Gotham Gal

Hudson River Park

If you have not been to the west side of Manhattan in awhile, you are missing out on a massive transformation.  $350 million has been pored into the Hudson River Park and it is gorgeous. 

You can drive your bike down the path, you can take a jog, kayak on the waterfront, hit golf balls, play basketball, play soccer, play tennis and of course take your dog to meet other dogs in the dog runs.  There are events over the course of the year that you can attend such as music concerts. 

There are certainly issues that still need to be hammered out such as the use of the piers.  For instance, pier 40 is slowly sinking and how is that fixed has been a conversation through out the community for years. 

We went to the annual fundraiser this past week on Pier 26 located at North Moore Street and the waterfront.  It was pretty great to see the excitement in the room around the park.  After all, it is the park where we all fine refuge from our day to day city life.  I love walking down the waterway at night and during the weekend to see the people and the beat of the park. 

Congratulations to Hudson River Park.  They have come a long way...

Back Forty West

Back Forty West is the latest addition to the space that Peter Hoffman and his wife Susan Rosenfeld have occupied for years.  Savoy was there for at least 20 years.  I remember when Savoy opened.  I still remember who we had dinner with when we went there back in the early 90's.  Fast forward, our daughter Emily happens to be in the same class with Peter and Susans son.  I bring this up because the food and restaurant industry has changed so much since those days.

I remember telling Susan that we had gone to Savoy when it first opened and I still recall when New York Magazine reviewed them.  She told me an interesting story which is worth telling.  When Savoy was reviewed, the long tail of that article was a surge in business that went on for almost a year.  That enabled them to expand the restaurant upstairs and create a sold foundation for the restaurant.  Many years later, like the early 2000's, Savoy was written up again in New York Magazine, and the long tail of that was quite short, the surge lasted about a week.  It says something about how the industry has changed.  Reviews are being written every day, new places are being scouted out so the minute the doors open the surge is fast and furious before many move to the next latest and greatest.  I always think about that even particularly now when new restaurants open their doors and they don't even have a second to breath before they are quickly reviewed in the blogosphere.  Just an interesting observation.

So I was excited about going to Back Forty West.  The original Back Forty is in the east village.  This restaurant is an extension of the brand and Peter brought over Shanna Pacifico from the original spot to be the chef at Back Forty West.  I had lunch there the other day.  The food was quite good.  I've always loved the location particulary the wrap around windows in the front room.  

We began with a chick pea puree with small warm pieces of pita breads on the side and some marinated beets.  The bread was crusty and soft.  The dip was addictive.  

This was clever.  Grilled peas in a pod covered with smoked pimentos, sea salt, lemon juice and herbs. A new version of edamame.

Super garlicky grilled kale and escarole salad.  Too garlicky for me but really well done with the shaved parm on top.

Sauteed brocolli rabe as a side.

Buttermilk fried chicken on a waffle with maple syrup on the side.  Very Southern.  The fried chicken was juicy, crispy and so damn good.

For lighter fair was a smoked chicken breast sliced over greens, pumpkin seeds and a nice lemon dressing. 

This dessert was killer.  The rhubarb slices had been poached to the point that the pieces literally fell apart when you cut in to it.  Set in a puffed pastry and just the right amount of sweetness with a scoop of intense vanilla ice cream.

Nice job.  Might have to go back for dinner. 

A Jeffersonian Dinner

I went to a  Jeffersonian dinner this past week for twelve women and the top was; how should women define success?  It was engaging, interesting and intellectually stimulating. 

The age of the women at the table ranged from 25 to probably early 60's.  Our host had introduced everyone already through email where we were able to read each others bios.  We did a little meet and greet at the start and then sat down to talk.  The first question was "when in your life did you feel that you had success"....then the conversation began to flow.

What is interesting is the themes among most of us.  Nobody in the crowd defined success by money but by family, relationships, achieved goals, freedom to make decisions.  I can't recall the many thoughts that took place but it certainly got me thinking about the definition for myself. 

One thing to think about is that if you achieve success, then what comes next.  In essence, the path of life is a series of successes as you evolve and grow older.  It is funny what came to my head when I thought about when did I first think of myself as having success.

I was working for a guy and basically running the company with him operationally as well as running all of sales.  He gave me a serious amount of rope which is probably why I found success there.  He owned his own biz and I was his number 2. There was a day when a group of VP's from Dillards came to our showroom.  These guys, yes guys in blue suits, were basically the number 2s in the company.  I was giving them the pitch and I was definitely nervous.  I was nervous because before being in the wholesale end of the schmata biz, I was at Macys where guys in blue suits were the hierarchy of the company.  So I am pitching these Dillards men and the owner of the company comes up to me and whispers in my ear, you make more money than these guys.  It totally gave me pause.  There was something about that information that shifted my entire attitude, as I felt, hey, I am equal to you guys and that made me feel successful.

So, continuing down the road of success...certainly raising our children has been the most rewarding.  Perhaps because my career has been a strange long ride not a straight shot up a ladder that I have found it hard to feel successful.  There are fleeting moments where I think that was a nice successful moment but those moments never make me feel like I am successful.  Crazy perhaps and more than likely because a big load of baggage I carry around but that is my own issue. 

It was really an engaging conversation particularly hearing from other women who I consider all successful to hear how they feel about their own successes and the choices they have made.  Would a group of men speak differently than a group of women...perhaps but perhaps not.

Do I feel successful when I bake a killer pie?  Do I feel successful when I complete a project on time and on budget?  Do I feel successful that I can juggle so many balls and get shit done?  Do I feel successful when I see my kids do well and achieve their goals?  Do I feel successful when something I planned is pulled off perfectly?  Do I feel success getting a deal done? 

I do feel small shots of success to all the questions above so my take away from that dinner is that success is constantly happening in our lives as we achieve the small things because it is important that we feel good about our own personal accomplishments as we grow and move forward down our own life path. 

Really interesting evening.  

Natalia Allen, Clothing Designer, Woman Entrepreneur

Natalia told me that she was always picky.  As a kid, her mother would take her shopping for clothes and she would walk around and find nothing that worked for her.  The fabrics were not right, she didn't love the cut, she wanted it longer, etc.  Her mother was a smart women, she gave Natalia a sewing machine and taught her the basics of sewing.  Soon Natalia was making her own clothes and she would literally sell them off her back to friends in high school.  It is not surprising that Natalia chose to go to Parsons after high school.

Natalia could be labeled as a serial intern.  It was through that where she learned the real trades of the garment center.  She worked at the Gap part-time in the visual merchandising area in college.  She also worked at Ralph Rucci, an underwear company and Christina Perrin.  The one company that really caught her attention was from a group of people who came out of the ITP department at NYU who were working on a wearable collaborative technology.  It made Natalia start to think about that merger.

In 2004, Natalia graduated from Parsons with the distinct honor of getting the designer of the year award.  She had presented a high tech fashion collection with an online site merging textiles and technology.  She was working with lasers to get rid of all the seams.  It was an honor to be put in the category with other graduated notables such as Alexander Wang, Donna Karan, Anna Sui, Thakoon and Marc Jacobs to name a few.

She was able to graduate and begin consulting.  There was a huge article that had come out in NY Magazine about all the designers that had graduated from Parsons so she leveraged that to get consulting gigs.  The creative director of Donna Karan contacted her when she saw the tech fabrics she was working on.  They literally set aside a budget for Natalia to think differently about new fabric concepts and designs.  They wanted someone to think deeper which is why they kept her as a consultant instead of bringing her into the company.  She did that for two years.

Her next gig was at Calvin Klein working in the mens division developing a new line of denim.  The denim has this very cool rusted feel that was very American and iconic.  It was 2008 when she completed the project and then entire world teetered.  It was an interesting time.  Natalia was also doing a project for British Tel-com reporting to the head of design.  Her value has always been that she is a disruptive thinker and taking those thoughts through a process and executing on them.  She cares about how the product is made, where does it come from and how can we do it better?

Natalia was elected into the World Economic Forum where she began to speak globally about the intersection of production and design with technology.  It is through interdisciplinary design where she started to talk and think about sustainability and changing the way products are being developed.

She loved speaking around the world and going to beautiful places but through a chance meeting in 2011, as she had been thinking about starting her own company because it would so much more gratifying if she could use the products she talks about and create them herself.  Someone asked her what that would look like and gave her the funding to start. 

The first 3 months in her own company, she spent going around to different factories and learning technique.  At Parsons you learn alot about design but not about production.  So she trained herself working backwards and taking internships at factories to learn the rudiments of manufacturing. 

Natalias products are seamless.  The fabric is super light.  The dresses weigh less than 4 ounces each.  The vision is not to have a fashion collection but a line of essential foundations for a woman's wardrobe.  Going back to sustainability she wants to make sure that the items she makes are architecturally sound and of great quality so you can continue to wear Natalia's clothes for years to come. 

Living on the fast track

I know a young woman who was zooming up the fast track, living life in the fast lane, working like a dog and found herself exhausted and in a life she wasn't so sure she wanted.  What did she do?  She jumped ship.  It took a shit load of courage and guts but she did it and the last time I saw her she was literally beaming as if the entire weight of the world had just come off her shoulders. 

She sent me this article that was in the WSJ this week, Single and Stepping off the Fast Track.  It isn't just women with children who are taking a step back but others as well.  This article is one of the many conversations I have been having over the past few weeks starting with what will the word career mean in the next 5 or 10 years.

I am looking at businesses such as 3rd Ward and Windowfarms where community as well as a return to our roots although with a 2012 urban twist is happening.  At 3rd Ward there are classes from jewelry making to sewing to photography to urban ecology.  These are classes that expand our creative genes and connect with a community.  At Windowfarms, there is a virtual community that discusses their own techniques and skills on how to grow your own garden. 

Perhaps people are looking around at the intensity of how we work and are constantly connected and are taking a step back wanting to simplify and enjoy their life through something that they are truly passionate about.  I am not so sure we are slowing down but we are shifting.  We are moving into the next generation post-2008 when the world imploded.  We might be slowly coming out of that time but the economy, the Internet, the world is a very different place.  The changes are subtle now but in a few years we will see them more intensely as the generation graduating from college now makes their mark on the world and the ones jumping off their career paths.

A bold move for someone to get off the fast track because they want a life style shift not because because they are having children or settling into family life.  The question is how they take that empowering shift and live their lives. 

 

 

Perla

In full transparency, we are investors in Perla which is why although it has been reviewed all over NYC, I have yet to write anything.  We went there again for dinner on Mothers Day and I took the pics and grabbed the menu.  What is wonderful is that this week not only did the Village Voice RAVE about Perla the NYTimes gave them 2 stars. The chef, Michael Toscano is hitting the high notes.

I am a huge fan of Gabe and his wife Gina who own Joseph Leonard, Jeffries, Fedora and now Perla.  Guaranted this will not be the last of their empire.  Here is a piece i wrote about Gabe's first place, Little Owl, years ago.  Kind of funny to read it now.  My assessment is at least consistent.  Here is what I wrote at the end of the blog post.  Gabriel is the perfect groovy host of the front room.  He still is. 

Perla is located on Minetta which is a tiny street off of Sixth Avenue.  The restaurant has been around for years and they have just made it better and cozier..and have taken full advantage of the wood burning fire place it came with.  We began the sugar snap and snow peas salad.  A mixture of peas and pea shoots with slices of pickled rhubarb and underneath a goats milk ricotta.  Mix it up and you have a hell of a taste combo.

Cured king salmon over asparagus and a chopped egg vinaigrette.  The salmon is delicious and asparagus is tis the season.

Crispy soft shell crap with a nice piccata aioli and pickled finger chiles.  I have also had a few other appetizers when we were there and highly recommend the vitello tonnato and braised octopus.

If you love pasta, this is the place.  Honestly could be the best pasta in the city right now.  Just perfect and beyond sublime.  Orechhiette with crumbled sweet italian sausage and ramp pesto. 

Gnocchi with a spicy tomato sauce and ricotta.  Wow.  I'd also recommend the cavatelli with duck ragu and foie gras.  How amazing does that sound?   It is. 

I am a big fan of a whole branzino particularly in a wood burning oven.  This is served with a broccoli rabe vinaigrette and caponata.  The fish falls off the bone.  They will filet it for you.

This is chicken for two, could be three after having the appetizers and pasta courses. Cut up pieces of chicken cooked in the wood burning oven with a spicy red sauce and the skin is almost barbequed.  It is a diavola sauce and it is finger licking good.

On the way out they always give short bread cookies with fennel sprinkled over the top.  A nice light touch.  We were too full to eat dessert.  The other thing that can either be endearing or over the top is everyone who works there goes over backwards to make you feel at home.  Sometimes it is too much but most of the time I feel like everyone there is the guest of honor and that doesn't feel so shabby. 

 

 

Women Who Tech

I was asked to take part in the Women Who Tech conference that takes place virtually.  My fellow panelists were Amanda Steinberg from Dailyworth, Amy Errett from Maveron and the moderator Pemo Theodore.  Our topic was Funding Your Own Startup.

It is a strange event in the fact that it takes place on line and I truly have no idea how many people are in the audience or listening.  Yet on the other hand, we had an interesting dialogue and hopefully shed some light for many women entrepreneurs on questions that they might not feel so comfortable about asking in a public forum.

The questions might seem simple but if you have never done it, how would you know.  How do I fund my startup?  What is the difference between a seed round, an angel round and a VC round?  Is a lean startup important? 

The timing was perfect after sitting down with Nancy Hechinger this morning and talking about what exactly is the next Womens Entrepreneur Festival going to look like?  How can we make it different?  How can we educate more women about the real start-up questions?  How can we connect women CEO's together so that they can create groups to rely on for advice such as how YPO does (Young Presidents Organization). 

The panel conversations should be live soon.  There are a bunch of different panels worth listening to that took place.  Also, if you have any thoughts on the next Womens Entrepreneur Festival...start a discussion here!

Ban the plastic bag

There is petition in NYC right now to bag the plastic bag.  I am all for it.  You can sign the petition here

When we lived in Paris for the summer, plastic bags were not available.  Everyone carried their own bags.  Environmentally it makes a huge amount of sense.  It is a no-brainer and doesn't take a lot to change our habits. 

Here is some information from the Change.org site:

Plastic bags cause damage to ocean marine life, street litter, and carbon emissions in their manufacture and shipping.

As Americans we use 102 billion grocery bags a year. They're a product with a useful life measured in hours and a waste life measured in centuries. 

Get the quick facts on plastic or read the Greenpleace report Plastic Debris in the World's Oceans for a more complete understanding.  

The debris that marine life consumes or that entangles them could well be a plastic shopping bag. Maybe one of ours. Maybe one of yours. 

Take a moment to think about that. You'll never look at a one-use plastic bag from the grocery store the same way again. 

This is something we can do. Plastic bag bans are spreading across the country. The city of Rye, New York just passed a ban. If Rye can do it, New York City can do it. 

By banning the bag, New York City can send a powerful signal that this great city can be an environmental leader. 

Please sign the petition to encourage the City Council to take up this issue again. And please share it with every New Yorker, and everyone who cares about the environment, that you know.

 

Dinner, Heston Blumenthal

I love the simplicity of the name, Dinner.  The concept behind dinner is unique.  Blumenthal has taken recipes dating back from the 13th century to the 1800's from collected cookbooks and created a menu for 2012.  Not sure if he has changed anything but each selection on the menu is also given the date.  Brilliant idea.

The restaurant is located in the Mandarin Oriental.  A beautiful bright modern elegant room that overlooks Hyde Park.  The service is spectacular.  The food, of course, is prepared to perfection.

You enter through the glass wine cellar that is connected to the bar. 

Then you enter this bright spacious room.

We sat overlooking the park.  You begin with brown and white breads and salted butter. 

I would have liked to have gone with a few more people so we could have tried more dishes.  Fred had the Meat Fruit c. 13-15th century.  At first glance you think it is a mandarin orange but it is not.

It is a chicken liver parfait served with grilled bread.  Just spectacular and visually you can't beat it.

I had the Salamgundy, c. 1720.  This recipe came from the Cook's and Confectioner's Dictionary by John Nott.  Chicken oysters.  Chicken oysters are the small round pieces of meat that are at the end of a chicken thigh.  Some consider it to be the best part of the chicken.  Served with thin slices of salisfy, small round dollops of bone marrow & a horseradish cream.  Divine. 

For dinner we did something on the menu and the special of the day.  Black Food Pork Chop, c. 1820.  This is based on Careme's residency in London.  A perfectly cooked pan fried pork shop with spelt, ham hock & Robert sauce.  On top are small pieces of crunchy pork rinds.  Loved the crisp with the sauce.

I had the special although when I return I might go with a fish.  The dishes, not surprising since they are from other centuries, are heavy in flavor.  This dish is called Beef Royale, c. 1726 from James II when he lived in Westminster Abbey.  A huge short rib that had been scored and put in a charcoal controlled oven.  Then they put it in a suet for 3 days at 50 degrees.  Afterward, the meat is taken off the bone and served with tongue cubes, smoked shallots and an anchovy puree and red wine reduction that is made with capers and tarragon.  Smoked baby carrots and whipped root vegetables on the side. Rich and over the top.

For a side dish we had fries and buttered green beans.  Those fries were killer.  Light almost airy and super crispy.  Just how I love them. 

Dessert is ordered in advance.  The Tipsy Cake is a must, c. 1810 from the English cookery book by J.H. Walsh.  Small pieces of sweet bread baked in a cassoulet with loads of sweet butter.  A piece of pineapple on the side that is cooked in a spit fire.  Amazing.  The bread is like the best cinnamon roll in the world without the cinnamon.

We also tried the Brown Bread Ice Cream, c. 1830.  A New System of Domestic Cookery by Maria Eliza RUndell.  A salted butter caramel cream on the bottom and little pieces of crispy bread and pears surrounding that with a scoop of brown bread ice cream. 

Just to send us off happy they brought us each a small chocolate ganache infused with earl grey tea and a caraway seed shortbread stick on the side.  The shortbread stick was really dense and I loved the savory and sweet combo.

An incredible meal.  Everything was delicious.  Impeccable attention to detail.  We walked home, got up the next morning and grabbed a flight back to NYC. 

Entrepreneurs in London

Fred had a board meeting with Soundcloud in London so I tagged along and it gave me an opportunity to meet with a few people too.  Seeing people in their environment really is a great thing to do.  I am making a commitment to get to every company that I am involved with and meet the team.  

I started off the day having breakfast with Carmen Busquets.  Carmen has been involved in the luxury fashion business since she was twenty.  She is smart, saavy and an angel investor.  She has also launched her own companies, Couture Lab and Gift Lab.   She was the original investor in Net-A-Porter as she believed in what they were doing when very few did.  She totally understands that it takes time to build these businesses.  Carmen is really down to earth and if you spend some time on the web you realize, at least I did, that she is a huge player and has made some really smart investments. 

I met up with Fred at Tate London where we saw the Picasso exhibit.  The Tate London is where I had my "aha" moment about art in college.  I spent a semester abroad in London.  It was my first time outside the US.  I saw a Roy LIchtenstein exhibit and I fell in love with art.  This was an installaion at you walk downstairs to the Picasso show.  David Tremlett, Drawing for Free Thinking 2011.

Afterward we made our way over to Shoreditch for lunch and some meetings.  Our first meet and greet was with Editd.  We got to meet the team.  Fred got a overview of what Editd was doing.  I believe I invested in Editd well over a year ago.  Impressed with how far they have come.  They have listened to their market and made those changes accordingly.  Editd is key for any buyer, merchandiser, wholesaler or retailer.  They crawl the web and analyze comparison shopping, key trends from social to color. 

Then we had tea with Sally Broom of Tripbod.  Tripbod is a marketplace for original and unique travel agents around the globe.  I wrote about Sally awhile ago and have been following her journey since.  There are a few sites getting into this business but nobody has yet to figure it out.  My bet is behind Sally. 

Back to the hotel and off to drinks with Rohan Rajiv.  Rohan has been following and commenting on both mine and Freds blogs for awhile.  He interviewed me back in November.  Loved sitting down with him in person.  He is charming, super smart and incredibly curious.  Rohan has deemed himself our extended nephew.  Impressive young man.

A day of meeting and greeting with entrepreneurs in London.  I used Rohan's blogs heading on top of mine today because it captured the day. Can't beat it.