Someday I would like to have a reason to have a "cheese coaster" as the centerpiece of my dinner table. I haven't yet figured out an even vaguely plausible rationale, but I'm going to. I saw this mahogany beauty, which glides on brass casters, at the Stissing House Craft Feast last weekend. You can roll your 10-pound wedge of Stilton or Parm across the table for serving. This one-of-a-kind British cheese coaster is available at Curio Shop.

The wreath room.

A citrus tower.

A basket o' homemade chips.

Bone broth cooked over the fire.

A gift tag room (and a calligrapher at the ready).

Paring knives by JLD Knives.

Wreaths and Towers

Nea created her own holiday wreath (made of meringue, cream, and berries) and tower (made of crisped prosciutto, potato chips, and cheese, ofc).

Rare Dansk Classics

We relaunched three of Jens Quistgaard's Dansk Pepper Mills last week and will be producing many more in the years to come (he designed more than 70!). We encourage you to collect them all, like this couple, who have assembled nearly 50 Quistgaard peppermills in their Upper West Side apartment. I'm starting with this one.

Portland Doings

Last week I was in Portland, Oregon, for a Schoolhouse photo shoot. Schoolhouse, the lighting and home furnishings company, is our sibling brand. Lighting photo shoots involve a lot of fast electrical work, fixture polishing, set building, and tweaking. We worked with photographer George Barberis—check out his beautiful work here.

While I was there, worlds collided when Schoolhouse held a book event in their store for Leslie Stephens, who writes the wildly popular Morning Person newsletter. Leslie also happens to be a former Food52 editor! And her debut novel, You're Safe Here, came out earlier this year.

I'd be remiss if I didn't include some recs from my Portland food outings:

Rangoon Bistro: Better Burmese food than I had in Burma! Get the tea leaf salad, of course, but also the wat cho, or braised pork shoulder

Cafe Olli: Wood fired pizzas, puntarelle salad, and a dazzlingly good chocolate cake.

JinJu Patisserie: I went for the croissants, but the blueberry scone was the winner.

Canard: The steam burgers are very good, as anyone in Portland will tell you, but if you're into cocktails with a savory edge, don't miss the "Room With A Vieux," which is made with Japanese whiskey, rye, oloroso, Averna, and…matsutake shoyu.

Trend Follow-up

Last week, I shared our holiday-season sleeper hits. This week, I'm sharing the trends:

Cookware and knives are trending down. People purchased a lot of pots, pans, and knives during the pandemic, and the good thing about high quality cookware and tools is that they last for years, so people are replacing them less often. A challenge for our business, but good for the world.
Wreaths & Garlands are another area where competition has increased – our new wreath designs have performed well, but our core assortment hasn't. So we'll be finding you more new, new, new wreaths!
Tableware is taking off for us—people are buying all manner of plates, glassware and cutlery. Gen Z likes to entertain at home.
Playfulness is in. We're seeing products such as this pasta keychain (sold out, alas!), these animal tumblers, and this banana menorah fly.