Hello, Zijia Song here. Yesterday, I wrapped up my three monthsâ embed with the Pursuits team. Oh man, has it been a wild journey!Just this
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Hello, [Zijia Song]( here. Yesterday, I wrapped up my three monthsâ embed with the Pursuits team. Oh man, has it been a wild journey! Just this week, I went to a festival-like party that closed off two blocks on Madison Avenue for [Hermèsâs biggest store opening](. Prior articles had me braving the crowds at a [cult backpack pop-up]( in Time Square, hunting for [the cityâs best vegan restaurants](, and unpacking a sliver of the [luxury rental market for young Chinese students](. I still hear the tinkling of the ice in the glasses of the authors, artists and business executives from a [SoHo salon]( on David Gellesâs new book, The Man Who Broke Capitalism.
Bagel and a branded coffee during an early morning press tour of the new Hermès space. Photographer: Zijia Song/Bloomberg And as I transfer to the legal team, I wouldnât have traded this experience for anything else. My definition of luxury has expandedâitâs not just fancy objects, no, but about â[maximizing your satisfaction]( with the limited time weâve got,â as our deputy editor Justin Ocean said last week. Now when I think about luxury, even a home-cooked meal counts. I grew up spoiled by my momâs and grandmaâs cooking. Every time, after a bite of their green beans pork bun or a spoonful of their potato pork belly stew, my cousin and I would exclaim how well the dishes would sell if they opened their own restaurants. Even after I came to the US, Iâd had the fortune to live with a host family in Minneapolis whose family tradition revolves around homemade mealsâTandoori chicken, grilled turkey burger with poblano pesto aioli, slow cooked spaghetti Bologneseâto name a few.Â
If youâre going to jump on the TikTok butter board trend, follow some top chef tips to make it extra luxurious. Source: Aubreyâs Kitchen But it wasnât until 2015, when my host parents moved to Buffalo, Minnesota, that they started going hard on cookingâincluding creating a 99-page Google doc full of my host mom Hopeâs self-tested recipes. They even planted a vegetable garden in the front yard, which now provides much of the houseâs daily fresh produce. For someone used to cooking for seven children (including me), Hope often talks about how small her portions are now because the kids have all moved out of the house. So the hospitable family now invites friends and relatives in the neighborhood to dine. Home chefs with a sharing spirit like Hope are a blessing everywhereâ[and a business opportunity](.
Ever had chicken kelaguen from Guam? Neither had our criticâand he was smitten. Source: Shef Shef and WoodSpoon are two apps for ordering homemade meals to your doorstep. As [Matthew Kronsberg]( wrote in his [recent Bloomberg Businessweek]( review, they fill in the gaps for chefs who donât have the means or time to open their own business, or for those whose cuisines are too niche to sustain a commercial operation. You can find regional dishes from Guam to Turkey to the North Carolina shore and Udupi in southern India. Perhaps the best part: the personal touch. Be it stories behind the cooksâ beloved cuisine or handwritten notes that often accompany a meal, these biographical sketches âadd a human touch missing from typical takeout,â Kronsberg writes.
After all this food talk, Iâd love to burn some calories mountain biking in Madeira. Photographer: Tiago Sousa Both services are quickly developing, with ample interest from big-name investors. Perhaps soon, my 36-year-old host brother Brad can use one of the platforms to serve his moist and juicy smoked meat, while saving up to open his own barbecue restaurant. Or the cooks in a food-sharing Facebook group my friend Fanmei belongs to may also share their sheets of lasagnas with the wider Chicago area and not just their neighbors in Hyde Park. Which all reminds me, travel is another luxury, [and Iâm overdue for a visit](. Stay in touch with Zijia via [Twitter]( and [Instagram]( For your luxury bucket list. You have you one right? I started one since I joined Pursuits and just added more things to it from the recent stories below. [Champagne Bollinger to Open a Luxury 20-Room Hotel at Vineyard](
The worldâs harsh economic reality is forcing the family-owned French winemaker to forego its famed exclusivity. [Best NYC Lunch Spots for Clients or Co-Workers?]( Someone asks this question in one of my group chats at work almost every weekâso hereâs the answer, from $125 prix fixe menus to pastrami tacos. [This Exclusive Italian Restaurant Has Just One Table](
Period drama obsessives like me will love the personalized menus, floral displays, candelabras, busts of emperors, and big leather chairs in front of a fireplace. [Where to Drink When You Canât Get Into the Worldâs Top Cocktail Bars](
You canât have the best of the best all the time! [Everybody Is Getting Chocolate This Year](
This Black-owned, Memphis-based brand makes unorthodox chocolate truffles in flavors like fried chicken and balsamic and blue cheese, as well as edible calendar sets for Christmas and Hanukkah.
On the lifestyle beat. - Tim Cook wants to keep you alive (if only to [buy more services](). Thatâs the vibe I got after [testing Appleâs newest iPhone and watch](.
- Talk about a departure: Instant camera pioneer [Polaroid is adding music and radio to its business](.
- More of the private listening experience type? Focal has the [best over-the-ear wired headphones around](.
Yep, this is a chair. And itâs surprisingly comfortable. Photographer: Sarah Anne Ward for Bloomberg Businessweek
- [Whatâs the craziest-looking chair]( youâve sat on? Iâm sad to report that my wildest chair encounter was merely a pile of beanbags. But in the imagination of top designers, the skyâor rather the floorâis the limit.Â
- People wanting to sell weed and THC legally are getting creative. [This cannabis brand out of Mexico City]( is shaking up the industry by putting women and their wombs first.
- [Airport chaos](, inflation, recessionâwho cares! [Letâs travel](. Although you may want to [consider skipping these four airports](.
- And Dyson is leaning in on the [breathwork craze]( by offering a gorgeous [all-in-one air purifier, humidifier, and fan](.
And it will only cost you $940! Photographer: Joyce Lee for Bloomberg Businessweek What else Iâm reading and watching. - Marry now, pay later? No thank you! But thatâs not stopping couples from embracing [Klarna-style weddings](, and to me, this sounds like the worst hangover: paying for one giant party months or even years after it happened. - Iâm not sure what the standard pay grade is for a 10-year-old to do chores nowadays, but Andres Valencia is surely beating it with his [six-figure surrealist-style artworks](. (Mom and Dad, I blame your sluggish business acumen.) Paintings by the fifth grader, whoâs called [the âlittle Picassoâ]( and an âart prodigy,â fetched $159,000 at an auction in Hong Kong and hit $230,000 at a charity gala in Capri, Italy. - If you havenât, go see Hadestown on Broadway. I went on a theater spree in September and [this show was my absolute favorite](. The singing and dancing, along with simple and effective stage design, that threads motifs of âbuild the wallâ and climate change throughout still give me something to chew on today. - Like my thriller-loving colleague [Sarah](, Iâm also looking forward to [the Knives Out sequel]( starring Dave Bautista and Leslie Odom and seeing just what kind of trouble Drax and Aaron Burr can get into. - But until then, pick your poison: [something raunchy]( or [something spooky](? Trick questionâIâm seeing both Bros and Hocus Pocus 2 this weekend. So, you had some questions⦠Hereâs some answers! Whatever the topic, keep them coming for next week via our [ Bloomberg Pursuits Instagram]( and [e-mail](mailto:askpursuits@bloomberg.net?I%20have%20a%20question). Have luxury goods stores in the UK and Europe changed their prices to reflect the weakened euro/pound? Yes. Weâre already seeing that in Rolex watches, which have had a [price bump by about 5%]( in the UK because of the [record low British pound]( against the US dollar. Luxury brands know that there are risks that come with the price gap, which can incentivize resellers and lead to a secondary market where brands canât have direct contact and therefore, build relationships, with customers. But that adjustment seems almost irrelevant when you look at [how much the pound has slumped](. And the countryâs plan to reintroduce tax rebate on goods bought by tourists can boost discounts even more. That said, the luxury world is driven by exclusivity where demand outstrips supply. So this attractive price arbitrage is likely to be limited on a small scale. Those months- and even years-long Rolex waiting lists arenât going anywhere.
If youâre in the market for a watch, have you considered bronze? These Ulysse Nardin, IWC, and Panerai timepieces are pretty with patina. Photographer: Chelsea Kyle for Bloomberg Businessweek What aspect of luxury were you surprised that you found interesting while on this beat? Hands down, cars. Living in a city like New York means the subway will get you anywhere, and so my drivers license has been collecting dust at the bottom of my drawer for years. But Iâve become interested in reading about cars ([fancy cars!](), thanks to our critic [Hannah Elliot](. Reading about luxury cars have broadened conversation topics for me, like being able to talk about [legal loopholes]( for supercar owners or the [sports car that was originally based on a video game](. Itâs made me look cool in front of friends being able to identify [cars in movies like Top Gun: Maverick](.
Iâll let you in on the secret: Itâs a 1973 Porsche 911 S that may be worth more than $200,000. Photographer: Paramount Pictures Where can I get fancy indoor garden pots? As a proud owner of four flourishing plants including two pothos and a succulent, I refuse to call myself a plant mom as I consider us in an equal and mutually beneficial relationship. But if I ever want to send the kids off to college, so to speak, Iâm going to spring for some [Lechuza self-watering planters](. They come in all shapes and sizes and although their rugged plastic, modernist vibe may not scream fancy, plants thrive in themâand they save you worry and time. (The ultimate luxury!) My colleague swears by them and has a 17-foot-tall bird of paradise in his Brooklyn living room as proof.Â
Why binge-watching bonsai videos is better than meditation. Source: Bonsai Mirai What are the best luxury restaurants in New York? Obvious but trueâeveryone has different ideas about luxury, especially when are sitting down at a restaurant. A three-plus hour meal swimming in wine pairings is heaven for some people, for others a nightmare. But our food editor [Kate Krader]( points out one place in New York that doesnât get enough attention despite its two Michelin stars: [Aska](. âThe elegant, spare Scandi dining room located under the Brooklyn Bridge offers a sea of space around its tables,â Kate says, âand the outstanding dishes from chef Frederik Berselius taste so fresh as if to sparkle. Itâs a restaurant you leave feeling refreshed, which is no small thing in NYC.â Ask us anything! Each week weâre picking reader questions and putting it to our network of experts. So get in touch via AskPursuits@bloomberg.net. Follow Us Like getting this newsletter? [Subscribe to Bloomberg.com]( for unlimited access to trusted, data-driven journalism and subscriber-only insights. You received this message because you are subscribed to Bloomberg's Pursuits newsletter. If a friend forwarded you this message, [sign up here]( to get it in your inbox.
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