High bar
High bar
Midnight Blue, Bar Contra, Good Guy's, The Jolie Filtered Showerhead, Throwing Fits, Bernie's vinegar chicken, US Open tix, best ice cream parlors, Villa Mabrouka Tangier, MORE
THE ASK • Reader Survey
One more call for submissions on the first-ever FOUND reader survey. If you’ve already filled it out, thank you. Great feedback so far (especially you, “concise format, broad range of recommendations — it's like five newsletters in one!”). We’ll publish more results next week and give away one-year subscription upgrades (or extensions) to two randomly selected participants.
BARS • First Round
Three new capital-B bars
MIDNIGHT IN GRAMERCY: Takuma Watanabe of Martiny’s fame (number four on North America’s 50 Best Bars list) is at the helm of Midnight Blue, a new jazz and cocktail lounge in Gramercy. The space is actually two in one, with Bar Neat, a cramped library-like whiskey den, up front. The main event is discreetly tucked away behind a wooden door. Inside, at the end of the surprisingly large room, there’s a jazz stage bathed in light, a scattering of bistro tables, and a long bar from where one can order a wide array of excellent Japanese-accented tipple, from a matcha piña colada to an old-fashioned infused with shiitake mushrooms, soy sauce maple syrup, and lapsang souchong tea.
→ Midnight Blue (Gramercy) • 106 E 19th St • Tues-Sat 5p-1a • Reserve (walk-ins welcome).
SPRITZING: A slim, white-washed Lower East Side spritz bar, Good Guy’s (above) shares a wall and ownership team with Attaboy (another 50 Best Bars staple). In fact, the two spaces mirror each other with an identical layout: front bar with stools and four booths directly behind. Dedicated to six light, effervescent drinks (plus a handful of wines and a back bar lined with amari), these are spritzes like you’ve never had — bubbly drinks of genius balance, such as Cynar, passionfruit, lemon, and Prosecco, and another with cacao, raspberry, and Lambrusco. Also, snacks, via tinned fish and plates like pan con tomate.
→ Good Guy’s (Lower East Side) • 134 Eldridge St • Sun-Wed 5p-1a, Thurs-Sat 5p-2a • No reservations.
COMPARE AND CONTRAST: The recent revamp of LES minimalist tasting menu restaurant Contra into Bar Contra included replacing the set menu with snacky yet sophisticated à la carte bites from chefs Fabián von Hauske and Jeremiah Stone, and adding cocktails by OG science-forward mixologist Dave Arnold (of the late, great Booker and Dax). Arnold’s lengthy drinks list includes rare ingredients like medicinal Mexican melipona honey, and a riff on a rum and Coke that sidesteps both ingredients but produces similar flavors with pisco, Averna, and lime. While the food menu changes often, one constant: a very delicious crumpet made from celeriac, served with an umami-packed wakame seaweed butter. Unfortunately, the poached tuna belly tartare with tissue paper-thin potato chips shingled atop is a limited edition. –Kat Odell
→ Bar Contra (Lower East Side) • 138 Orchard St • Tues-Sat 530p-12a • Reserve.
GOODS & SERVICES • FOUND Sponsor
The beauty of a good shower
Ryan and Arjan here, the co-founders of Jolie, a beauty wellness company focused on purifying the quality of one’s shower water for better skin and hair. We’re both fans and readers of FOUND, which is why we decided to sponsor this newsletter to reach like-minded folks like you.
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We offer a 60-day, no questions asked, money-back guarantee. So if you're generally skeptical (like we are), try it and see for yourself. If you don't love Jolie, we'll refund your money. –Ryan Babenzien & Arjan Singh
→ Shop: The Jolie Filtered Showerhead (Jolie) • available in brushed gold, modern chrome, brushed steel, jet black, and vibrant red • $148.
REAL ESTATE LINKS: Is it finally a buyer’s market in New York? Maybe! • Flatiron Building conversion update: plans call for 60 luxury condos • Chemical plume no match for Gowanus development • Ian Schrager is selling his Dumbo loft • A walk across the new Delancey Street pedestrian bridge on LES • Park Avenue’s park is coming back — eventually.
CULTURE & LEISURE • Friday Routine
‘Deferred work’
• co-host •
Neighborhood you live in: Greenpoint
It’s Friday afternoon, how are you rolling into the weekend?
Fridays used to be a decent chance to catch up on life admin tasks, but with unstable summer schedules and a renewed vigor to do more and do better now that the podcast I co-host, Throwing Fits, has migrated to Substack, Fridays are now more about catching up on the week's “deferred work” (a.k.a. the bullshit). Honestly, it's kind of nice to reply to non-pressing emails on Friday, because it maximizes the amount of time before anyone writes back. If I'm lucky, by Monday morning, my email’s been buried, and I never hear from them again.
Any restaurant plans this weekend?
If I go a week without eating Strange Delight's BBQ shrimp or Bernie's vinegar chicken, my therapist knows to break out the extra-strength tissues. Same goes for the bites and bevys at the new Bar Contra and whenever Shy is on the sticks at Mimi. And there's only one place I'll endure waiting on line getting jostled by food content creators and 24-year-old West Villagers who are just there to digitally claim a place and performatively check it off their list: Apollo Bagels. Completely worth it!
How about a little leisure or culture?
I'm trynna see Twisters at some point, preferably in the 4DX format, so Glen Powell can spit on me and I can smell airborne cows. I'm playing a few hours of tennis on Randall's Island, so icing my brittle knees is absolutely in the near future. I'm also hoping to stop by 194 Local's new NYC location, and do some farewell shopping at Chickee's Vintage men's store in Williamsburg (they're not closing, just moving locations soon). And of course, I'll stop by Mildred New York for a perfect haircut and perfect hang with the fellas there, an all-natural antidepressant with a 100% success rate since they opened five years ago.
What was your last great vacation?
Last month, I spent a few gluttonous days in Montreal, which was a terrible time to forget my cholesterol pills, especially when the mayor of the metropolis, artist Dan Climan, was spirit-guiding the feasting. We of course hit Joe Beef, which has come out the other side of some turbulence, and goes as crazy as its OG days. Our meal at Au Pied de Cochon featured the absolute best, most complex seafood tower any of us could ever dream of. And the dinner at Le Violon was the platonic ideal of incredible cheffing and pure joy in the room. Would also highly recommend hitting the spa-on-a-barge Bota Bota and the IRL Ssense store, even if it was a semi-cursed experience.
What’s a recent big-ticket purchase you love?
A brand spankin' new 40 gallon 4500-watt 240-volt electric water heater from Rheem, with a six-year warranty, plus labor and installation costs. My downstairs neighbor's water heater burst when he was away for the weekend, and it ruined his floors/life. Guess that's just karma for being a whiny ass narc, tho.
What product or service do you always recommend?
An at-home Japanese toilet seat will straight up alter your entire existence.
CULTURE & LEISURE • Honey Deuce
US Open Women’s Final • Arthur Ashe Stadium (Flushing Meadows) • Sat @ 4p, section 110, $1100 per
US Open Men's Final • Arthur Ashe Stadium (Flushing Meadows) • Sun @ 2p, section 110, $2115 per
Built to Spill: There's Nothing Wrong with Love 30th Anniversary Tour • Webster Hall (Union Square) • Sat @ 730p • preferred balcony, $125 per
CULTURE & LEISURE LINKS: Art fairground Luna Luna coming to the Shed in November • Met to host first major exhibition of architect Paul Rudolph • Fall art previews: must-see gallery shows opening during Armory Week, the 10 most anticipated art shows this season, 10 shows to see Upstate this September • Nodding to tattoo tourism, The Standard partners with Atelier Eva.
GETAWAYS • Morocco
Tangier tango
“Tangier is more New York than New York,” Paul Bowles wrote in his 1952 novel Let it Come Down.
The best time to visit the Moroccan port city of Tangier is in the fall — and the best hotel there is Villa Mabrouka, which opened last year.
Just above the Kasbah and the Medina, and with breathtaking views of the Strait of Gibraltar and the North Atlantic Sea, Villa Mabrouka is an intimate, 12-room hotel housed in a 1940s modernist building on a 12-acre hillside. The property was once the holiday home of Yves Saint Laurent and Pierre Bergé, and was transformed into a hotel by British designer Jasper Conran in 2019. Its unveiling was stalled by the pandemic, with a soft opening only last year. But now the kinks are all worked out, creating an unmatched luxury hotel experience, without ritzy affectation.
The design of Villa Mabrouka reflects a blend of modernist architecture and traditional English country house aesthetics, with elements like floor-to-ceiling glass windows, intricate fretwork, and antique furnishings. The gardens, by landscape architect Madison Cox, feature cascading terraces, with over 6500 trees, shrubs, and flowers, including banana palms, ferns, bamboo, citrus trees, hollyhocks, nasturtiums, roses, bougainvillea, and agapanthus. A variety of bird songs and the five-times-a-day calls to prayer from the mosque next door add to the Tangier experience.
The villa features two crystalline swimming pools, three restaurants, and a rooftop coffee and cocktail bar. The dining options emphasize local Mediterranean ingredients, with dishes like grilled lobster, sauteed sole, and tagines (lamb, beef or chicken).
Delta has a two-stop flight that takes 15 hours to reach the destination, but most flights are much longer. The best option is to spend a few days in Paris or London and then fly directly to Tangier — a 2.5-hour flight.
To prepare for your trip, read Bowles's classic novel The Sheltering Sky, which will put you in the mood for this storied North African city. –Brad Inman
→ Villa Mabrouka (Tangier) • 1 Sidi Bouknadel.
GETAWAYS LINKS: JetBlue offering aggressive new status match • Priority Pass members can now get free massage at JFK • The hottest airline turf battle in America is taking place in Connecticut • The Amateur Gourmet’s weekend upstate in Hudson • Six Senses are suddenly everywhere • Is Clear still worth it?
GOODS & SERVICES • The Nines
Ice cream parlors
The Nines are FOUND's distilled lists of NYC's best. Additions or subtractions? Hit reply or found@foundny.com.
Il Laboratorio del Gelato (Lower East Side), artisanal gelato/sorbet counter with elegant flavors like crème fraîche, blackberry, thyme