opening and named one of America’s Best New Restaurants of 2012 by Bon Appétit. Chef Carlo Mirarchi does a 26 course innovative tasting menu setup that is $180 per person. A dozen chairs are set up for diners to overlook the über-sleek and minimalist kitchen. The dining experience is a highly interactive one where the guests are invited to mingle and interact not only with the food but also with the music. They have their pick of the music on the record player and ability to play DJ with a well curated vinyl collection.
Designed and produced in Brooklyn, NY, Etten-Eller first began when designer Cristina Bloom started playing around with the inner workings or timepieces to create jewelry pieces. You’ll notice now, Bloom no longer creates jewelry from watch parts, but her pieces still are somewhat time stamped. Instead of an anonymous serial number, each item has a date associated with it. Bloom shared that every piece carries a date with some significant date in time. The one piece that caught our eye was a piece from her Fall 201o collection, dated 05.20.1873 – the day blue jeans were patented!
While we want to say that Cristina is an “artist we love,” her jewelry line Etten-Eller is actually a play off the title of Danish philosopher’s Søren Aabye Kierkegaard work, “Enten-Eller,” meaning “either-or” in Danish. In a recent interview with The L Magazine, Cristina Bloom explained that she named her line Etten-Eller because her designs question whether or not something has to be defined as either art or craft. We adore her pieces “either way” – art or craft.
We can’t stop listening to Vivian Girls, a band composed of three girls from Brooklyn. They are named after the story written by famous outsider author, Henry Darger. Their sounds are a mix of punk and “psychedelic”; and their music videos have a cool, care-free, retro tone. One of our favorites is one of their newest songs from their Share the Joy album, “Take It As It Comes.”
Stylish, Portland-based coffee shop Stumptown Coffee Roasters is known for its hip décor, even hipper baristas, and an obsession with coffee rivaled only by the oenophiles. While the coffee itself can’t come from the U.S. (with the exception of Hawaii, coffee doesn’t survive here), the mini-chain was developed and grown by founder Duane Sorenson in Portland, OR.
Except for one New York café in the lobby of the Ace Hotel at 29th and Broadway, all Stumptown locations are in Portland, but the New York Times reports that Stumptown is now primed to expand to Brooklyn, Chicago and San Francisco, thanks to a new investment. Just like indy bands that go commercial, the loyalists are up in arms and implying that Sorenson is a sellout, but we’re excited to add a bit of diversity into the coffee bar marketplace. We hope to hear similar news from Chicago/LA based Intelligentsia soon!
Stumptown borrows it’s brand name from an old Portland nickname, which became part of the vernacular in the 1840’s, as the city rapidly expanded outward and tree stumps were left on the middle of the roads. Check out the Stumptown website for a really great brewing guide that shows you how to make the perfect cup at home, no matter what kind of equipment you have.
