On the House

A Life in Restaurants

John McDonald — Tue, 06 Oct 2026 14:00:40 GMT

Hi, OTH friends. Recently, I asked John if he’d ever written down some of the most notable/memorable/interesting things he’s learned since opening his first place back in 1993. He answered matter-of-factly, “No.” I used to be John’s editor at CITY magazine in the late 1990s/early aughts, and now, as his editor-at-large here, I decided this Q+A with John was overdue, especially given how hard-won opening a lasting spot has become here in NYC. Before we jump in…

Newsy Things This Week:

Justice for the dinner party! The Atlantic reports the number of adults who regularly have friends over has declined dramatically since 1975.
Legendary LA eatery Jon + Vinny’s is popping up at Babbo October 21 + 22, and there are still some lunch reservations (and one late-night dinner slot) available.
The Group Hospitality (the team behind Boucherie + Olio e Più) has purchased the West Village building that Sushisamba (RIP) once occupied.
La Boca by Francis Mallmann at the Faena earned the top spot for best use of lighting at the 2026 Restaurant & Bar Design Awards.
How are we feeling about dogs at restaurants?

What We’re Buying This Week:

1. Dom Pérignon x Damien Hirst introduced two limited-edition bottles — a Vintage 2018 and Rosé 2010 — with kaleidoscopic artwork labels.

2. Knife Fork Spoon: Modernist Cutlery 1900-2025 traces the history of iconic flatware by designers including Gio Ponti, Josef Hoffmann, and Carlo Scarpa.

3. D.S. & Durga’s new Ain’t That Sweet eau de parfum, AKA “a gourmand for people who don't wear gourmands.”(+ a playlist)

The scent comes with its own soundtrack, too ↓.

4. Ahead of its November launch, Misen’s stainless steel food storage (non-toxic + microwave-SAFE) is 15% off during pre-sale.

5. A wearable version of Robert Indiana’s 1962 art series Eat/Die.

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Those of us who either grew up close to food/cooks/beloved eating places, or came of age during a notable wave of arrivals—and departures—of many legendary New York establishments, spend a lot of time appreciating restaurants. As much as we love and are devoted to our own favorite places, I suspect that connection is very different for the special people who take on the immense responsibility, risk, and uncertainty of opening their own place—especially in this city.

With Danny Meyer’s new memoir, What Could Possibly Go Right?: The Essential Journey to Scale an Enduring Culture, hitting shelves recently, it’s hard not to be in awe of anyone who’s devoted their career to making life-affirming and delicious memories for the world at large—day after day, year after year…decade after decade.

John and Campion Platt in 1992, as construction was finishing up for what would become MercBar.

I first met John McDonald back when I was an editor at Gourmet magazine. It was the mid-’90s, and I was heading to Phoenix to research restaurants and other good food places for an upcoming story. I’d heard he was the proprietor of the “coolest” bar in town. We remained in touch, and about a year later, I fatefully joined JM on a magazine journey that changed both of our lives.

Since then, JM and any one of his spots from his clutch of establishments have impacted so many other people, too. But it’s not easy (it never is). This summer, he and his team at Lure Fishbar, his longest-running restaurant in SoHo, confirmed it was here to stay after rumors it was in danger of closing. And in August, they endured a cataclysmic flood. When Lure reopened after some extensive repairs just a week later, the crowded tables and magic were restored. The wheels kept turning.

John’s first NYC spot, MercBar, on Mercer Street.

If you’ve lived in New York City long enough, you know that level of endurance is hard-won. It requires the kind of faith and tenacity most of us have only read about in books or seen on screens. It seems unreal that they make all these memories happen meal after meal, but it isn’t. There is a small society of restaurant owners, proprietors, and visionaries who believe that a truly great dining experience has the ability to change someone’s life. And if it doesn’t change their life, it will at least change their mood.

And so, one day not long ago when we were having an OTH meet-up, I asked John if he wouldn’t mind making a list of some of the most notable or memorable things he’s learned running and growing and closing restaurants over the past 30 years. Or, more specifically, what he’s learned about how to take care of people in a shared space, when that’s exactly what they came for. His response was this (very JM, if you know him): “You can ask me questions, and I’ll answer them. Will that work?”

Yes, it does.

1. What were you most afraid of in the beginning? And what, if anything, scares you now?

“In my early days, I wasn’t scared of much. That comes with being young and naive, but it was also a different time: the ways people judged your work were slower and less aggressive. These days, you have to have thick skin and be much more resilient to the constant feedback and occasional attacks. But, over time I’ve learned that these waves of micro-critics are nothing to be afraid of. If anything scares me now, it’s wasting time. I always have a sense of urgency to get things done. ASAP.”

A matchbook from Canteen, the restaurant JM opened in 1999 designed by Marc Newson. “It was the do-com boom when every employee seemed to have an expense account and socialized like it was sport.”

“Before everyone walked, worked out, and ate dinner holding their phones. Canteen was Marc’s first project in the US. I loved this moment in time.”

“One year into Canteen I met Nasir Rasheed via Alex Calderwood, co-founder of the Ace Hotel. They helped produce a soundtrack for the restaurant that really summed up music at the time. I no longer have a CD player, but the sounds are still great.”

2. When did you know you wanted to do what you do?

“When I first moved to New York City to finish college, I was socially around a group of downtown/creative/business guys: André Balazs, Campion Platt, Serge Becker, Eric Goode. They were creating, designing and owning their own projects, and I can remember how appealing it seemed to have some firsthand involvement in building these types of projects. They were integral to how and why I even thought opening MercBar was possible.”

MercBar’s interior.

“The carpenters who made the MercBar bar top had a shop just down the block and had to walk it down the street in the snow.”

3. Have any of your endeavors failed? If so, what did it teach you?

“Sometimes what you think will be (or is) a huge success gets derailed by factors you just can never see coming. Josh Pickard and I created Lever House, which had a world-class team, a historic building, earned a Michelin star, and was a huge critical hit. Then the 2008 financial crisis hit and decimated the business. That was a lesson in how to be prepared for anything—and move on without wallowing in it.

“We brought Marc back on to do Lever House, which was really one of my favorite projects. I loved watching him create something that was so cohesive…it was as much a sculpture as it was a restaurant.”

Dinner + a T-shirt

Erin Cunningham — Tue, 29 Sep 2026 13:30:40 GMT

Good morning, friends. If you missed it over the weekend, John shared his latest list of top picks + places he recommends right now. (He’ll be sending these monthly, so if there’s anything in particular you’d like to see, let us know.)

This week, we’re rounding up some of the best/coolest/rarest NYC restaurant merch, which has become such an iconic part of LIFE here and the places we frequent (it’s hard to ride the L train without seeing someone in an I’d Rather Be at Bernie’s tee or a now elusive Grand Central Oyster Bar baseball hat).

This RELIC we found while deep in research…🤩

These collectible pieces are a way to capture the stamp of a place but also to mark time in a city and restaurant scene that stops FOR NO ONE. Best of all: Buying/wearing them can help your favorite restaurant thrive. Plus, when you spot someone wearing swag from a spot you love, that kind of spark of NYC magic is hard to replicate. But first…

Newsy Things This Week:

Comeback Kids—Café des Artistes is reopening in 2027 under AirMax Hospitality (Tokyo Record Bar, Roscioli); Jon Neidich (Saint Denis, The Nines) is resurrecting Donohue’s Steak House; and Broadway institution Sardi’s (which got a shout-out in HTSI’s list of showbiz’s favorite hangouts) is set for a revival this November.
Table Stakes—#Ad **Today, OpenTable released its 2026 Restaurant Impact Report, which explores the ways restaurants power more than the dining industry: They fuel local economies and create jobs, bring people together, and make life more joyful. And they do this all best when their tables are filled. The report puts a cost on the ongoing issue of no-shows:
On average, restaurant operators say they lose $80 every time a table for two misses their res. But the impact doesn't stop there: Six in ten diners spend roughly $138 at neighboring businesses around their meal. OpenTable data also reveals when tables are most likely to go empty: the week around Valentine’s Day had the year's highest no-show rate, and 10 pm is the most common no-show slot. The good news, though, is that no-shows are down 4% year over year.
Read the full report to find out which cities show up, which don't, and how securing tables via deposits cut no-shows by 60%. **Thank you, OpenTable, for partnering with us on this announcement ✨
Cream of the Crop—The Wall Street Journal looked into the latest must-have souvenir from Paris: artisanal butter.
Bistronomy—The L.A. Times’ Bill Addison calls Lielle “the new crown jewel of L.A. fine dining”—and one of the decade’s most exciting debuts. Swedish chef Marcus Jernmark, with Michelin stars from Stockholm and Singapore, opened it in February in the lower level of a Pico Boulevard townhouse after four years of learning the city. It’s four courses for $150, changing every five or six weeks, with optional luxury pastas around $60. The cooking pairs Scandi instincts—curing, fermenting, fruit matched with meat—with California produce, in a format Jernmark calls “bistronomy”: small space, pared-down operations, very high execution. Addison singles out the 36-hour sourdough with house-churned butter, a monkfish “BBQ” with mussels and bouillabaisse broth, and the boozy cardamom buns that close the meal.
Golden Ticket—A new Vanity Fair profile describes what Eugene Remm is selling with The Corner Store, The Eighty Six (AKA the “crocodile Birkin of restaurants”), and Or’esh as “[making] everyone feel…like members of a club that doesn’t officially exist.”

What We’re Buying This Week:

1. Shoes by a chef. Next time we make Alison Roman’s white bean stew, we’ll be wearing these suede clogs she designed with Margaux.

2. Made In’s limited-edition set of CeramiClad® cookware, designed specifically for small spaces.

3. A new guide to vintage-inspired cake decorating from the geniuses behind London’s April’s Baker.

4. This glossy round tray from Luca Guadagnino’s new Zara collection that feels inspired by the film director’s hotel, Palazzo Talia.

5. All Things Butter by Thomas Straker (whose SoHo restaurant opens this week) has finally launched at Whole Foods in the United States.

If you have a piece of restaurant merch you’ll never get rid of, drop its origin story in the comments. See you next week. — Team OTH

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Restaurant merch—never not trending. Where you eat says a lot about who you are: the table you scored, the people you know, the food you like, + the corner of the city you like to call HOME.

A tote from the neighborhood pizza place you’ve been going to for a decade; a hoodie (AKA badge of honor) from the spot that took months to get into… each one is a small sentiment that marks where we’ve been, what we ate, and where we’d go back (if we could).

From local favorites to one-of-a-kind keepsakes, our definitive OTH guide to the best NYC restaurant merch we’d add to our own collection spans T-shirts, kitchen gadgets, design objects, and way more. Some are new, lots are vintage, and all are almost as good as the meal itself.

If you click on or buy anything throughout this newsletter, we might earn a small commission at no cost to you.

6 Things I Highly Recommend — September Edition

John McDonald — Sat, 26 Sep 2026 13:03:40 GMT

1. Chris Bianco’s tomato pasta, the way he makes it—My old friend Chris Bianco, of Pizzeria Bianco, texted me recently one of his easiest and best-tasting pasta recipes that he makes using his own organic whole peeled tomatoes (I like how there’s a pinch of sea salt in them). And given there’s a storm brewing here on the East Coast, it might be a nice moment to make it.

Chris Bianco’s Tomato Pasta

One can, one box pasta (1lb), serves 4, takes 10 minutes.

Ingredients:

2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
2 garlic cloves, smashed and peeled
1 lb good dried spaghetti
One 28 oz can whole tomatoes
Sea salt and black pepper (to taste)
2 to 4 basil leaves
A handful of grated Parmigiano-Reggiano
1 tbsp butter (optional)

The steps:

Boil a big pot of well-salted water.
Warm the oil in a large pan over medium heat. Add the garlic and cook until golden, about one minute. Cook the spaghetti for about 9 minutes.
Add the tomatoes to the garlic oil and crush them with a wooden spoon. Cook down for 7 to 8 minutes, breaking them up as you go. Salt and pepper to taste.
Drain the pasta a minute early and finish it in the sauce with the basil (about one minute) until al dente. Take off the heat, toss, top with some micro-planed parm, and serve.

Find this recipe + more in Chris’s cookbook, Bianco: Pizza, Pasta, and Other Food I Like

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2. Yes Chef Guides on Substack—A new newsletter from Jack Goldburg’s Yes Chef crew (Jack’s Dining Room), who just landed a nearly $25 million deal with 101 Studios for scripted and unscripted content. It covers where to eat, drink, and what to order in NYC (and now LA), plus dining dilemma solves and CPG finds.

+This C train food crawl they ran earlier this month was a fun idea:

Yes Chef Guides

How to romanticize NYC’s C train into the ultimate food crawl

This newsletter featuring 11 spots that you need to try in the next two weeks…

a month ago · 8 likes · Yes Chef Guides

They’re also hosting the Yes Chef Food Fest Weds 9/30 at Citi Field. Last-minute tix up for grabs. See the full lineup here ⬇️

3. Papalote Salsa—Recently discovered and already a new favorite, especially when paired with Zack’s Mighty tortilla chips.

4. Lucky Charlie in Bushwick—A friend of mine took me out for pizza recently, and we tried this spot. It’s no reservations (IE: walk-in only) and was top-notch. Worth adding to your list of places to try in the city if you haven’t been.

5. House of Leon Backgammon Board—I’ve always been a backgammon guy, and this set feels like a work of art (it’s a mix of walnut, leather, and marbled resin). A great gift with the holidays coming up, too.

6. The Wine Store Show—I’m a big fan of what these guys are making, and I had the pleasure of having lunch with them last week. I got to find out more about how this all came to be, and their backstory is the fun part: four friends, all with very different backgrounds. The director (Matan Zrachia) is an international actor/director who also works in the industry and hates it; the main character/writer (Dave Ahdoot) is an NYC comedian who’s been featured on The Tonight Show; the cinematographer and producer (Nadav Pessach) created the look of the show; and its wine consultant (Nico J. Snyman) is a sommelier who double-checks each script to make sure the wine facts are on point. He’s the inspiration for the main character and the exact type of person the show makes fun of.

Have a great weekend, everyone. —John/OTH

On Our Radar

Erin Cunningham — Tue, 22 Sep 2026 15:01:23 GMT

Welcome back to On the House: A Dispatch of Good Taste.

Today, we’re excited to share our first-ever seasonal restaurant preview. What began as a scratch list of the new dining destinations we’re most looking forward to quickly blossomed into this: a highly curated guide to what feels like one of the most thrilling moments of food (and where to have it!) we’ve seen in a while.

This fall, everything seems to be happening everywhere/all at once — case in point: Five of our featured spots open over the next week alone. What’s most exciting about this crop of newcomers — places, not people, as some of those featured here are from the NYC food scene’s biggest ⭐s — is how much they reflect the talent behind them. Each chef and restaurateur we spoke with is offering diners an extension of themselves, ie: an intentional and very personal perspective on their type of food, drinks, interiors, and the kind of energy and ambience that puts craft over trends. But first…

✨ Got a GREAT On the House-style scoop to share? Email us directly at info@oth.media. Potential brand partners, that means YOU, TOO. ✨

Newsy Things This Week:

Air Mail spoke to The Women Who Run The West Village, ie: Via Carota’s Jody Williams and Rita Sodi.
Restaurateur Jeremy King makes a cameo in the short film for Emilia Wickstead’s Spring/Summer 2027 collection, shown at London Fashion Week.
According to Ian Schrager, “the traditional notion of luxury is old-fashioned and outdated…”
Bar Leone (Hong Kong) isn’t thrilled with the new Bar Leone (no relation) that just opened in SoHo.
Mill’s third-annual Make Food Not Waste Restaurant Week is bringing together NYC spots like Somssi, Corima, Raf’s, + more from September 28 – October 4 to share their approach to sustainable cooking.
***GIVEAWAY ALERT: Our friends at Mill are offering ONE OTH reader a $200 certificate to Chambers in Tribeca (#29 on The New York Times’ list of The 100 Best Restaurants in New York City) to be used during Mill's Make Food Not Waste Restaurant Week. For the event, Chambers will be showcasing specialties like carrots sourced from Norwich Meadows Farm in Upstate New York, served with yogurt and topped with carrot-top pesto. Comment below to enter + we’ll randomly select a winner on Friday 9/25.

What We’re Buying This Week:

1. Chef Kwame Onwuachi’s latest cookbook, All Hours, is filled with recipes for “early mornings, late nights, and everything in-between.”

2. Made In relaunched its collab with Tom Colicchio, and it includes a carbon steel frying pan that recalls one he bought at Zabar’s in the ‘80s.

3. Is it too early to start our holiday shopping? Nope! This week, Fishwife introduced two fun collabs: a starter pack in a special/collectible tin with illustrations by artist Claire Dufournier (left) and reusable eye masks in partnership with Dieux (right).

4. J.W. Anderson x Wedgwood’s ribbed mugs (inspired by a 5th-century Greek design from Jonathan Anderson’s personal ceramics collection) now come in varying shades of blue.

5. Flamingo Estate is hosting its Great Estate Sale Showcase, where pantry + home items are on sale, and one-of-a-kind vintage pieces from their archive are up for grabs.

Left: Cordyceps + Black Turmeric Honey; Right: Salvador Terán Brass and Orange Glass Mosaic Tea Service, Mexico, c. 1960s

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New York’s fine dining scene is loosening up. Some very shiny names are opening laid-back taverns and bistros, all-day cafes, and local-feeling bars. We’re being reminded of what fun + unpretentious can look like (again!) while mercifully cooling it on the all-scene/no-substance spots that make booking a table an actual nightmare. Even the Daniels (Humm and Boulud) are dressing things down with more relaxed operations, giving some heft to the idea that the best new food in this town is anything but formal.

And that’s good news for NYC diners, too. Chefs and restaurateurs are democratizing the steakhouse, buoying up Brooklyn, and, YES, wanting people to eat food with their fingers! Kitsch is making a comeback via high-tech karaoke, live-fire cooking, dance floors (!!), and niche soft serve flavors (tomato + olive oil anyone?).

The restaurant openings we’re most excited about this fall — from a Cambodian beach house in Red Hook to a British import that SoHo’s been counting down for — are bringing us all the good stuff we want and need for making dinner out something that’s truly special…and above all, very New York.

1. 148 Noble Street

Opening September 24
148 Noble Street, Greenpoint
Reservations

Chef Gabriel Borges (Chez Ma Tante alum) takes over The Noble’s former space with seafood-forward small plates and an affordable wine list.

What It Means to be a Regular

John McDonald — Tue, 15 Sep 2026 13:02:50 GMT

As most of you now know, in June we renamed and relaunched this newsletter as On the House. The reason for doing this was simple: I wanted a place to tell stories about things closely related to food and dining — things I’m drawn to and curious about, and that ultimately make everyday life more interesting, distinctive, and satisfying.

In figuring out w…

Taste Maker: Augusta Hoffman

Erin Cunningham — Tue, 08 Sep 2026 13:20:14 GMT

**Welcome back to On the House. We hope you had a fun + restful long weekend. Today’s edition is the latest in our Taste Maker series — a micro-questionnaire featuring a New Yorker whose eye we admire and whose taste we want to learn from — in 10 questions or less. This week’s guest is interior designer Augusta Hoffman, who has one of the best eyes (and…

McNally House Rules

CAKE ZINE — Tue, 01 Sep 2026 14:10:45 GMT

For this week’s dispatch, budding restaurateur George McNally (that McNally:) took Aliza Abarbanel, co-founder and co-editor of Cake Zine, on a pre-opening tour of his new, highly-awaited restaurant, Faux, and its speakeasy-style nightclub downstairs, Prevz. She writes: “Much has been reported on the symbolism of Faux opening a possible Tribeca revival …

Practical Magic

Erin Cunningham — Tue, 25 Aug 2026 13:45:46 GMT

Hi everyone. First, ICYMI: We ran a special Saturday send ⬇️ inspired by this Eater piece on restaurants leaning into handmade details. As much as we love going out/the restaurant world, we’re also all about finding ways to make eating at home feel more special, too.

Second, for this dispatch, we’re hitting rewind to learn what happens BEFORE the table …

When Dinner Goes Analog

Erin Cunningham — Sat, 22 Aug 2026 12:03:20 GMT

A few weeks ago, Eater published a piece on restaurants leaning into handmade details. Writer Bettina Makalintal touched on the way something as small as a handwritten menu or embroidered napkin can read like an act of rebellion in the age of AI — how, in the same-ification of, well, everything (but particularly New York City dining), we’ve found oursel…

Sandwich Nirvana

Erin Cunningham — Tue, 18 Aug 2026 13:40:46 GMT

Are we entering a new age of sandwich decadence?

That’s what we asked some of the owners behind New York’s coolest counter spots. “I think we’re experiencing a renaissance of sandwich pleasure,” is how Dria Atencio, the owner of Salty Lunch Lady’s Little Luncheonette in Ridgewood, answered. “We have finally remembered how great they can be—and we are al…

No Reservations (App)

Tue, 11 Aug 2026 12:15:13 GMT

Our OTH group chat was BUSY on Sunday after The Wall Street Journal declared that Reservation Apps Have Made Getting Into a Restaurant a Nightmare. This isn’t the first time our team has talked about how difficult/annoying/confounding eating out in New York has become.

A few weeks ago, one of our readers emailed us in response to this Real Simple piece w…

Growing Up La Grenouille

Flavia Masson — Tue, 04 Aug 2026 13:01:45 GMT

Editors’ Note: One thing we’re eager to do more of here at On The House is honor the New York City restaurants — ie: bona fide institutions — that have indelibly shaped how and why we dine out today. This week, Flavia Masson shares the story of growing up inside the walls of her family’s restaurant, La Grenouille, which closed in 2024 after 62 outrageou…

OTH Table Notes: Summer 2026

John McDonald — Tue, 28 Jul 2026 13:42:35 GMT

Good morning, friends. Today, we’re going deep into all of the fantastic stuff we’ve been transfixed by lately: from a Polo Bar moving rumor and our new favorite striped market tote to a special OTH reader discount for the first Chef’s Table festival in Park City and a stash of vintage Lucky Peach magazines. (We originally planned on running an enchanti…

Notes on Rome

Elettra Wiedemann — Tue, 21 Jul 2026 13:35:10 GMT

Hi everyone, Today we’re excited to share an OTH guest essay from our friend Elettra Wiedemann, cookbook author, program director at Mama Farm, and strategist at the intersection of food systems and human wellbeing, who decamped with her family to Rome for a year and shared her experience before packing up and heading back to Bellport, New York. Before …

New York's Only-Branzino, All-the-Time Hidden Gem

Erin Cunningham — Tue, 14 Jul 2026 13:31:20 GMT

It’s no secret that I have a soft spot for fish-centric food/cooking. Both Lure and Seahorse are rooted in 1/ my love of fish and oysters and 2/ creating menus that allow frequent visits because you leave without feeling too full. There’s also something about the nuance of working with fish vendors — sourcing both locally and from far away, and experien…

The Politics of Good Lighting

John McDonald — Tue, 07 Jul 2026 13:45:27 GMT

Have you ever been to a good restaurant and wanted to take the lamp on your table with you when you left? This is a very good sign.

Goodfellas…with a special appearance by this marvelous mini lamp 👀.

One of the things we meditate on a lot over here is how our favorite restaurants have the power to influence our lives at home. Not just what we eat but the…

Artists Never Starved at Raoul’s

Kathleen Squires — Tue, 30 Jun 2026 13:31:49 GMT

Hi everyone, we’re excited to bring you today’s story about the unbelievable art collection at Raoul’s, one of Soho’s most iconic restaurants. (I shared one of my favorite memories of the eatery with Resy last year in honor of its 50th anniversary). For this feature, my friend Karim Raoul — son of original founder Serge — walked writer Kathleen Squires …

Taste Maker: Sandeep Salter

Erin Cunningham — Tue, 23 Jun 2026 13:31:27 GMT

**Welcome back to On the House. Today’s edition is the first in a new series called “Taste Maker”— a micro questionnaire featuring a New Yorker whose eye we admire and whose taste we want to learn from — in 10 questions or less. We hope you enjoy it. And, if there’s anyone special you think we should feature here, let us know in the comments.

Introducing On the House

John McDonald — Tue, 16 Jun 2026 13:02:00 GMT

I came into media sideways, out of the bar-and-restaurant business. From 1999 to 2008, I launched and ran CITY, a boutique design magazine; that’s how I started working with Christene Barberich, who became my editor-in-chief there. After that, I founded Tasting Table, a title that attracted a devoted community — close to a million of you — and was part …

The Legendary Restaurant That Shaped How We Dine

Peter Maguire — Sat, 23 May 2026 14:18:20 GMT

Hi friends! This story was originally published in our former Broken Palate universe. All our newest stories — with a refreshed look/team/point of view — are published here On the House.

Here, author Peter Maguire writes on La Côte Basque. He is the director of Fainting Robin Foundation and the author of the 2021 New York Times bestseller, Breathe: A Lif…

On the House

A Life in Restaurants

Newsy Things This Week:

What We’re Buying This Week:

1. Dom Pérignon x Damien Hirst introduced two limited-edition bottles — a Vintage 2018 and Rosé 2010 — with kaleidoscopic artwork labels.

2. Knife Fork Spoon: Modernist Cutlery 1900-2025 traces the history of iconic flatware by designers including Gio Ponti, Josef Hoffmann, and Carlo Scarpa.

3. D.S. & Durga’s new Ain’t That Sweet eau de parfum, AKA “a gourmand for people who don't wear gourmands.”(+ a playlist)

The scent comes with its own soundtrack, too ↓.

4. Ahead of its November launch, Misen’s stainless steel food storage (non-toxic + microwave-SAFE) is 15% off during pre-sale.

5. A wearable version of Robert Indiana’s 1962 art series Eat/Die.

1. What were you most afraid of in the beginning? And what, if anything, scares you now?

2. When did you know you wanted to do what you do?

3. Have any of your endeavors failed? If so, what did it teach you?

Dinner + a T-shirt

Newsy Things This Week:

What We’re Buying This Week:

1. Shoes by a chef. Next time we make Alison Roman’s white bean stew, we’ll be wearing these suede clogs she designed with Margaux.

2. Made In’s limited-edition set of CeramiClad® cookware, designed specifically for small spaces.

3. A new guide to vintage-inspired cake decorating from the geniuses behind London’s April’s Baker.

4. This glossy round tray from Luca Guadagnino’s new Zara collection that feels inspired by the film director’s hotel, Palazzo Talia.

5. All Things Butter by Thomas Straker (whose SoHo restaurant opens this week) has finally launched at Whole Foods in the United States.

Restaurant merch—never not trending. Where you eat says a lot about who you are: the table you scored, the people you know, the food you like, + the corner of the city you like to call HOME.

GRAPHIC TEES

HOODIES (+ A CREWNECK)

ACCESSORIES

CARRYALLS

DESIGN OBJECTS

KITCHEN GADGETS

PANTRY ITEMS

LUXURY GOODS

BONUS VINTAGE (B/C WE ❤️ VINTAGE)

6 Things I Highly Recommend — September Edition

On Our Radar

Welcome back to On the House: A Dispatch of Good Taste.

Newsy Things This Week:

What We’re Buying This Week:

1. Chef Kwame Onwuachi’s latest cookbook, All Hours, is filled with recipes for “early mornings, late nights, and everything in-between.”

2. Made In relaunched its collab with Tom Colicchio, and it includes a carbon steel frying pan that recalls one he bought at Zabar’s in the ‘80s.

3. Is it too early to start our holiday shopping? Nope! This week, Fishwife introduced two fun collabs: a starter pack in a special/collectible tin with illustrations by artist Claire Dufournier (left) and reusable eye masks in partnership with Dieux (right).

4. J.W. Anderson x Wedgwood’s ribbed mugs (inspired by a 5th-century Greek design from Jonathan Anderson’s personal ceramics collection) now come in varying shades of blue.

5. Flamingo Estate is hosting its Great Estate Sale Showcase, where pantry + home items are on sale, and one-of-a-kind vintage pieces from their archive are up for grabs.

1. 148 Noble Street

What It Means to be a Regular

Taste Maker: Augusta Hoffman

McNally House Rules

Practical Magic

When Dinner Goes Analog

Sandwich Nirvana

No Reservations (App)

Growing Up La Grenouille

OTH Table Notes: Summer 2026

Notes on Rome

New York's Only-Branzino, All-the-Time Hidden Gem

The Politics of Good Lighting

Artists Never Starved at Raoul’s

Taste Maker: Sandeep Salter

Introducing On the House

The Legendary Restaurant That Shaped How We Dine