Things to be excited about
In this newsletter: spotlight on the Night Cafe and other news items
I’m going to let you all in on one of my best-kept secrets: The whole reason why I write about food is because of my little sister Milly.
During the original COVID shutdown, I had to move home from school; while I researched for my thesis, Milly trained as a chef online. She was trying to complete culinary school in half the time they estimated it would take, so every week, she would focus feverishly on one technique — I loved egg week, personally — and I would get to eat her meals at all hours of the day. As a result, I had the most pleasant pandemic era of anyone I know.
Once she finished her training, we toyed with the idea of writing a cookbook, where Milly would develop family recipes and I would take photos and write a cheeky little blurb to go along with them. (That’s how I first started writing about food! True story.)
Then we dropped the cookbook and a couple of years passed. I started covering food news, Milly went to college, etc etc etc. Most importantly, when I moved back to Brooklyn and Milly was back home from school last summer, our new food collaboration was born: the Night Cafe.
The Night Cafe is a pop-up dessert party. At our events, Milly makes two desserts that are thematically linked — for our upcoming event, the theme is green and yellow, so she’s serving a pistachio olive oil cake with poached apricot and egg tarts with a matcha crust, topped with whipped cream. I put my bartending license to work (lol) by pairing the desserts with a cocktail — a lemon drop martini with droplets of basil oil, this time. It’s always a little stressful and also very magical.
Anyway, the reason why I’m so EXCITED right now is that we’re reviving the enterprise this summer, with our first event next week. It is already sold out, but we have more on the horizon. Keep your eyes on Milly’s food Instagram to hear about the next Night Cafe.
Other things I am excited about
Caffè Panna, the esteemed gelato project by Hallie Meyer (yes, daughter of Danny!), is opening a new location in Greenpoint this Thursday, 7/11. I will be there.
Gabriela Tejada, a former designer who worked in beauty for the past decade, just opened Cafecito Social in Gowanus. It’s a new coffee shop serving all-Guatemalan coffee, and seems colorful and loud and fun.
More coffee: Fontainhas is an all-day Indian cafe that just opened in Dumbo, which Eater reports is owned by “chefs, an ex-Bollywood costume designer, and an actor” (thrilling).
Ugh forgive me this but I will miss this coconut pandan drink so badly… I was obsessed with Bạn Bè, the first Vietnamese bakery in NYC, which was run out of a window in Carroll Gardens until owner Doris Hồ-Kane decided last month to pivot and host classes in the kitchen instead. Luckily, Bánh by Lauren, a pop-up Vietnamese bakery, just opened its first brick-and-mortar store in Chinatown, so pandan-flavored goodies are still on the market and not all is lost.
In Other News
Free pasta in Bushwick? – Marie’s, an Italian restaurant that opened this past March, is trying to give back to its community by offering free pasta every first Tuesday of the month. The pasta itself was soggy but the sauce was tasty. (Free is free.)
Meet Hetty Lui McKinnon, a 2024 James Beard Award Winner – Hetty is one of those rare, delightful interviewees who is totally comfortable gabbing. We ended up sticking around post-interview for 45 minutes talking about the Park Slope coop, which she frequents and which I randomly wrote most of a musical about once.
Novelist Maura Cheeks opens Brooklyn’s newest bookstore and bar – I actually saw Maura read from her debut novel at the Center for Fiction a couple months ago, so it was particularly cool to chat with her in the new context of her bookstore bar. Anyway. Coffee, beer, wine, wi-fi, books. Need I say more?
Fiction by Hannah (did you know I do this too?)
Now I know I don’t love you anymore – A quick microfiction about the difference between listening to music when you’re in love and when you’re not. HAD is my absolute favorite lit mag; founder Aaron Burch has created a gamified community around it by announcing surprise submission calls on Twitter and capping them low, so that usually, if you don’t submit a piece in the first ten minutes, you’ll miss the window. I am still riding off the high of getting my first skull.
Four Stars – A proper short story about a man who drives for Uber and the devastating power of place-based memory. This one was published in Chill Mag, which is fantastic and print-only; I’ve included an excerpt below, but if you want to read more, you’ll have to buy one yourself.
That’s all for now. Sending love —
Hannah
Wow I love this backstory! Put me on the list for when the cookbook comes out please.
“Most pleasant pandemic era of anyone I know” is LEGENDARY😂😂