Good Morning, and Hello Friday!

It’s been a productive and fun week. NYC is HOPPING (as is most of the country from what I hear). That is both good and bad and it certainly inspired my “word of the year.” Also big thank you to my friend, Rodrigo Padilla, for putting this week’s MEDIA FIND on my radar (see #1 below).

1. MEDIA FIND: GEORGE HAHN (“Urban Raconteur”)

Rodrigo PADILLA introduced me to George Hahn last week. Wow-what a great discovery!.

• Hahn’s Live Videos on Instagram are now the highlight of my mornings. He typically livestreams at around 6:30-7 am while he walks his dogs in Central Park. And besides being incredibly articulate, he’s funny, insightful, and just drops tons of relevant knowledge. LOVE HIM!!
• Per the NYT, Hahn used to be Joan Rivers’ assistant, ultimately found NYC too expensive, moved back to Cleveland, missed NYC terribly, and returned to the city to live an “edited” life in a small converted hotel room on the Upper West Side of Manhattan with his two dogs. He now works as a dermatologist’s patient concierge.
• While being furloughed during the pandemic, he started doing daily videos on both Twitter (152K followers) and Instagram (32K followers).
• His morning IG posts are AMAZING. I’m obsessed. He’s one of the most expressive and stylish people I follow. I also consider him an expert on most of the topics he talks about.
• He gives GREAT advice and recommendations. His brand suggestions skew male, e.g. he’s a big fan of Merkur Razors and Alden shoes but there are always gems for women as well.
• He sometimes veers into politics (which I could do without) but overall, his videos are incredibly uplifting, informative, and fun, e.g., on Wednesday he mentioned that now that we’re all vaccinated, “hump day” takes on a whole new meaning.
• Cameo Videos also just reached out to him to join their platform and he’s getting inundated with requests. I told him he should raise his fee to at least $500 which he thinks is too much (but it’s not). Most of the celebs he compares himself to for pricing, provide canned content. Not so with George. He delivers the real thing and that’s worth paying extra for in my book.
• HIGHLY RECOMMEND YOU ALL FOLLOW HIM.

2. HOTTEST NEW RESTAURANT IN NYC: LE PAVILLON, OPENed MAY 19

A lot is on the line.

• Boulud’s success, or failure, will be seen as a measure of midtown Manhattan’s comeback (or not).
• But interest is definitely high. The earliest we could get a reservation is June 18 and we’ve been trying to snag a table for weeks. And again, it’s all thanks to Rodrigo!!
• I will be reporting back with a review next month!

3. in the Comedy world, Clean is the new dirty!

3 recent examples (which always makes it a trend)

1. Dave Konig’s squeaky clean show at Don’t Tell Mama was a blast (and sold out!). It was so good, I’m seeing it again this Sunday! Dave also filled us in on the stand-up special he just shot for Dry Bar Comedy. I had never heard of it but, apparently, it’s the fastest-growing source for comedy online with billions of viewers. Dry Bar was started in 2017 and yes, it is Mormon, out of Utah!
2. NATELAND, one of my favorite podcasts, is hosted by another “clean” stand-up comic, Nate Bargatze (out of Nashville) who just shot a special for Netflix.
3. George Hahn (see #1 above), loves listening to stand-up comedians before he goes to bed. He finds it comforting (as do I). Among his favorites are Jim Gaffigan and Jerry Seinfeld (both known for being clean comics). So there you have it. While Dave Chappelle and Bill Burr have the cool, risque reputation, the clean comedians are just as likely to sell out arenas!

4. Advertising on podcasts (esp. directed at guys) is blowing up!!

It’s verging on overkill

• This week, in particular, I had to turn off the Riffin With Griffin podcast because there were so many ads (every couple of minutes). Never been like that before.
• I also noticed that Anything Better (hosted by Bill Burr and Paul Virzi) now has live reads for Mack Weldon, stamps.com, and BetterHelp.
• BetterHelp is especially interesting. The Mental Health industry spend on podcasts grew 430% in 2020 with BetterHelp being podcasting’s biggest advertiser. During December 2020 they spent more than $7 million across 556 podcasts, an 80% increase compared to November. It was the most BetterHelp has ever spent on podcasting.

5. cheqout: launched in late 2020. it’s a gamechanger!

• The first time I encountered this ordering system was this past weekend when I had dinner at B Side Pizza on Sunday night.
• You order from the QR code menu as you normally would but there are significant improvements.
• First, as a customer you are able to customize your order through the app, e.g, ask for more mushrooms on the pizza or eliminate egg from the brussel sprouts.
• The biggest surprise, however, came when it was time to pay. I asked for the bill and was told it was already taken care of through the app. They automatically add a 22% tip and you’re ready to go. I am going back there this Sunday and will check to see if while ordering, I have the option to customize the tip.
• The founders of CheqOut (based in San Francisco and NYC) have backgrounds as restaurateurs, engineers, designers, product managers, and CRM masters. Many had also worked at Airbnb and Google.
• They currently have over 150 different restaurants and hotels signed up with over $1.5MM in orders and over $600M in tips billed through the app.
• CheqOut is FREE to the restaurant but charges customers/diners a 3% service fee on the subtotal of the order for Apple Pay, Google Pay, or when they enter in their card details. My check-out fee for a $41 dinner was .93 cents. But customers can also choose CheqOut Pay for free. Or they can pay with a physical card or cash for free. I did not notice these options while I placed my order.
• Very cool concept. Will find out more when I eat at this restaurant again on Sunday.

6. “Buy now, Pay later” – this is really vile and spells trouble for the people who can least afford it!

The only people tempted by these schemes are generally ones who can’t afford a $40 dress in the first place.

• I’m old school. I strongly feel that nobody should go into debt over a fashion item that they need 4 chances to pay off.
• Americans are notoriously bad at controlling their spending impulses and this just puts them further in the hole.
• The biggest player in the global BNPL market is Australia’s Afterpay. Its shares went from $9 to $118 in one year and its CEO became the youngest self-made billionaire in Australia. They’re now expanding beyond retail to travel and dental payments.

A recent study out of the UK found:

• 50% of users aged 18 to 34 have missed a BNPL payment.
• 62% of this group said BNPL led them to spend more than they would have otherwise.
• 44% were unsure whether BNPL meant “taking on debt” or “deferring a payment”.

7. 2021 will be the biggest bachelor/bachelorette party season in history.

The Bach, a national bachelor/bachelorette planning service, conducted a study of 1 million party plans and found:

• 42% will be attending two or more bachelor/bachelorette parties in 2021.
• Nashville remains the top destination city for bachelor/bachelorette parties having held this title for the last three years.
• Scottsdale, AZ, and Miami, FL are in second and third place, followed by Las Vegas and Austin. (Source: News4Nashville)

8. travel TREND: OFF to the most remote corners of the globe WE GO!

• The French luxury small ship and expedition cruise operator PONANT noted traveler interest in remote destinations is soaring, in particular to Iceland, Spitzbergen, and Antarctica. (Source: TravelPulse)
• Lindblad Expeditions is also seeing more remote bucket list itineraries, e.g., Antarctica, The Galapagos, Arctic, and Alaska. (And I’m booked on their next Faroe Island expedition, June 2022).
• “Passion-driven” travel niches that are seen as central to the travelers’ identities, such as birding and hiking, are booming as well.

9. Flashy “Lambo” golf carts? Why yes. And where else but Miami

• They’re created by CCC Miami and run around $20K. Often used in music videos by the likes of DJ Khaled and Justin Bieber (see Let It Go, above)
• But custom golf carts are also showing up as a popular means of transportation in gated communities, at the grocery store, and even on city streets.

“Believe it or not, you’ll get more compliments in one of the CCC Miami custom carts than you would in a real Lambo.”

Ari Rivera, CCC Miami

10. “Unruly”: my candidate for word of the year!

to dig ourselves out of this pandemic, we need to bring back rules of good conduct.

• Let’s start with chronic homelessness and mental illness. People can’t just be allowed to live on the streets or in parks or on public transportation because they don’t want to abide by the rules of shelter, and that applies to any kind of housing. If the homeless are given carte blanche to avoid shelter because they’re opposed to having to follow “the rules,” no amount of “affordable” housing will solve the problem. Why? Because no matter where you live – in an apartment, a house, or a homeless shelter, there are rules to follow. And those rules range from garbage to noise to pets to smoking to general maintenance and upkeep. Until this is reckoned with, expect more unruly behavior and many more random, violent attacks associated with homelessness.
• Civility and manners have to be reintroduced to society, whether it’s air travelers, shoppers, restaurant diners, office workers. The total breakdown of manners and good behavior is a nightmare. I don’t know how people in service industries cope with it – especially flight crews and what they’ve got to put up with.
• Law and order, rules and regulations, cannot be summarily dismissed as unimportant or “unprogressive.” We’re thankfully starting to see pushback to unruly behavior by shoplifters, farebeaters, and for ATV and dirt bike street takeovers. We also have to use common sense, e.g., why let people who are clearly not “right” board planes in the first place? Why do we all need to be endangered and inconvenienced with emergency landings just because some passengers get on planes inebriated, drugged up, volatile, and mentally unstable? Their rights cannot be more important than the safety of a whole planeload of passengers? Am I wrong?

And on that note, I’m going to wrap it up for this week.

I have an AMAZING weekend coming up (although I have a stye on my eye that is really bugging me but I will plow through this!). In the meantime, I am so looking forward to lunch at PEAK today with Rodrigo and Elliott. Favorite people and favorite restaurant – great combo.

On Saturday, my friend Anne L. got us tickets to the just-opened Little Island Park on the Hudson Greenway. I have been drooling about this new spot. It’s designed by UK-based Heatherwick Studio (he did the Vessel at Hudson Yards) while Barry Diller coughed up the dough!!! Photos and review next week.

I’m also seeing my friend Sharon L. for dinner Saturday night at Soho House and then on Sunday, taking in an encore performance of Dave Konig’s comedy show at Don’t Tell Mama.

So here’s to a great weekend, everyone with Greetings from my neighborhood to yours!