I’ve been frustrated with online shopping of late. The convenience is undeniable, but in my search for a pair of boots (it may be the height of summer, but I’m trying to plan ahead) I’ve found myself missing the experience of entering a store and leaving with something, secure in the knowledge that I know it will work because I have already seen it and held it and tried it on. This is less an issue with kitchenware and pantry items. But still, there’s something so nice about entering a store to find an array of products you can pick up and consider, including ones you may not have ever expected to come across.
Further stoking the feeling is this story from Lindsey Tramuta on the revival of épiceries, the highly curated gourmet French grocery stores that are the stuff of shopping fantasies. As the name of the category implies, they sell spices, but also flowers, tea, olive oil, condiments, and other products, with a strong emphasis on local items.
Tramuta makes the distinction that these épiceries are unlike the hip corner stores popping up in the U.S., which make direct-to-consumer brands usually found online available to shop in person. “The épicerie is firmly grounded in brick-and-mortar tradition, gaining customers not through novelty or Instagrammable branding,” she writes, “but by reviving the regional culinary know-how and personal relationships with farmers and customers that empowered épiciers of the past.” Alas, I’ll have to add a trip to France to my shopping wish list.
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Girl Meets Farm baking pans, Filipinta lip gloss, and Paper Papaya earrings. |
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Eater’s latest edition of Best Dressed, the series that asks diners how they decided what to wear to eat out, heads to brunch at Booker’s in Philly. Click through to peep the guests’ excellent accessorizing, including these Paper Papaya earrings.
Eater San Francisco analyzed Carmy’s stack of cookbooks on The Bear, with help from Ken Concepcion, chef and co-owner of Los Angeles cookbook store Now Serving. It is not necessarily a collection one would want to emulate — it is not especially diverse — but Concepcion makes some suggestions that would help round out the list, including Mister Jiu’s in Chinatown by Brandon Jew and Tienlon Ho, and Toni Tipton-Martin’s Jubilee.
Food Network star Molly Yeh launched her first line of kitchenware with Macy’s. Girl Meets Farm by Molly Yeh features cooking utensils, pots and pans, storage containers, a kids dinner set, and more in cutesy farm-themed patterns and bright colors.
Martha Stewart’s Anti Social Social Club tees and hoodies went on sale yesterday morning. And while there’s a good chance they might already be sold out, the unexpected collaboration is worth a look for the fans of both Martha and streetwear brand ASSC.
HAGS, a much anticipated New York City restaurant, just opened, and the Strategist tracked down the attractive yet eminently practical apothecary jars in the restaurant bathroom. They’re from West Elm. Filipinta, a beauty brand that celebrates Philippine culture, is selling a banana ketchup lip gloss
. They also have eye shadow palettes in ube- and lumpia-themed shades.
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