Nova Clutch

Birthday dinner at L'épicerie

We like birthdays, well other people's anyway. And we had to do something special for Thérèse's birthday, particularlybecause she hates her birthday. Dinner at our place was an option, but isn't that what we do all the time? We wanted to go out for a meal, but wanted to keep the intimacy of having dinner at home, just without having to load the dishwasher. A fancy meal in an uncomfortable setting with mediocre food seemed to be what the options were, and that didn't sound very special.

Then Sweetu told us about Brooklyn's best kept food secret. L'épicerie is a small French grocery (hence the name) in Fort Greene. Small, quaint and surprisingly rustic considering the location, L'épicerie serves sandwiches, charcuterie and produce during the day. And if you have a party of ten or more, you can book a dinner in the grocery where they put a large farmhouse table amongst the produce and they will take care of everything.

This doesn't sound so unique, but what's lovely is that it isn't too fancy. It's done in the way we would do it – they go to the farmer's markets, go to the Bronx to the fish market and make everything from scratch. While you're at work that day, unable to be shopping for fresh food and scouring the city for the best of what's in season, they do it for you, and they start cooking a few hours before you get there. You work out the menu with them the day before and they take care of the rest, and you bring the wine. A perfect situation when we brought two bottles each, picked for the birthday girl's taste.

What was lovely about this was that it was really simple, food we may have made ourselves, and just very good, very fresh ingredients. We started with some champagne and olives, milling around the baskets of peaches and potatoes. We then sat for our first course, placemarkers being Simpsons avatars of each person. Jen's avatar was complete with a moustache tattoo on her finger, Michele's with a blonde stripe in her hair (don't ask).

We started with a summer vegetable risotto which was simple and cooked perfectly al dente. The bottles were being passed and emptied very quickly at this stage, everyone trying a little of each bottle (the glass debris was quite amazing at the end of the night). We then had slow cooked eggplant, tomato and onions with roasted cod and deliciously creamy mashed potato. Basic, hearty and lovely. By this point we might have been quite raucous because the neighbors upstairs asked us to turn our music down (bring your ipod to L'épicerie and you control what you listen to. We listened to a playlist I quickly remembered to put together on the subway on the way there). After this a beautiful lemon cake arrived at the table, complete with a candle and a birthday song that must have really bothered the neighbors. The cake was definitely the pièce de résistance, and they had just taken the layers out of the oven when I got there to set up the meal. Springy, fluffy cake with beautifully tart-and-not-too-sweet frosting makes my mouth water thinking of it now. I asked for the recipe, but was denied. Perhaps they knew I would put it on the blog...

We left in a haze of good food, too much alcohol and a lack of understanding of where we actually were in the world. We were unfortunately thrown out of there a little before we were ready, but with a baby on the hip that really needed to go to bed, we kind of understood. I guess it's just like at home.

L'épicerie is at 270 Vanderbilt Avenue, Fort Green, Brooklyn. The phone number is 718.636.1200. All photos by Michael or Jane.

The last tomato sandwiches from the garden

The weather has literally snapped and I think that's it. It's autumn, it's cold and the tomatoes are at their last. We have eaten tomato sandwiches every single day since July and I'm still not bored of them. Michael introduced the sandwiches to me with our heirlooms last year – crusty bread, tomatoes, homemade mayonnaise and salt. Nothing else. I was baffled. No olive oil, no basil? An unequivocal no. And he was right. They are absolute perfection and I am sad to be eating my last. On our bread this summer we had the following tomatoes: Summer Cider Apricot, Marianna's Peace, Black from Tula, Orange Strawberries, White Beauties, Pink Ice, and my favorite, Purple Cherokee. The farmer's market had nothin' on these rooftop Brooklyn beauties, and today I mourn their passing.

Woolen Mills by Woolrich

Headed up to Bergdorf Goodman on Saturday (of all days...) I'm a recluse at the best of times, so it was a bit of a shock to be part of civilization for real. There was even a huge line outside the Apple store, with a bouncer & a strict 1 out 1 in policy...I think I'll go online when I get home instead.
Back to Bergdorf...I'd taken my self out of my comfort zone (sitting at home with a bottle of wine and thinking about leaving the house) and traveled up to take a look at the A/W 2007 Woolrich Woolen Mills Collection - Bergdorf is the sole outlet in the USA. Funny that, when you consider that Woolrich is Americas oldest clothing company, 177 years old in fact. Well, the "Woolen Mills by Woolrich" collection is designed by Daiki Suzuki of "Engineered Garments" so is limited in numbers and Italian made. The Italians are crazy about Woolrich in general, so this particular collaboration has gone down a treat and was originally only available across Italy and selected European stores. Couldn't leave empty-handed so picked up this black cotton shirt. It has some really nice details such as the plaid pattern on the inside and the wing tip collars.

Reading Light and Still Life

For those of you that don't know it's London Design Week this week, you know, in London. Unfortunately I'm not there, I'm on a little island in Massachusetts called Nantucket. The one from the limerick. Anyway, if I were in London I would be visiting our good friends Designersblock and our stand at Tent London. We were kindly invited by the nice people at Tent to exhibit some pieces that we have recently redeveloped and we took them up on the offer.

The second generation of Still Life (pictured above) is a series of blank canvasses that hang on a wall unadorned until someone walks by. When you walk past, lights spring up from behind the canvas and follow your movement, disappearing when you move away. When you're gone, they're blank again, but you wouldn't know it because you're not there.

The second is Reading Light. It's a functional, intuitive bedside light. You know when you're reading a book in bed and you get all sleepy and have to fumble around for a light switch when you've finished reading? Well, not here! You simply put the book down on the Reading Light's platform and the light slowly dims off. Picking up the book again turns the light back on. It's a simple and functional product that is entirely based on bedtime ritual and movement. Of course, if you don't read, it's not very helpful.

You can see both these pieces at Tent London from this Thursday September 20th to Sunday September 23rd at the Truman Brewery in East London.