Do Chefs Hate Burgers?
Plus: $12k espresso makers from ALD, and Greece: burgeoning tech hub
Welcome to Small Talk, an email I serve out every Monday morning exclusively to our Breakfast Club members in NYC and Charleston. The premise is simple: my top of mind topics for the week’s worth of breakfasts, lunches, and dinners ahead anytime some chatter is required. From now on, I’ll be sharing it with subscribers of The Supersonic as well. Enjoy, and crib topics as necessary.
For my friends who don’t exist in that Venn diagram cross section where the terminally online and menswear enthusiasts overlap, well, congrats. But also, you probably missed this bit of news last week: Aimé Leon Dore dropped a collab with iconic Italian espresso machine makers La Marzocco. The thing is stylish, ofc, and pricey, ringing it at nearly $12,000 — almost 3x the price of La Marzocco’s standard Linda Micra. Despite the hefty price tag, the ALD edition sold out in less than 24 hours. Reddit has thoughts.
For the more frugal/less hype beast-y among us, there’s the Breakfast Club. Remember: if you are on our yearly subscription—shoutout for being an OG supporter—your membership is due to expire soon. Meaning if you want to keep unlocking daily coffees at the best spots in town, you’ll need to re-up for $25 a month. We got you.
For consideration …
Off the grid
Our phone addictions continue to plague us. That’s good news for Snapchat—remember them?—whose 900 million monthly users make them the preferred social media app of U.S. teens. They also have Snap Map—see where your friends are at all times—which now boasts 400 million monthly active users. Instagram is quickly spooling up their own version, the catchy “Friend Map.” Other folks aren’t so on board, like the town in the UK that tried to ban smartphones for kids under 14 — it worked, kind of. And there are the trad wives of TikTok—or former trad wives, those who submissively lived under a patriarchal lifestyle befitting the 1950s, albeit while broadcasting their antiquated routines to thousands of followers—who have fled the movement. The digital exodus doesn’t stop there. How about quitting music streaming, or quitting listening to music altogether? Still, phone-optimized content, aka creator content, is big business, which is why NBC has given development deals to 11 TikTokers.Do chefs hate burgers?
As you may or may not have noticed, I typically avoid writing about restaurants in this newsletter — doing so would kind of be like wearing your favorite band’s t-shirt to their concert. A faux pas, indeed. But some stories warrant inclusion. Like this impressive interactive roundup by the Times recounting the last 25 years of NYC dining. What a run this city has had, eh? Do chefs love burgers as much as we do (hey, we’ve got a Burger League, after all)? Well, it’s…complicated. Still, we think a burger reveals a lot about a restaurant. Artist Lucien Smith—a friend of Blackbird’s—is reviving the beloved artists' restaurant/hangout/place of employment Food, and is relocating it to Dimes Square — a neighborhood Smith unironically stands behind. “This is my Soho,” he tells Grub Street, “and I’m very into it.” Beli gets the well-deserved WSJ treatment. Find me on it. And who is the most hype cheesemonger right now? That would be Madrid’s Clara Diez, who owns the chicest shop in the contemporary cheese game, Fromaje.Greece 2025 A.I.
As summer nears, one’s mind drifts to Greece. Or at least mine does. The salads, the islands, the … tech hub? Apparently, Athens is the place to be, especially for European startups. Greece targeted tech growth six years ago (branching out from tourism and hospitality, both key sectors of the economy), but missed out on taking big swings at bad bets. Now, the slate is clean, and with a former VC as Prime Minister, the timing could be ripe. Part of Greece’s strategy includes reversing the brain drain with tax breaks and other incentives. For the rest of us, there are the islands, this roundup being a constant source of fodder for my wanderlust, as is this essay by novelist Alexander Chee from a few years back. When I can’t make it to the Aegean, there’s always the Greek frappé — beach bod be damned.
Quicker hits …
Is this the most hardcore triathlon ever?
Sliding mitts are enjoying a must-have moment.
Watch Ferrari's Chief Design Officer sketch their latest supercar.
Of course there's a hidden tennis court in Vatican City (and, yes, Pope Leo XIV plays).
Enjoy your week.
BL
Ben Leventhal
Founder + CEO
Blackbird