FOUND: Objects
FOUND: Objects
Key grinder, Kondi backgammon, Gozney pizza oven, In Fiore balm, Nathony Anthony sectional, MORE
THE ASK • Contributors
FOUND is looking for contributors to source and write about high-end products and the NYC shopping scene. Our interests range from home goods and electronics to fashion and art. Interested? Drop us a line at found@foundny.com.
ABOUT FOUND • FOUND Objects
Real products for real money
The internet is teeming with generic recommendations for everyday items. FOUND Objects are products that cost real money, recommended by real people — from art to e-bikes, coffee grinders to sectional sofas, spatial speakers to bespoke backgammon tables.
When sourcing these products, we care about quality, but also the intangibles of owning something special. With each FOUND Object, ideally there’s a personal story involved, offering a window into the role this purchase played in a person’s life. We’re also keen on products with a connection to NYC and surrounds.
FOUND Objects is open for business. Have a look around.
GOODS & SERVICES • FOUND Object
Back to the grind
What it is: A titan-class (the best) coffee grinder smaller than all others, with a rich taste profile. Outperforms grinders 2-3x in cost. My favorite after trying four different multi-thousand-dollar competitors.
What was found: In the right hands, a world-class coffee grinder makes coffee sweeter and deeper and can eliminate all traces of bitterness. This grinder does that for everything from French press to espresso, and even automatically stirs ground beans to eliminate clumps, furthering even extraction.
Extras: Espresso nerds will want to check out the accompanying Unibasket portafilter, Moonraker puck preparation tool, and bean dosing test tubes for the best coffee and workflow possible. –Brian Lam
→ Shop: The Key, Weber Workshops, $1999.
GOODS & SERVICES • Found Object
Backgammon chic
In our 20s, my wife and I played on a briefcase-style board with a soft brown casing. We were all business, playing two out of three, make it three out of five, in Crown Heights, Carroll Gardens, Ann Arbor, and back on the Upper West Side. The board was a constant on the makeshift coffee tables and bookshelves of each not-for-long apartment.
Two decades later, at our friends’ place upstate, the table is the board, a gleaming piece of sculpted rattan. It lacks the patina of too-small walkups and U-Haul moves. But it’s a showstopper. –Josh Albertson
→ Shop: Backgammon by Suzie Kondi, $3,495.
GOODS & SERVICES • FOUND Object
Heat wave
I love the Gozney Dome for backyard summer cooking. I use it for everything — pizza, fish, steak, veggies. It’s a fantastic piece of equipment. –Sean Feeney
→ Shop: Dome, Gozney, $1999.
GOODS & SERVICES: FOUND Object
An intoxicating balm
Before closing its storefront early-pandemic, CAP Beauty on West 10th Street didn't just give the best facials in the city, it was where you went to discover your new favorite products: Marie Veronique oil cleanser (handmade in Berkeley), a jade facial roller (before they went mainstream), Sisters’ “microbiome friendly” shampoo. But my favorite CAP discovery was IN FIORE’S Jasmine Supérieur balm, a purchase I can only justify when I’m postpartum or super dry in the dead of winter. Its intoxicating scent reminds me of honeymooning in India.
As for CAP Beauty, it lives on through an online store; its former aestheticians, who have spread out across FOUND’s Rejuvenating Facials Nines; and that spa feeling I get whenever I use Jasmine Supérieur after a shower. –Julia Steele
→ Shop: Jasmine Supérieur, IN FIORE, $225.
GOODS & SERVICES • FOUND Object
Stress-free sofa
Six days after this piece arrived — 30 weeks after we ordered it — our 10-year-old daughter’s friend exploded a stress ball filled with a neon gelatin on the chaise. Desperate, they tried to blot it up with bathroom tissue, which shredded on impact. The babysitter, a high school senior, wiped at the purple with a Tide stain stick, further laminating the substance into the fabric.
Months later, after hours of blotting and scrubbing, the stain is gone, reduced to a faint sear only on our retinas. The couch remains, defiant, having taken our best punch. It is an ethereal lounger with a backbone, modular and elegant. We’re adding another piece. –Josh Albertson
→ Shop: Hugo, Nathan Anthony via McQuaide Co.
GOODS & SERVICES • FOUND Object
Oil on linen
My biggest and most beloved pandemic splurge was a huge painting by Charlotta Westergren. Everybody should have one, but there aren't a lot to go round. –Felix Salmon
GOODS & SERVICES: FOUND Object
My e-bike, a Tern cargo in polished chrome, has changed my relationship with this city. On weekends, my daughter and I explore all of NYC; it’s made everything an adventure and accessible. I bought my bike at Propel Bikes in the Navy Yard — they’re the absolute experts in E bikes and I can’t recommend them enough. –Philippe von Borries
→ Shop: HSD S+, Tern, $5,699.
GOODS & SERVICES • FOUND Object
Syng speakers
What it is: A high-end spatial audio speaker with Kubrick-esque sci-fi industrial design capable of filling up great rooms. When up to four are paired together in a space, they self-tune using microphones to coordinate a very large, realistic sound.
What was found: The first day I tried Syng, so captivating was the stage that I sat in an Eames lounge and listened to music for 8 hours. Louder and bigger than HomePods and prettier than Sonos. And not as fussy as a full-on home audio component system.
Quirk: No Dolby Atmos support yet. –Brian Lam
→ Shop: Syng Cell Alpha, $2499.
And more FOUND Objects: