xtine is back(!)

New newsletter, new home.

Oct 17, 2024

Three years later…

It’s been too long. Thank you for sticking with me — or for subscribing thanks to recommendations from some of my favorite newsletters. I’ve missed making things with people I admire and recommending the people, places and things I get a kick out of in the hope that you will, too. So here we are again!

There are so many great newsletters out there. Who can keep up? In the interest of sparing you scrolls, I’m going to keep these as short as possible, taking a lesson from my last trip to Japan: Friends shared such incredible lists that I was overwhelmed. So I learned to rephrase my ask: What are the three to five places you think I would love most? Think of this newsletter as more of a DM than an email. Just the good stuff, promise!

Here are some of the sections I’ll be rotating through. The request line is open!

The Things

Studio Ford Arches Throw/This new company offers a modern take on Indian block prints, with great colors and patterns for home and table. This cotton throw reminds me of the Vans high tops I wanted in ninth grade. Check back for sales: Fingers crossed the lamp they designed with Commune will land there.

Orris La Déesse soap/Whenever my friend Abbye shares a skincare favorite, I know it’s going to be good. Made with raw honey, Egyptian geranium and camphor, this detoxifying face/body soap smells the way I wish everything would.

Sinafu serving bowl/Once a year, I poke around the Eating Tools site to see which artisans this Brooklyn-based company, which also makes my favorite fancy knife, has added. Recently, I fell for this exquisite Japanese lacquer bowl, which I use to display a choice piece of fruit (quince or persimmon these days) in lieu of springing for flowers.

I Served the King of England/This fantastical Czech novel about a WWII-era waiter shocks and delights, getting wilder and wiser with each chapter until it ends with what might just be the meaning of life.

Clementina trousers/Emilie Hawtin and I bonded over our love of the macrobiotic restaurant Souen after we contributed to Yolo Journal’s New York City Green Book. So when I found out that the author of the Clementina World newsletter designed the perfect custom-tailored linen travel suit for women, I had to order some (bottle green) trousers. I just brought them on a hard-to-pack-for trip to France and Italy, and they’ll be getting lots of passport stamps — especially since you can have them re-sized with every fluctuation. Amen.

Uniqlo C Heattech cashmere blend turtleneck/Also can’t pack for a trip without Heattech. This super-soft, super-thin new take from Claire Waight Keller’s line comes in good colors and isn’t as, well, tech-y. After feeling the turtlenecks my friend Lithe ordered, I added a couple to my Uniqlo + Lemaire order a few days later…

Les Mains Hermès Nourishing Oil/My friend Luise gave me this nail oil a few years ago. It instantly restores my toenails to health after a summer of polish, and adds buffed luster to fingernails while keeping cuticles happy as fall kicks in. And, of course, the box…

Té Company Black Sesame Cake/My favorite tea shop added a new filled cookie to its collection, and it might even top their pineapple linzer. Try it at their about-to-open East Village location, in the former Eileen Fisher space (!) on E. 9th St.

Easy Weeknight Dinners/Former colleague Emily Weinstein runs New York Times Cooking, yet somehow still has time to cook for her daughters every night. She’s brought together 100 of her favorite recipes that make it possible. I’m happy to have many of my weeknight favorites in one place, including Hetty Lui McKinnon’s butternut squash congee with chile oil, Ali Slagle’s sheet pan feta with chickpeas and tomatoes, Zainab Shah’s mattar paneer hack (cashew butter!) and Eric Kim’s sheet pan bibimbap.

May Lindstrom The Youth Dew/What happens when PR people send me crazy-expensive skincare that I like so much, I blow through it in months? In the case of this organic face oil/serum, which I use off-label as both moisturizer and eye cream, I bite the bullet and reorder.

Umami Broth Dashi Powder/Because I can never make as much dashi as I crave. (Favorite recipe here.) These packets make a quick, satisfying broth. Add a teaspoon of miso right into the cup — try mash-stirring it through a tea strainer — and maybe some crumbled tofu and nori and you’re in business.

The Table/Borgo

124 E. 27^th St., NYC

This is a restaurant that prefers to zag. It’s in a funny slice of Manhattan. The lighting and plating aren’t so Instagrammable. The tables are widely spaced. The kitchen is led by a mature, relatively unknown chef. It’s confident and personal, checking its own boxes. I enjoyed a preview dinner the night before it opened, and went to bed wondering how soon I could come back (and when they would open for lunch).

Andrew Tarlow brought back a few key employees from Diner days to open this grownup Italian spot. As a result, it has the easy, expert feeling of the band getting back together — albeit with the restaurateur’s twentysomething son working the line. Tarlow sought an experienced cook who was not only comfortable cooking in the wood oven and fireplace, but who could also teach staff about the locally sourced produce and traditional techniques that go into the monthly market menu. (Full disclosure: I was asked to help them search.) Jordan Frosolone’s food is rooted and quietly surprising, with enough classics in the making to create a legion of regulars. And portions are generous!

Until the reviews and social media ramp things up, Borgo feels like a dinner party you stay at until the last candle burns down.

Who to invite/ Friends, dates, colleagues, parents. Anyone except small kids: This isn’t their menu.

What to wear/ Designer Brooklyn casual. The looks here are excellent. Bonus points for wearing Marlow.

photo by @tarajiamorrell

What to eat/

To start:

The cheese-filled, flame-crisped Ligurian-style focaccia is everything

Anchovies — some pickled, some cured — with whipped butter bright with neonata peppers

Chicken liver crostini (and this from someone who never orders it)

Fava bean puree with a mess of marinated cooked greens

Beef heart skewers with roasted grape agrodolce

Pastas:

Hen-of-the-woods ravioli with sunchoke were exceptional

The whole-grain chitarra with bottarga and clams came a close second

Give them a few months to dial in the timbalo. It’s a lot.

Entrees:

Fennel sausage with lentils is my fall dish (hoping cotechino works its way in soon)

Wood-oven chicken with celery root and Marsala makes you wonder why your roast chicken is never this good

Braised veal shank with chanterelles is a cool-weather splurge; order to share

Desserts!

Need the recipe for the crust on the pear tart

Apple strudel (if pears aren’t your thing)

Whatever seasonal sorbet they’re offering

What to drink/ Depending on how you feel after the martini cart has been rolled away, wine director Lee Campbell has put together a beautiful, natural-led list. We loved the sparkling Pardas from Spain and the deep-cuts Touraize Côtes à Côtes from Arbois.