Good Morning & Hello Friday!

• Incredibly scrumptious week with wonderful meals all around town from the preview dinner for the reopening of Veronika in the Fotografiska Building in Gramercy (#1 below) to an outstanding brunch, with gorgeous views, at The Fulton in the Seaport District, to an exceptional night of cabaret and dining at Neue Galerie’s Cafe Sabarsky on the Upper East Side.
• Pop-Ups should always be fun and the new DashMart in Nolita does not disappoint. In fact, it’s one of the best I’ve seen. Opened yesterday and clearly a hit with the crowds. (#3 below)
• The recap video this week (#10) comes from the beautiful Elizabeth Street Garden just around the corner from DashMart. Weather and time permitting, I’m planning to do the recap videos from different spots around the city, especially when I’ve scouted something cool nearby.

And with that, please scroll down for this week’s Top 10! Enjoy!

1. WOW WOW! VERONIKA IS BACK. Posher than ever (and with A GREAT MENU UPGRADE)

1. The Member Preview Week dinner at the soon-to-reopen Veronika at Fotografiska New York was such a treat! Big thanks to A + J for getting us an invite. Super grateful.
2. The room is as sumptuous as ever (Roman and Williams never disappoints). PLUS, this time around, the staff has also been outfitted spectacularly in velvet jackets, Tom Ford suits, and most were also sporting fabulous accessories.
3. The menu upgrade is MAJOR. We especially loved the seafood offerings and the desserts (see video below).

2. wardrobe update: after several missed seasons, COS and I are vibing again!

1. COS has been a favorite of mine for years. I first discovered them in 2015. I love their pared-down style, it’s a perfect uniform for minimalists like me.
2. COS and I have, however, had our ups and downs. Every few seasons, they’ll release a collection that doesn’t work for me at all! And that’s been the case since the pandemic. No matter how I tried, I could not find a style, a fit, or a fabric that I wanted to wear.
3. This week, however, COS and I once again saw eye to eye. Plus, I know my style and when I find something that works, I buy it in multiples! Two of the jumpsuit (above), 5 black cotton tops, and 3 t-shirt dresses (that I’ll layer over pants). I’m set for this summer and well into fall!

3. DashMart’s Newest Pop Up is fantastic!! Congrats to the DoorDash creative team!

1. DashMart has been working on this pop-up on Spring Street (between Mott and Mulberry) for over a week (photos above).
2. It officially opened on Thursday June 9 and an hour in, it was clear they had a hit on their hands! It will be open thru June 18, from 11 am – 7 pm.
3. I’m not a DoorDash customer but I was impressed by the brands partnering with them – Magnolia Bakery for cookies and snacks, Baz Bagels, and The Milk Bar Store for sweets and desserts. And the “claw game” is a fun promotional tool that successfully reeled in passersby.

IF THIS POP-UP IS OF INTEREST, WATCH BOTH THE VIDEOS BELOW!!

4. Culdesac Tempe: the first car-free neighborhood built from scratch in the US.

1. Culdesac Tempe will have 761 residential units with zero parking spaces for its residents (altho there will be parking for shoppers and guests).
2. The first phase is set to open this fall with 50 residential units, a grocery store, a restaurant, a coworking space, a coffee shop, and Archer’s Bikes (a local bike store, known for its “sustainable urbanism”).
3. Opticos Design created the Master Plan based on their expertise with walkable communities with “shared mobility.”

#MyTake: Based on my experience in Arizona, I cannot imagine how people will be able to survive without a car. This week it is 109 degrees in Phoenix. How do you get to work on a bike without arriving looking like a wet rag? I’m a big fan of walkable cities so I hope this works. I will definitely be checking it out on my next trip to AZ.

5. usps is testing these snazzy US-built electric mail bikes

1. The bikes, designed to carry heavy cargo loads, are built in the US by Montana-based Coaster Cycles.
2. Powering the bike is Bosch’s Cargo Line e-bike drive system. Hydraulic disc brakes help bring all of that weight to a stop quickly and safely.
3. The bike’s cockpit includes a backup camera for when reversing in tight spaces. (Source: electrek.co)

6. In-person gatherings are back! Comments/reactions from attendees at The American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO)

“I was surprised at how happy — and willing — I was to shake hands. I would never have done so 18 months ago.”

Matthew Price, EVP, COO, Co-Founder Promontory Therapeutics

1. For most attendees, it was the first major in person meeting in two and a half years. After such a long time wearing masks and social distancing, being onsite had an out-of-body experience feel to it. (Source: Fierce BioTech)
2. Everyone was ecstatic to be back, to be reconnecting. Huge grins. The majority of ASCO members were unmasked, while media members, communications and company reps, and staff of the McCormick Place meeting venue were typically masked.
3. ASCO tried to help attendees navigate post-pandemic waters with the above-pictured buttons. The idea receives an “A” for effort, but an absolute “F” for execution and effectiveness—not a single person wore them.
4. One thing quickly became clear: People forgot what it was like to wear formal shoes for an extended period of time—or even just shoes in general. After a few hours, lots of Band-Aids requested for blistered feet.
5. And the transition from Zoom life to real life on the ASCO conference floor, left some feeling like they had entered a brand new world.

“There’s moments when you’re sitting in the big meeting rooms and things go whizzing by. I have to recalibrate how I listen to things in an ASCO meeting because I don’t have the ability to pause the video. I feel like I’m training some new muscles.”

Chris Arendt, Ph.D. head of Oncology cell therapy, R&D, Takeda

7. Freelancers are in big demand

1. Fiverr, a marketplace for connecting freelancers and new clients released its fifth annual Freelance Economic Impact Report.
2. There are 6.3 million skilled independent workers in creative, technical, and professional services in the U.S. earning $247 billion in revenues last year.
3. Half saw increased demand for their services in 2021 with those providing technical services most in demand. Not surprisingly, freelancers are being more selective in the types of projects they take on and the types of clients they work with. 28% also raised their rates (an average of 21%).
4. 75% of freelancers are highly satisfied with their work vs. 61% of their employed counterparts.
5. Most freelancers rely on word-of-mouth referrals and the reputation they’ve built over the years to earn new business from clients. Social media is also a reliable source of new business (esp. for creatives) and about a third use online job marketplaces like Fiverr.

#MyTake: Having had my own freelance consulting business for over 30 years, I totally get this. What I never got was the government’s insistence that freelancers had to be corralled onto someone’s payroll. Perhaps it’s because most politicians are so used to being on the public dole, they can’t tolerate (or even imagine) that any of us would prefer to be entrepreneurial and self-supporting.

8. Travel is back and here are the trends hotel CEOs are keeping an eye on

1. CEOs at this year’s NYU International Hospitality Industry Investment Conference included Hilton’s Christopher Nassetta, Mark Hoplamazian of Hyatt, Marriott’s Anthony Capuano, Sébastien Bazin from Accor, and Keith Barr from IHG. (Source: TPG)
2. The volume of pent-up demand is extraordinary esp. in the U.S., where hotel bookings are now consistently above 2019 levels. Per Marriott’s CEO Anthony Capuano, the numbers are not showing any pullback as a result of Ukraine, interest rate environment, etc.
3. Room rates are through the roof (and I can attest to that based on the 3 trips I have planned thru August). Leisure travel led the recovery, but business travel is beginning to pick up which means more competition for rooms, and more pricing power for hotels.
4. Staffing shortages are a major problem with the overall U.S. hospitality labor workforce down 1.3 million jobs from pre-pandemic levels. Some hotels have been forced to keep rooms, sometimes entire floors, empty because they don’t have sufficient staff to handle a full house. Additionally, the optics of charging higher rates with lower service levels isn’t going over well with luxury travelers.
5. NEW TRENDS: Opt-in housekeeping (the norm when I was in Sweden in 2018); sustainability practices, e.g., replacing all single-use plastics with wall-mounted soap and shampoo dispensers and asking guests if they want to opt-out of daily towel/sheet changes; luxury travel seeing accelerated growth esp. at the highest tiers; “alternative” lodging concepts being adopted by traditional hoteliers, e.g., Marriott’s Homes and Villas or Mandarin Oriental’s luxury home rental concepts.

9. how many more of these “IMMERSIVE” EXPERIENCES do we need?

NEWEST:

1. National Geographic’s Rarely Seen Immersive Experience opened in Vegas at Bally’s in March and runs through September.
2. An immersive Frida Kahlo exhibition is making its US debut in Phoenix in July before moving on to Miami, NYC, etc.
3. In Miami, Carlos Cruz-Diez’s immersive installation, “Chromosaturation” opened June 9th at PAMM. The work reimagines color as an embodied experience.
4. LA is awash in “immersive experiences” from Glenn Kaino’s 28,000-sq-ft A Forest for the Trees to Tupac Shakur’s Wake Me When I’m Free to WISDOME, L.A.’s first and largest art and music dome park, previously showcased at Burning Man and Coachella to Street Art Alive, a multisensory exploration of more than 200 global street artists to the super-sketchy Banksy: Genius of Vandal?. (Source: discoverlosangeles.com)
5. In NYC, Tribeca Immersive (part of the Tribeca Film Festival) kicks off this Friday (June 10) on the world’s biggest holographic screen. Over the last 5 years, Tribeca Immersive has grown into one of the biggest US events showcasing the latest concepts in interactive storytelling.

10. Video Recap (2:08 mins)

And that’s it for this week, my friends. Wishing you all a fabulous weekend and a stellar week ahead.