Happy things

+ a happy Paris restaurant discovery

Nov 07, 2024

The Things

Moiré Tuxpeño Corn *M!lk* Chocolate/At last month’s Field + Supply market, I fell for the new chocolate company Moiré, led by a former Rachel Comey employee. My favorite? A vegan (!) bar using “milk” from heirloom Mexican corn (!!).

Muji Labo coat/Went to Muji for a red pen. Fell for a black coat. Their new Labo line is well-designed (and higher-priced). Worth keeping an eye on. Also liked the placket details on this shirt…

Le Corbusier Applique Radieuse/After visiting (okay, sneaking into) Le Corbusier’s Cité Radieuse in Marseille, it’s fun to see these sconces reissued — and in such good colors.

Oncept Phoenix sneakers/Every fall, my mom spoils me during her visit to Woodstock. This year, we found these super-spoily shoes. Ridiculously comfortable, they are now my daily drivers — though I also have my eye on the Tokyo style in bright yellow to wear with skirts.

Still Life With Remorse/Maira Kalman (author, artist, hero) has another wonderful book. Superfans can buy a limited-edition signed and numbered booklet in an embroidered linen pouch, which also comes with a very frameable Declaration of Remorse printed on tissue paper. Want more Maira? Please watch her as Clara Schumann at S&P Lunch here and as Alice B. Toklas here, and get her recipe for olive oil cake (and an interview!) here.

Elm Stool/While visiting the new East Village Té Company, I clocked the great stools, which look like they’re from Côte à Coast. Founder Elena Liao confessed: “They’re from Zara Home!” (See the other style here.)

Yonanas/My friend Carrie showed me how she jams her four kids full of fruit and calls it ice cream. No wonder she’s a boss! Just freeze fruit — especially overripe bananas — and run it through the tiny but mighty Yonanas machine. Instant creamy sorbet. Fun to clean? Meh. Fun to eat? 1000%. Sometimes I top it with homemade magic shell (melted coconut oil whisked with cocoa powder and honey or coconut sugar) for extra magic.

Jones Road Miracle Balm in Dusty Rose/In case this product hasn’t popped up in your feed a million times: It’s great. My main ask for makeup is that it make me look awake/alive. This rich multitasker, designed for the drying-up over-40s, somehow does even more. This pinky shade works on cheeks and lips, while the clear Au Naturel also gets dabbed on eyes, brows, lips and nose. The trick is to buy one color and to ask for a sample of another, which they’ll scoop into the perfect travel container.

The Table/Soces

32 rue de la Villette, Paris 19th

I rarely have more than a few nights in Paris, and try to speed-date through favorites mixed with new places recommended by friends. The newest addition to my repeat rotation is Soces, a seafood bistro and wine bar in Belleville that is easy, fun and endlessly delicious — so much so that I forgot to take notes.

Chef Marius de Ponfilly comes from Clamato, Septime’s seafood sibling, joined by Sam Schwarz in the kitchen. (That explains why Septime chef Bertrand Grébaut was eating at the bar — the best recommendation you can get!) While the plating is unfussy, there is serious talent and technique here, even in the marinated boquerones and the house-fermented sauces served alongside the raw shellfish. (Try the bulots with mayo.) What looked like a simple plate of tuna carpaccio stopped conversation, hiding heirloom tomatoes and raspberries, while exquisite leeks topped with crab, purslane and tarragon was a new indulgence.

Soces is Parisian slang for friends, so large-format dishes for sharing are a specialty, from whole grilled fish to Iberico pork with pomme purée and jus. The night of my visit, it was a gleeful feast of moules frites for four, served on a large oval platter covered with red miso “gravy” (cream sauce) that was sopped up with every fry and remaining crust of bread. When a friend arrived straight from the airport at 11:30, the kitchen, still not quite closed, had run out of moules, so they made him the dish with cockles. He’s still talking about it. Dessert was a financier with fresh figs and olive oil infused with fig leaves. We didn’t leave until 1 — a nearly impossible feat in Paris.

After-dinner chartreuse may have been consumed

Please go out of your way for a meal here: The best restaurants are ones that introduce you not only to new flavors, but take you to new neighborhoods. Go with soces so you can share everything and explore the fantastic selection of natural wines. Try the weekend lunch, so you can stroll through the Parc des Buttes-Chaumont after a coffee at Mardi next door. Or wander around long enough so you can come back for dinner.