In Los Angeles, Tea at Shiloh describes itself as a “late night teahouse.” Here, visitors can reserve slots from 7 to 11 p.m. to sip unlimited amounts of tea — at this hour, all herbal, with blends made by each day’s staff — and sprawl out in nooks of plush cushions, in a warmly lit loft with tall ceilings and exposed brick, while jazz musicians play in a corner. “I was looking for soft spaces in the evening,” says founder Shiloh Enoki, who opened the eponymous teahouse in 2022. 

Enoki previously worked in the music industry, and her experience with nightlife was often loud and centered on the more performative aspects of dating (“being perceived by guys,” she says). For her new venture, “All I wanted to do was drink tea, listen to jazz, be cozy, and still have the opportunity to meet strangers.” Tea felt like a conduit to an alternative space. While coffee shops tend to encourage a practice of grab and go, or of work or hustle culture, “that’s not the energy of tea,” according to Enoki. “Tea is like, I’m gonna sit here for hours and I’m gonna have a deep conversation with the person sitting across from me, and that’s so rare in our culture.”

Despite tea’s astounding popularity globally, the United States has long lagged behind many other countries when it comes to tea consumption, and that conception of tea has mostly been limited to iced black tea. This, however, appears to be changing, with the U.S. importing far more tea — in the hundreds of millions of dollars — this decade than it did 30 years ago, with millennials in particular the most likely to be tea drinkers. Matcha is, obviously, everywhere; according to the New Consumer, it usurped chai as the leading specialty tea drink in cafes. A lot more tea, it seems, is about to follow, as new tea-focused businesses sprout up across the country and as tea sees increased applications as a flavor element in food, desserts, and cocktails in addition to its consumption as a standalone drink.

Across the country, teahouses with a similar ethos to Enoki’s are catering to the desire for another kind of space: one that feels slower and more intentional than the average coffee shop, and which offers a different experience than yet another restaurant or high-end cocktail bar. In July, “tea salon” Han Cha opened in Chicago, serving a selection of nine teas from Chicago-based tea company Spirit in the format of British high tea. Over the course of the two-hour-long booking, guests might sip Taiwanese black tea with notes of quince and orange blossom alongside bites of English cheddar and Korean-style quick pickles, or Thai white tea with Japanese curry pimento cheese sandwiches. 

Heiji Black, who partnered with artist Theaster Gates (in whose Stony Island Arts Bank building the concept is located) on the venture, is compelled by the way tea “makes people slow down and savor the experience.” She cites the teahouses she grew up going to in Korea, which were “really about being social and meeting with people and connecting with them,” as inspiration for Han Cha. 

At Tea at Shiloh, Enoki also tries to emphasize being in the moment. While the cafe welcomes co-working, especially during the day, she says she wanted to design the experience at night such that people “don’t want to be on their laptop or their phone.” Rather than enforce a hard no-laptop policy, Tea at Shiloh offers other things for people to do with their hands, like games, clay, and watercolors. The dim lighting and communal seating also offer “subtle cues” that the space, at night, isn’t a place for being lost in a screen, she explains.

Even teahouses that don’t serve matcha, like Tea at Shiloh, cite its importance in the current teahouse moment. In May, the artist Juno Shen opened Soft Hours, a teahouse in Manhattan’s Chinatown. (A laptop-free space, it draws inspiration from the Song dynasty, which Shen describes as a “culturally rich era” in which scholars “built rituals around slowing down and shifting your attention.”) “Matcha and boba have done something really important in making tea culture relevant to a younger generation, and I think we’re reaching a point where people are asking, What else is there?” Shen says. At Soft Hours, there is no matcha whisked in front of you, poised for a TikTok video. Likewise, “we don’t do boba; we don’t do cold foam. We moved away from all the performance that a trendy tea place would have.” 

Instead, Shen’s menu hews toward a selection of Chinese teas: streamlined but still showing range. There’s green tea fragrant with jasmine; two kinds of oolong, one oxidized in a way that gives it notes of plum and the other roasted over charcoal until it evokes toasted nuts; black tea with a honey-like body; and a deeply woodsy fermented pu’erh. Perhaps the main concession to trends is that every tea can be ordered as an iced latte as well, which Shen considers a way for people to “softly get introduced” to tea. “I’m not presenting something that’s extremely traditional, so I think I’m just the next step of [people] exploring a little bit more about tea,” Shen says. “I think the next stage of tea culture in America should move beyond individual ingredients becoming trendy [and into] the understanding of tea as this incredibly diverse seasonal category.”

Tian Tea House opened in Kansas City, Missouri, in late 2025. Matcha drinks are far and away the most popular, according to co-owner Saranya Hubbard. “I really don’t have to advertise anything that much — it already sells itself,” she says. But similarly to Shen, Hubbard, who grew up in Thailand surrounded by the tea culture in Bangkok’s Chinatown, sees her teahouse as an opportunity to showcase the wider variety of Asian tea culture. Tian brews and offers classes on Chinese gongfu tea and serves lesser-known Thai tea, including one made with hibiscus and bael (a fruit that’s sometimes called golden apple or stone apple). To make the most of the space, the teahouse turns into Moon, a cocktail bar, at night. Tea bridges the gap between the two concepts: There are highballs infused with tea and whisky drinks made with matcha.

Further proof of tea’s rising moment can be found in Heytea’s current expansion across the United States. The Chinese chain got global attention when it popularized cheese tea in the late 2010s, but it didn’t enter the U.S. market until 2023, when it opened its first store in NYC; now, it has more than 40 locations nationwide. With drinks like milk tea boba, fruit teas with inclusions, and black teas finished with fluffy toppings, the chain sits at the intersection of the growing cultural fixations on bubble tea, matcha, and highly customized specialty beverages of all kinds, including coffee and dirty soda. The chain describes itself as offering “new-style” tea, which senior PR manager Yinnan Shen explains to mean “experimenting a lot with what tea can become.” Some of its beverages, Shen says, take the approach of crafting a cocktail: What botanics can be added to the drink? What layers of texture and flavor? McDonald’s Sweet Tea this is not.

In June, Heytea also opened the first U.S. location of its Teabar offshoot. The concept — which serves dine-in only pots of tea as well as tea ice cream and elaborate beverages like jasmine milk tea topped with a “matcha cloud” — rapidly drew massive crowds. Unlike Heytea shops, which offer a more grab-and-go feel, Teabar was, like some of those independent teahouses, intended to be more of a place to slow down. Together, the interest in Teabar in addition to the original Heytea concept, represent what Shen calls tea’s “continued evolution.” “What Heytea is trying to do is find the most accurate contemporary interpretation of people’s needs around tea,” she says. That seems especially pertinent in the context of the U.S., where the tea culture is nascent compared to China. 

Now, according to Nethra Rajendran, a beverage experience developer at Oatly, black tea, jasmine, and oolong are starting to “re-emerge in new formats,” particularly in mainstream chains. Instead of boba being the medium for these flavors, they’re increasingly popping up as part of the growing “refresher” category,” she explains.

Of course, the interest in tea is no longer limited to the teahouse or tea bar alone. “We can see a very real application of tea beyond a [drink] base in the 2025 resurgence of Earl Grey,” wrote Rajendran, noting the popularity of Earl Grey syrups and creamtops for use in matcha and coffee drinks. Tea is no longer a standalone drink, but, increasingly, a freeform flavor element. When NYC’s ambitious new soft serve shop Unnecessary opened this summer, it launched with a “not-so-plain vanilla,” enriched with osmanthus oolong. Oolong also appears as the grounding basenote of its watermelon-mint flavor, which it developed to be more refreshing than what people might expect from typical milk tea.

The argument has been made that we, as modern society, are on a hedonistic hunt for more flavors, our tastebuds “spoiled” by the glut of “maple-matcha-blackberry-thyme-yuzu-miso-caramel everything.” Every drink is involved in a way that only the early days of the Starbucks Frappuccino could have foretold; every dish is a referential mashup of a handful of other dishes or other cultural fascinations. Perhaps tea, with its global breadth barely tapped in the U.S., can provide further flavors to mine. Nearly every culture has a tea to explore, Rajendran adds: the osmanthus and oolong of East Asia, the masala chai and Assam teas of South Asia, the rooibos and kineliba of Africa, the hibiscus in the Caribbean and Latin America, the sweet tea of the American South.

Tea has been around for thousands of years, but perhaps we’ve yet to see how far it can continue to go. As Heytea’s Shen says, “Tea is a living culture, and living culture changes.”

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There are two types of biopics: those that unconventionally show, and those that exhaustively tell. Thank goodness that Tony, the highly anticipated A24 biopic about the late Anthony Bourdain, takes the former route. “When we are writing a biopic,” screenwriter Todd Bartels told me, “[co-writer Lou Howe and I] are allergic to cradle-to-grave narratives. We like to pick a window on someone’s life that serves as a microcosm for their longer journey.” In this instance, that window is the summer of 1975, when a young Tony first cuts his chops in a Provincetown, Massachusetts, kitchen. “[It’s] more a movie about the relatable arc of knowing who you want to be but not quite knowing how to get there and raging against that,” writes Eater’s Bettina Makalintal in her review of the film, and “it happens to be a movie about someone we all loved.” 

Then again, successfully pitching a Bourdain biopic to his estate was always going to be a big swing. I spoke with Todd Bartels and Lou Howe about what made that swing possible (for one: bringing on Kimberly Witherspoon, Bourdain’s literary agent and friend, as an executive producer); which cast member demonstrated the best culinary chops; and who they could imagine playing an older, more seasoned Anthony Bourdain. 

Eater: How did you strike the balance between making a movie for the passionate Anthony Bourdain fans, and viewers who may know very little about him? 

Lou Howe: I was anxious about that [laughs], especially at the very beginning. But [we] just [tried] to make a good movie, and hope that the entertainment factor and emotional engagement hits the target well enough. We started this whole process as fans, so in that way we felt relatively comfortable servicing fellow fans. You want to write a good story that people can plug into no matter who the character is. Of course, there are some Kitchen Confidential Easter eggs. 

Such as? 

LH: The bride story, the time he picked up a hot pan and [naively] asked for burn cream…

How did you manage to tap into the emotional, and not just factual, truths of Bourdain’s story? 

Todd Bartels: As [Lou] mentions, when we work on a biopic we’re very allergic to cradle-to-grave narratives. We prefer to focus on a window in someone’s life. The biography written by Laurie Woolever, who was Bourdain’s longtime assistant and collaborator, was essential at helping us answer questions like, How did this person “in need of a good ass kicking” — as Bourdain famously wrote about himself as a young man — become this enlightened figure for so many people? He wrote that he treated the world like his ashtray, that he was narcissistic and insufferable. How do you go from little shit to guru? 

How did you gain the trust of Bourdain’s estate? 

LH: That was a multistep process. We knew we had to go to the estate first, and our executive producer, Emily Rose — who is also a big Bourdain fan — chased down Kimberly Witherspoon, Bourdain’s literary agent and someone who helped build his career as a writer. Witherspoon and Ottavia Busia-Bourdain are the executors of the estate, and [Rose] was finally, after much chasing, able to get us a meeting with them. 

What was the elevator pitch?

LH: That it would be a love letter: a Provincetown summer coming-of-age story that ends in a clambake. [Witherspoon and Busia-Bourdain] were kind of like, “Well, that’s different from what we’ve been getting pitched,” which was a lot of stuff focusing on his later years, and trying to understand his death. We rejected that consciously. They liked that idea, but basically said, “Prove it,” so we then went back to them when we had a script, and A24 involved, and [co-writer and director] Matt Johnson and Dominic Sessa; those two kind of came on board as a team. [Witherspoon] also came on board as an executive producer and was very creatively involved throughout everything.  

Was anyone else considered to play Bourdain? 

LH: It was always Dom. 

Who do you think could play an older version of Bourdain?

TB: That’s such a fun thing to think about, and no one has asked us that yet. I have two thoughts, amongst many, but a friend once suggested Bobby Cannavale. I can see it. 

LH: And [Cannavale] would really have the voice down. 

TB: Yes, but then another friend — and I love this [casting] even more, suggested Eric Bogosian. 

Kim Witherspoon knew Bourdain so well. How did her input impact the film? 

TB: She’s really one of the keepers of his legacy, and would help us to gut-check these moments where we’d be like, “Okay, does this feel like your friend?” We were always surprised at how she wanted us to get even darker. She’d say, “No, don’t make him so nice. [At this stage] he was a punk.” We were showing the devil and angel on his shoulder, as represented respectively by the characters Sal, who was played by Leo Woodall, and Ciro, the chef played by Antonio Banderas. She insisted that we really not sanitize that [journey].  

LH: She didn’t want him to look like the innocent little victim of bad influences. The whole idea of having Eric Ripert make a cameo was also her idea. 

What was Eric Ripert like on set? That must have been emotional. 

TB: Well, Ripert is a Buddhist, always wearing his mala beads, and was extremely humble and just curious about the acting process. At no point was he swaggering around like the grand chef from Le Bernardin that he is [laughs].  

LH: It was such an honor. With him and [Witherspoon] being involved, it really just felt like we had the people who loved him honoring him the right way. 

Can you tell me more about the on-set food logistics? 

TB: Christine Tobin was our food culinary consultant, and was there every day making all the food in a little shack behind the kitchen. I think Dom [Sessa] ate like, eight lobster rolls at a time [laughs]. Leo Woodall also became unbelievable at shucking an oyster. He made it look effortless, which is also such an important aspect of his character. 

LH: Antonio [Banderas] is also a restaurateur. Leo [Woodall] and Dom [Sessa] trained beforehand in kitchens, but [Banderas] didn’t need any help. In fact, during a lot of scenes, he’s actually off to the side making paella. 

Wait, Antonio Banderas was literally just always making paella on set? 

LH: Yeah! Incredible, right? He just loves to do it — which, again, was also so perfect for his role as the chef as well. 

Were there any other scenes or moments you would have loved to show in the movie? 

LH: I have one that comes to mind that was never shot. Bourdain’s favorite hot dog stand is this spot called Hiram’s in Fort Lee, New Jersey, and in earlier drafts of the script we see him head to this place — a real childhood favorite, and a true greasy spoon haunt — to see the amount of joy that it gives him. It’s a first insight into his relationship with food.  

TB: Provincetown’s history as this Portuguese fishing town, too, is also [front and center]. There’s a kind of melancholic, longing singing known as fado in Portuguese culture. If you pay attention, you can hear it in the background during the striper run scene and when Tony and Ciro are sitting by a bonfire. At one point, we were going to have an actual fado singer’s character who was perhaps the unrequited love of Antonio [Banderas’s] character. But we wanted his character’s backstory to be more mysterious. 

How did you familiarize yourself with that old-school Provincetown energy? 

TB: We hung out for the better part of two days at Bourdain’s favorite dive bar, the Old Colony Tap, which is still there on the main drag of Commercial Street, and covered in all of its maritime flotsam and jetsam, Red Sox [memorabilia] glory. I’d say it’s the best bar in America. 

LH: Totally. Put it on the Eater map! [Laughs] 

Tony is in theaters August 21, 2026. 

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After a Cinderella 2025 football season, the undefeated Indiana Hoosiers are National Champions. Magic has always been around every corner at Indiana University, but the cream and crimson and coach Cignetti proved to the world that anything is possible. Diehard fans held their breath, knocked on wood, and whispered hopeful words of a championship as the season Mendoza’ed on. Now it’s time to show the rest of the college football world what Hoosiers have known forever — Bloomington is special.

Take some time to walk through the university that has captured a place on “most beautiful campus” lists over and over again, setting eyes on the Sample Gates, Rose Well House, Showalter Fountain, the Arboretum, and the Centennial Patio at the Indiana Memorial Union. The stops in this guide to the best restaurants in Bloomington will help tell the story of a day in the life of a Hoosier. Welcome to B-Town.

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Columbus is always evolving. In the city, historical landmarks such as the Ohio Statehouse and tributes like the Columbus Museum of Art serve as a snapshot of the past, while the bustling streets of the University District and the Short North represent the future. No matter your taste, the city has something to explore. 

The people of Columbus define its sense of tight-knit community. Grand openings, local sports, and touring bands draw in crowds on a weekly basis. The city is also full of art exhibitions, flea markets, coffee shops, boutiques, and restaurants from independent and up-and-coming minds that foster city-wide inspiration and admiration. There is never a dull moment in Columbus. 

In a single day, visitors can go to an art museum, stroll leisurely through a park, shop locally, enjoy a rooftop dinner, see the Ohio State Buckeyes play at Ohio Stadium, hit up a jazz lounge or speakeasy, and make it home before dawn. In Columbus, every day is an adventure to be seized.

Before you go

When to visit: While beauty abounds in Columbus any time of year, the fall season is especially breathtaking. If you’re a nature enthusiast, consider planning your stay during mid to late October for peak foliage viewing. Autumn also brings football season back to Columbus, where the Ohio State Buckeyes will be returning to Ohio Stadium following an appearance in the 2025 College Football Playoff. If you’re torn on when to visit Columbus, the ‘ber months should be at the top of the list. 

Where to stay: Many neighborhoods within Columbus offer a variety of lodging. If you’re looking for a small town stay, consider the German Village Inn, located between the University District and downtown. The Short North and downtown Columbus are other top choices that offer great ways to pass the time, whether that be dining, shopping, or nightlife, and the AC Hotel is located just between the two. 

Getting around: Renting a car isn’t required for your Columbus stay. The city is highly walkable, there are e-scooters are available to rent along busy streets, and rideshares such as Lyft and Uber are at your disposal. The COTA bus also runs along fixed routes spanning major roads like High Street throughout the day.

Day 1: Get acquainted with downtown Columbus 

9 a.m. Slow morning at a local favorite: Start off your weekend of adventure with the early birds at Restoration Roastery in the heart of downtown Columbus. Its friendly staff and warmly-lit dining room will start your morning off the right way. Choose from a menu of crowd-favorite sandwiches and cinnamon rolls as you grab a coffee to fuel up.

10 a.m. Browse the North Market: Enjoy a leisurely stroll through downtown as you head toward North Market. Get to know the local vendors of the 150-year-old historic shopping center and farmers market as you browse quality baked goods, organic meats and produce, homemade souvenirs, and more. Check out great things to eat like Momo Ghar’s celebrated dumplings, tacos from Dos Hermanos, and Hubert’s Polish Kitchen’s traditional pierogies. 

11:30 a.m. Explore the Columbus Museum of Art: Get historical in the heart of downtown with a visit to the Columbus Museum of Art. With a recently-introduced free admission program for people 25 years old and under, young adults can explore the museum’s contemporary galleries and exhibits free of charge. Popular programs include 10 Minutes on the Dot, where CMA educators dive in-depth on singular pieces of art in 10-minute increments. 

1:30 p.m. Grab a hearty lunch: Get to know downtown even better as you head toward Wario’s Beef and Pork, known for some of the best East Coast-style sandwiches in Columbus. The stuffed chicken Caesar sandwich is a classic. 

2:30 p.m. Stroll through Goodale Park: As you enjoy your lunch, make your way toward some much-needed nature enrichment time. Pack your current read or some watercolors and let nature inspire you at Columbus’s oldest park. Enjoy the pond, trees, or simply people watch as you take a step back from the busy city life. 

4 p.m. Get creative in the Short North Arts District: If you’re feeling inspired, head north and meander through the nearby Short North Arts District. The neighborhood is home to indie boutiques, restaurants, and bars that line High Street. Stop by Flower Child, the award-winning vintage store, for some secondhand shopping. 

5:30 p.m. Rooftop dinner at Goodale Station: Venture back toward downtown to catch an early dinner and happy hour at a city-wide favorite. Take in skyline views of the city while you enjoy an elevated American menu and early-evening cocktails at Goodale Station, or opt for a later sunset-hour reservation. 

7 p.m. Get a glimpse of Blue Jacket culture: Take a walking tour of the nearby Arena District to catch Columbus’s hockey tailgating culture in action. The Columbus Blue Jackets’ regular season begins October 1 at Nationwide Arena; tickets are often affordable and can be purchased through Ticketmaster. 

10 p.m. Post-game celebration: Head to Jeni’s Splendid Ice Creams for a taste of one of Columbus’s most famous hometown brands. Fan-favorite flavors include Brambleberry Crisp and Gooey Butter Cake.

Day 2: The Ohio State orientation

9 a.m. Mimosas and brunch at Fourth Street: Start your morning off at Fourth Street Taproom & Kitchen, an Ohio State student favorite known for the campus-adjacent location and beloved karaoke nights. Indulge in a mimosa tower and weekend brunch, and be sure to request patio seating for a premier Midwestern cornhole experience. 

10:30 a.m. Pick up your Buckeye gear: Make a pit stop at High Street’s Clothing Underground for the best deals on vintage Ohio State merchandise ahead of the evening’s big game. From cropped tees and tanks to jerseys and windbreakers, everything in the shop is repurposed and recycled. Don’t forget to browse their extensive Buckeye-themed sunglass collection. 

11:30 a.m. Get a boost from a late lunch: Grab a gourmet bagel or sandwich from the Lox Bagel Shop and pair it with a cold brew or lemonade to jump start your lunch break. Popular menu items include the signature Lox sandwich with capers, onion, cucumber, cream cheese, and egg, or create your own bagel of choice with a savory spread. 

12 p.m. The Ohio State walking tour: Explore the home of the Buckeyes in the heart of Columbus and the University District ahead of the big game. Be sure to walk through the Oval on your way to Thompson Library (the largest of the university’s 15 libraries, with 11 floors), Mirror Lake pond, and the Ohio Union, where you can snap a selfie with Brutus, the legendary buckeye mascot. 

2 p.m. Tailgate season in full swing: Make your way toward Ohio Stadium, affectionately nicknamed the Horseshoe, to get a glimpse of Ohio State’s gameday atmosphere. Watch the ‘Shoe buzz to life as thousands of Buckeyes come together to grill, drink, and sing along to signature songs from the Ohio State University Marching Band ahead of the night’s festivities. 

4:30 p.m. Grab dinner ahead of time: Make a reservation at Marcella’s in the Short North to fuel yourself with an Italian delicacy before your evening plans. The pasta and pizza are famous around campus, and happy hour runs from 4 to 6 p.m. 

6 p.m. Head toward the ‘Shoe: Foot traffic can get hectic around campus on game days, so make your way to Ohio Stadium earlier rather than later to soak up the Buckeye atmosphere while keeping on schedule. Enjoy the hustle and bustle of the Ohio State community as you walk through campus’s busiest pathways. 

7 p.m. Let the game begin: Enjoy the show at the ‘Shoe as you watch a game with the National Championship-winning Buckeyes on their home field. Don’t miss the halftime performance from the justifiably self-confident Best Damn Band in the Land. 

10:45 p.m. Post-game celebration: Nightlife and going-out culture always follows an Ohio State game day. Take a more upscale approach to this college tradition with a stop in the Short North at Pint House if you’re looking to keep it sophisticated but fun, or check out Good Night John Boy if you’d rather spend your night on the dance floor or enjoying a rooftop view. 

12 a.m. A late night bite: End your jam-packed day of celebration with two Ohio State staples. Grab a signature hot dog from Dirty Frank’s Hot Dog Palace and a beloved sweet treat from the 24-hour Buckeye Donuts. You can never go wrong with a buckeye, red velvet, blueberry, or classic frosted donut.

Day 3: Small town feel in the city

9 a.m. Recovery breakfast: Enjoy a restorative cafe-style breakfast in an eclectic Latin American-inspired package at Katalina’s. Seat yourself and order the famous pancake balls filled with Nutella, dulce de leche, or seasonal pumpkin-apple butter, or opt for a savory sandwich or taco with a side of the signature sweet and spicy bacon. 

10:30 a.m. Wander around German Village: Discover the historic district’s brick streets, homey architecture, gardens, and local businesses. This neighborhood is perfect for anyone searching for small town fall energy. Take a pit stop at Stauf’s Coffee Roasters to caffeinate yourself ahead of a day of exploration. 

11 a.m. Village shopping vibes: Stop at the essential Book Loft of German Village, a famous 32-room independent bookstore. If you’re seeking out your new favorite boutique, browse handcrafted pottery, jewelry, and home decor at Helen Winnemore’s, explore Vernacular’s selection of clothing, Urban Sundry’s home goods, and the Red Stable’s German imports and artwork. End your adventure with treasure hunting at the Greater Columbus Antique Mall, which offers five floors of thrifting.

1:30 p.m. Brown bag it for lunch: Make a stop at the Brown Bag Deli for a signature sandwich. Popular menu items include the Mohawk Stroller, with turkey, peppers, and pesto, or the Village Addiction, with turkey, havarti, and cranberry mayo. Before leaving the German Village neighborhood entirely, take a walk through Schiller Park to eat on a bench and get to know Columbus’ homey tree-lined paths and gardens.

3:30 p.m. Explore Franklin Park Conservatory and Botanical Gardens: Wander through indoor conservatories and see tropical rainforests, desert landscapes, and seasonal floral displays at Columbus’ idyllic nature escape. 

6:30 p.m. Dinner in the heart of it all: Continue your stay in the German Village with a reservation at Lindey’s. Enjoy a sophisticated American menu, and request a courtyard patio table at this upscale-casual restaurant. 

9 p.m. Live music and drinks: End your night with a visit to Ginger Rabbit Jazz Lounge, where you can enjoy live jazz and craft cocktails in a retro setting. Or opt for the Marmont at Forno Speakeasy, currently featuring a tiki-themed pop-up. 

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This excerpt was originally published in Pre Shift, our newsletter for the hospitality industry. Subscribe for more first-person accounts, advice, and interviews.

Now Open is a yearlong series celebrating some of 2026’s most exciting new restaurants. Throughout the year, we’ll check in with teams in Chicago, New York City, and Washington, D.C. to hear what it’s really like behind the scenes of a buzzy opening. Then, we’ll host exclusive meals at these restaurants as part of Dinner Party, presented by Capital One. Read along for challenges, candid reflections, and advice from the proprietors behind some of the country’s hottest new openings.

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Earlier this year, chef Hasung Lee got the spotlight on Netflix’s Culinary Class Wars, but Oyatte, his newest, buzziest, impossible-est-to-get-into restaurant has been in the making since 2020. He knew from the start that the menu would build off of a foundation of the freshest vegetables. And with the right timing, he linked up with Brett Ellis, friend and owner of Crown Daisy Farm in Staatsburg, New York. At Oyatte, produce unfurls into an inventive eight-course tasting menu that reflects Lee’s tenures at Gramercy Tavern, Atomix, The French Laundry, and Geranium. 

To use the full potential of the produce, Lee has a very long spreadsheet of fruits, vegetables, nuts, and even tree bark fermenting at any moment. But as André 3000 crooned in “Ms. Jackson,” “You can plan a pretty picnic, but you can’t predict the weather.” 

I chatted with Lee about New York’s micro-seasons, the Netflix effect, and the challenges of opening day.

Caroline Shin: Were you already planning to open your own restaurant when you went on Netflix?

Hasung Lee: Way before, yes. Around 2020. I always had a dream of opening a restaurant, and by that time, I was collecting all the references and information about opening restaurants.

Can you talk about the impact that Netflix has had on you and on Oyatte? Do you get recognized?

I mean, no one knows me. I just come into work, then home, work then home. On the subway sometimes [I get recognized], but not very often. [People] come to me and ask for the photo, and then tell me that they enjoyed watching the show.

I participated in the show because I wanted to have more investors, but I actually found them even before the show was released to the public. We are very lucky to have guests who watched the show, and want to visit the restaurant. We are fully booked every day. 

You were portrayed on Netflix to be calm and confident even during high stress situations. Was that an accurate portrayal of you?

While I was filming the show, I didn’t really get nervous at all. I pretty much enjoyed every moment because I was able to concentrate 100 percent on cooking rather than operations or business or something like that. In some moments, I got really sensitive. When we did Black Spoons versus White Spoons [an episode where seasoned chefs teamed up against the younger cohort], we’d never worked as a team before. The way I was trained and the way the [rest of my team members] worked was very different. I’ve only worked in fine dining kitchens, so every step has to be on point. So I think that that was the moment I got really frustrated the most. 

What was opening day like?

Busy, stressful, exciting. I think everything didn’t go well with my plan, to be honest. We had an issue with getting our permits. Furniture deliveries got delayed. Construction got delayed. We had to postpone our opening four times. Everything was a challenge.

At the very beginning, I didn’t want to have more than 30 covers a day. But the platform we are using — Seven Rooms — had an issue, so we had to start at 55 [covers over three turns]. Almost double the number of the cover count every day. And then I was so nervous because during the soft opening, we only had 20 covers a day, and 55 is 2.5 times more than that. So it was very stressful.

In the short time that you have been open, are there some things that you’ve learned, challenges you’ve figured out? 

I’m still learning every day, but what I realize is that whatever happens, if I don’t give up, I will get the solution, whether it’s [related to] food or service or guest-facing hospitality or construction. For example, last night there was heavy rain, and the basement leaked. Whenever it rains, it leaks. So I told the landlord multiple times to fix that problem. He’s trying, but it’s still leaking. What can I do? The buildings are getting older and older.

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I went into Tony, Matt Johnson’s new Anthony Bourdain biopic, as I imagine many people in the food world did: hesitant and somewhat hoping to hate it, by virtue of my aversion to the way the chef has been mythologized in the eight years since his death. While I think Laurie Woolever, Bourdain’s longtime assistant and author of a 2021 oral biography, is one of the rare people who’s earned the right to tell his story, I’ve found many other attempts to take advantage of the chef’s name and reputation lurid and unnecessary.

And so, Tony: Here is the coming-of-age biopic that promises to show Tony before he became “Bourdain.” It hits theaters on August 7, with expanded national distribution on August 21. Drawing on early chapters of Bourdain’s own groundbreaking book Kitchen Confidential, Tony limits itself to the summer of 1975, when, having failed to secure a writing fellowship as a student at Vassar College, a 19-year-old Tony follows a girl to Provincetown, Massachusetts. Desperate to make it through the summer and with his dreams of becoming a real writer temporarily dashed, he lands at the dish pit of a scuzzy restaurant, where he’s surrounded by foul-mouthed cooks who get a kick out of his missteps. In real life, Bourdain wrote of these kitchen workers — the ex-con, the ex-hippie, the “half-mad” divorcee — as being “like gods” to him, and in the movie, Tony also adopts a tentative admiration of the kitchen’s motley crew, bonding over family meal and following them to parties and drug buys.

Dominic Sessa, the rangy, curly-haired young actor who broke out with 2023’s The Holdovers, plays the movie’s namesake, while Antonio Banderas plays his reluctant mentor, an even-tempered, religiously devout chef who presides over the kitchen with few words but an imposing presence. Close readers of Kitchen Confidential will catch condensing of timelines and of characters in some places, embellishments and extreme dramatizations in others (Banderas’s character, for example, doesn’t map onto any one person in the book). The shared through line is the transformative power of this specific kitchen for the young and impressionable chef. “I was — to be frank — a spoiled, miserable, narcissistic, self-destructive and thoughtless young lout, badly in need of a good ass-kicking,” Bourdain writes in Kitchen Confidential, and this line opens the movie. 

What makes Tony compelling, to me, is that it dares to let Bourdain be unlikeable, slowly teasing out our sympathy. In much of the movie, its namesake is insufferable, displaying not the deep-voiced, earned swagger of the worn traveler and experienced cook, but the half-cocked, shaky braggadocio of an insecure boy; it’s Bourdain, we’re reminded, who’s the myth and the legend. The movie renders Tony more of the run-of-the-mill male manipulator type. More sensitive than he’s willing to reveal but too proud to admit to his shortcomings, he gets that ass-kicking and more. 

For about Tony’s first third, I, like the girls at those Provincetown parties, found myself more charmed by Sal, the experienced cook who’s played by a sweaty, flirty, and always ready-for-a-fight Leo Woodall. Portrayed as a bad-boy big-brother type, Sal is at least self-aware that he’s a scumbag, while Sessa’s Tony radiates dejected “nice guy” energy, with cloying overconfidence that makes every rejection and punch thrown his way feel justified. Sal’s analog in Kitchen Confidential is Bobby, whose alleyway tryst with a bride still in her wedding gown leads Bourdain to conclude that he wants to be a chef. 

There are flickers of interest in food itself in Tony, and recognition of the pleasure found in food. A fish charred over coals at the beach and then drizzled with lemon is revelatory, as are raw oysters; a drunken Tony recalls a time when, as a child in France, he ate them and said they tasted like “the future.” More the case, though, is that we see Tony understand in real time the power of being the person that provides that pleasure, as with Sal or Bobby and the bride. We learn with him how kitchen work can reframe his identity: the way it can allow him to impress a girl; or achieve a sense of control; or be seen, himself, as one of those gods. 

When a man has been rendered a god for so long by pop culture, there’s something satisfying about seeing him be humbled in this way instead. In an interview with GQ, director Matt Johnson, best known for his indie docufiction, admitted that neither he nor Sessa had “literally any baggage around this guy” — this guy, of course, being Bourdain. Without the sentimental attachment to Bourdain at the peak of his fame, they set out to unpack his vulnerability and his openness to being influenced. In Tony, we see when Bourdain’s affectations — niche references, tendencies toward esoteric words — land with a thud, both a matter of him not yet having found the right audience but also not understanding his own delivery.

The thing about Tony, for better and for worse, is that it could also have worked as a movie not about Bourdain at all. Call it a cheap comparison, given the time period in which it’s set and the Sessa connection, but at its best moments, Tony feels like The Holdovers, another movie I expected to hate but didn’t. It’s a bittersweet but earnest depiction of wading through the confusing years of finding yourself, and realizing that you can’t go it alone, much as you might find yourself at odds with the people around you and how they perceive you. It’s a story about finding mentorship in unexpected places, and the complicated cycle of hurting and repairing, which we all get better with as we age but which we do so clumsily as teenagers. All of this is universally legible, big-name inspiration or not.

Its clunkiest moments, by comparison, are when Tony tries to remind you that it is, in fact, a Bourdain movie and not just a movie about a random kid picking up a job as a dishwasher. Both names thunk into place during the young chef’s eventual interview at the Culinary Institute of America, a cringe-inducing line of dialogue that feels designed to have normie (as in non-foodie) viewers go, “Ohhh, I get it,” like the Leo pointing meme, when they see the trailer. The trailer, for that matter, does not do the movie justice; it seems unsure of how to appeal to both niche food audiences and the everyman, and therefore lands awkwardly in the middle. 

A scene in which Tony’s love interest takes a picture of him in the kitchen feels similarly forced when you’re aware of that one picture of young Bourdain in a Provincetown kitchen. And while Bourdain did write that oysters tasted “somehow… of the future” in Kitchen Confidential, which was published when he was in his 40s, the line feels smarmier than it should in the context of the movie, in which it seems intended to position Bourdain as a child as a kind of savant, when really, I think the movie intends to portray him as having landed in kitchens more as a result of being an opportunist. Despite the distance Johnson and Sessa perceived themselves having from Bourdain at the project’s outset, it’s clear that there’s still some tension between their positioning and what it feels like audiences need in a Bourdain biopic.

The very concept of a Bourdain biopic is kind of like The Bear in the sense that I think many people in the industry will write it off on its premise. I certainly wouldn’t fault anyone who chooses not to engage with posthumous Bourdain culture grabs, since I, too, thought I was one of them. As with The Bear, those aversions feel valid; there’s too much personal history and too many close-to-home feelings. But what I think works the most about Tony is that it’s grounded in the feelings. 

It’s less a movie about the myth of Bourdain, and more a movie about the relatable arc of knowing who you want to be but not quite knowing how to get there and raging against that. It could be about any cook, any person; it happens to be a movie about someone we all loved.

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Recently, after I wrote about the tedious nature of making reservations these days, several readers emailed me to express similar feelings and to share their own booking-related gripes. For many of them, these have culminated into the same interaction: Instead of dealing with the whole reservations-platforms rigamarole, they were going old-school for bookings, they told me, by building relationships with general managers and servers in hopes of getting a business card with some information that might offer an easier (or just more direct) in. 

It feels anachronistic, in our modern QR-code, app-for-everything moment, but these are the touchpoints we long for now: a real person, a direct line; the possibility of being seen as a diner with loyalty and even idiosyncrasies, whether it’s a habit of saying “thank you” slightly too much or a tendency to finish a glass of water with astonishing speed, rather than just another faceless name on the backend of a reservations platform.

Of course, in our post-tech world, this kind of olive branch has also gone digital: Those gestures of goodwill and relationship building have been automated. Consider the New York City banchan destination Sunn’s. After I dined there, I found an email in my inbox two weeks later. “Hey ,” said the email.

“I just want to say thanks for checking out Sunn’s,” it read. “Most importantly, I hope you had a nice time, if not, definitely let me know!” The email offered me a discount code for wine delivery from Parcelle (a partner in Sunn’s), and then it dangled a more appealing carrot: the tantalizing promise of exclusivity. We have a text line, the email explained: “If you’re ever unable to find the table you need on Resy, shoot us a text.” (The restaurant is, proving my previous point, now on OpenTable.) It was not the rote, clinical, immediate “restaurant wants your feedback” follow-up that I expect after I dine at a Resy joint, but something with the illusion of being more personal. It was signed “Grant from Parcelle Wine.” As with any listserve blast, the errant space tipped me off that it was not, in fact, actually personalized but automated; still, it seemed more considered. 

Readers telling me about their reservations gripes mentioned receiving similar emails, sometimes including personalized links for booking. “N/naka sent me [an] email [like that] after I’d dined there twice, but there was a gap of at least a couple years between the last time I went and [when I received] the email,” one reader in Los Angeles said. A Michelin-starred restaurant, it’s “famous for keeping careful track of all their diners so I wasn’t totally surprised,” the reader added. They’d gotten a similar one after dining at the more casual yet once very in-demand Pijja Palace.

After dining at Tanta, the Peruvian restaurant in Chicago, a colleague of mine received a similar email thanking her for her visit and offering her a special booking link for the future. Use it, the email promised, and she could get a complimentary chocolate mousse on a future visit. This was not some professional food writer exclusive, but seemingly an offer sent to anyone. Another colleague received a similarly fleshed-out yet clearly automated email after a meal at LA’s Lucia. It also offers a “direct booking link,” though it just goes to the restaurant’s main Resy page. The automation appears to be a feature of SevenRooms, through which Lucia also offers reservations. As with the manager dropping a business card at the table of guests who’d seemed to have an especially good time, the point of all this is to build regulars. 

But while he encourages his managers to give their cards out, “I personally hate business cards,” says Cedric Nicaise of the NYC restaurant the Noortwyck. Often, they end up in the trash, and he thinks many people don’t actually end up using them, especially when they’ve had a good experience over a bad one that needs to be made right. For this reason, Nicaise has employed an AI-powered platform called Loyalist, which integrates with every interface on which a restaurant might find itself — reservations platforms, review platforms, event systems, and point-of-sale systems — and creates a single place through which he and his team can manage guest relationships, doing targeted follow-up. 

While the examples I’ve listed above tend to focus on getting first-time diners to become second-time diners, Loyalist allows the Noortwyck to get hyper-specific. “If someone came for dinner and they were super nice, then we [can] reach out [via email]. But we also get alerts if it’s someone’s like, third visit in a short period of time, or if they give us a really positive review on Google,” Nicaise explains. “The system prompts us to be able to send them an email, and so it’s using technology to further personal connections.” 

For Nicaise, the benefit of Loyalist is that it allows the restaurant’s staff to direct their energy and use it efficiently. It’s not sending an email blast about a new special or a menu change, but a way of showing appreciation and dedicated interest. The platform can, for example, prompt the Noortwyck’s staff that someone bought a cool bottle of wine and therefore might appreciate a personalized note about it. Or, through the platform, managers can identify which guests they met on a given night, then be prompted to send personalized emails to those guests after. Instead of simply casting the broadest net and seeing who it catches, “we want to make sure that people who are [the most] inclined to come back can come back,” Nicaise says.

As the great newsletter boom of the past few years would prove, inboxes are valuable territory. Still, even with all the competition there, an email promises more direct access to potential guests than something as free-range as social media. (It’s perhaps for this reason that Sunn’s has opted for that potentially less crowded field of the iMessage inbox with its additional text line.) 

“The cost of acquiring a new diner is becoming higher than ever,” according to Maggie Tang, who started Loyalist after working in restaurants including Eleven Madison Park. With so many restaurants and the infinite scroll of social media, “someone’s trying to grab a diner’s attention at all times, and restaurants constantly want to fill seats, so I think restaurants are starting to focus more on how to retain existing diners.” 

According to Tang, these personalized follow-up emails can also nudge diners who haven’t come back in a while, and on average, she says, 15 percent of guests who receive those book a reservation within 30 days of getting that email. As much as some restaurants want to be showy occasion spots, many are orienting themselves now around repeatability. Restaurants need regulars; emails, with their technology-enabled veneer of “this manager was just thinking about you,” might help them meet the moment.

The trick at some hard-to-get-into restaurants, I’ve been told, is to make a reservation with the host upon leaving your first meal there. They have access to the books, and the idea is that you’ve earned some goodwill by having already dined. But, if you’re shy or you forget, maybe a personalized email rewarding you for patronage will pop up in your inbox sometime after.

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Chef Larry Feldmeier, the former chef de cuisine at Chicago’s two-Michelin-starred Oriole, wants to do a little something for everyone. His new restaurant, All Well, opened in April with a five-course prix-fixe menu and a la carte bites served at the bar (including a hefty late-night short rib sandwich). The result is a space that works equally well for a special occasion and to grab a beer after a game. In this episode of Now Open, Feldmeier and co-partner Noah Sandoval (the executive chef at Oriole) walk Eater through a day of food prep and service at the new West Loop spot.

The day starts with making freshly ground sausage for the stuffed quail option in the fourth course. Truffle and mustard are mixed into freshly ground chicken before being piped into two-day dry-aged quails. The birds then dry out a bit more before service. In another section of the kitchen, the team begins basting the short rib sandwich. The steak-sauce coated dish was inspired by Chicago’s recent obsession with high-end burgers — this version is not quite a burger but is just as comforting.

Next is the pasta course, a cheese and potato-filled ravioli in a half-moon shape, traditionally called mezzelune. The pasta are served in a creamy beurre monté sauce with fresh peas. A chicken brodo (rich chicken broth) is served on the side to pour over the pasta, as well as a puffed grain toast slathered with buckwheat butter.

Starting bites for the prix-fixe include a savory sunchoke beignet. The fried, small doughnuts have a truffle and sunchoke custard filling that is frozen and dropped into the batter before they’re fried. Other early bites include foie gras mousse layered in a stroopwafel with rhubarb jam and strawberries, plus a smoked trout tart.

“We wanted to build a place where there’s something for everybody,” Feldmeier says. “We’re not doing things for awards or things like that. As cliche as that is, we’re doing things that we want to do and take pride in.”

Watch the kitchen team at All Well navigate operating a more casual restaurant that is still serving up creative cuisine in this episode of Now Open.

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With its offbeat blend of poutine, pikliz, natural wine, and piri-piri, Montreal is a food city hors pair. You’ll find Italian, Jewish, Vietnamese, Lebanese, Haitian, and, of course, meaty French-leaning restaurants side by side. Add to that our public markets, rooftop greenhouses, urban farms (Montreal is a world capital of urban agriculture), and a surplus of homegrown cooking talent and vibrant immigrant communities. Foodways coalesce, traditions get upheld and upended, and imported techniques are tailored to local flora and fauna. No single influence governs Montreal’s distinct, ever-evolving culinary terrain, and that’s what makes eating here so special.

I’m a life-long Montrealer with only growing excitement for all this city has to eat, and I’ve been curating this map for the past six years. Spanning cuisines, neighborhoods, and price points, it’s a shortlist of must-try spots right now, reflecting some of the newer openings driving conversation, the trends playing out across dining tables and award lists, and the generational icons that complete the city. It can also serve as a primer on local food-speak; lesson one: If you order an “entrée,” you’re getting a starter.

We update this list regularly to make sure it reflects the ever-changing Montreal dining scene. Our write-ups include insider tips, as well as a rough range of pricing for each destination — from $ for quick, inexpensive meals with dishes largely under $10 USD (or the equivalent in Canadian dollars), to $$$$ for places where mains exceed $30.

New to the map in July 2026: Aylwin Deli & Barbecue, a smokin’ two-part operation currently crushing it at Atwater Market; Dobe & Andy, a Chinatown staple upholding generations of barbecue meat legacy; Pichai, my absolute favorite purveyor of Thai spice in the city; and a newer arrival to the scene, Bruce, which has garnered well-deserved attention for Scottish cuisine.

Valerie Silva is a Montreal writer and editor. From 2020 to 2022, she ran Eater’s Montreal site and remains a regular contributor for the publication. Her work has appeared in Bon Appétit, Air Canada’s enRoute, ELLE Canada, Maisonneuve Magazine, and elsewhere, spanning everything from the belugas and beer of the Saguenay Fjord to Hochelaga’s clown culture and the history and high notes of poutine in Montreal. Otherwise, you can find her developing concepts and telling stories for multimedia entertainment studio Moment Factory.

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On Saturday, on the eve of the world soccer finals, Eater hosted a lively celebration of food and sports in New York City, bringing thousands of attendees to Pier 36 to taste their way through cuisines from dozens of countries. Over 30 of NYC’s most in-demand chefs and restaurants — plus visitors from beyond the city — served a diverse sampling of their signature dishes, including banh mi from the East Village’s Bánh Anh Em, burritos from Park Slope’s Vato, slices from Sally’s Apizza and Frank Pepe in New Haven, and many more.

Despite the rainy weather, the vibes were upbeat as attendees, clad in jerseys of their favorite teams, took their shot at scoring goals through an inflatable bottle of Lifeway Kefir and tasted samples of the brand’s probiotic drinks and cheeses. Others posed for photos alongside a giant cup of Maruchan ramen — faux noodles overflowing — and mingled with Seattle chef Shota Nakajima, who provided a ramen trio inspired by Japan, South Korea, and the United States. (Guests could then vote on their favorite in a neck-and-neck competition.)

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Diners visiting A Taste of NYC, presented by Square, sampled free bites from Gourmega, the new restaurant from the founders of the Ghetto Gastro collective. From Edible, guests found sweet treats in the form of bites of cheesecake, brownies, and chocolate-covered fruit. Luckily, cute tote bags from Morton Salt were available to carry any extra goods home.

A Taste of Asia, presented by Cathay Pacific, was a travel-inspired section that featured a popular photobooth installation and a live demo with chef Calvin Eng of Brooklyn hotspot Bonnie’s, who prepared Hong Kong-style French toast. Other samples included Filipino beef adobo short rib and Thai massaman duck croquettes. In the VIP lounge, presented by Cathay Pacific, guests tried exclusive bites from Dominique Ansel, South Philly Barbacoa, Jose Andres’s Mercado Little Spain, and Sushi Noz, and sipped drinks (many drinks) at an open bar.

Spritzes and seltzers from S. Pellegrino and Aqua Panna paired perfectly with the wide range of dishes on offer, and the brand’s tastings of caviar bumps and Parmesan offered an elevated experience in the VIP lounge. Refreshing fruit cups and pineapple juice mocktail from Dole helped guests stay cool amid the summer heat; a selection of beers from Manhattan Beer Distributors and cocktails made with Milagro tequila kept the party vibes going. 

It was a festive celebration and a reminder of the communal power of both food and sports — even better when the two come together. The competition may be fierce in global soccer competitions, but everyone was a winner at World’s Fare.

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British food has long been unfairly maligned as being brown, bread-y, and boring. But stateside, we’ve seen a major shift in attitudes toward British food in the past year or two, with a near-sensational response to new British-inspired restaurants such as Dean’s and Wilde’s. And London’s restaurant scene is vast and ambitious, yet also surprisingly intimate. It draws from culinary traditions all over the world without feeling trend-chasing, celebrates seasonal ingredients with near-religious devotion, and retains a warmth that makes even exceptional restaurants feel disarmingly welcoming. Meals here have a way of stretching into entire evenings, and you’ll want them to. With its centuries-old pubs, world-class Indian food, Italian trattorias and Spanish tapas bars, a growing Southeast Asian scene, neighborhood bistros, and ambitious fine dining, it’s one of the world’s great food cities.

Europe has been sweltering this summer, and I experienced its late June heat wave firsthand when I recently visited a longtime friend (and fellow food writer) living on a houseboat near Tower Bridge. London was pushing triple digits and, in my American opinion, is woefully deficient in air conditioning and ice — but my food itinerary was stacked enough that neither the sauna-like temperatures nor a merciless case of jet lag could stop me from exploring, eating, drinking, and enjoying all the roasted meats, Eton messes, and gin and tonics that London has to offer.

Having a game plan (i.e. a map of recommendations and a roster of reservations) may sound type A, but, in this city, majorly pays off. Because London is enormous and crossing it in 93-degree heat is no small undertaking, I mostly stayed in central and east London. 

I condensed the highlights of a five-day trip into a three-day itinerary that prioritizes long lunches, memorable dinners, and excellent pubs. Consider it my greatest hits. 

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Day 1

Lunch: Towpath

I landed in London sweaty, jet-lagged, and starving. My first stop was Towpath, a tiny, produce-forward café on Regent’s Canal accessible only by foot or bike with a cult following. My friend Charley and I shared mortadella with cherries, trout with creme fraiche, silky eggplant dip, crunchy chicken salad, and a cooling bowl of mint soft serve. Exactly the lunch I wanted after a transatlantic red-eye.

Drinks: The George

By late afternoon, surviving the overbearing heat and my near-psychedelic level of sleep deprivation demanded a large, cold drink. At the 17th-century pub The George, I drank what may have been the most refreshing (and largest) gin and tonic of my life while pointing a rhinestone-studded portable fan directly at my face. 

Dinner: Brigadiers

I yearned for a delicious Indian meal as soon as possible upon arriving in the city, so I arranged to meet friends at Brigadiers, an upscale Indian sports bar. It’s the more casual cousin of two-Michelin-starred Gymkhana (same restaurant group, along with Ambassadors Clubhouse), and reminded me why London’s Indian restaurants are in a league of their own. We dove into a feast of butter-chicken wings, smoky tandoori lamb chops, prawn biryani, goat vindaloo samosas, chile-paneer lettuce cups, cardamom creme brulee, and green-chile coriander margaritas. Absolute perfection, and they had strong air conditioning; I almost cried. 

Late-night: Cittie of Yorke, Trisha’s, Gerry’s Club, Quo Vadis…

After dinner we wandered into Cittie of Yorke, a vaulted, dark-wood pub that’s existed in some form since the 15th century. Very Harry Potter-core. We popped in for more gin and tonics, then headed to Soho. 

First, there was Trisha’s, a deranged quirky basement jazz club (using that term loosely) in Soho. Within minutes, we’d befriended an Absolutely Fabulous-coded woman in animal print; suddenly, we were doing strawberry-and-cream tequila shots with her before being escorted around Soho by a man known as “John the Hat.” One drink became several. We ended up watching a Broadway-style performance of Britney Spears’ “Toxic” with live violin in the sweltering basement of Gerry’s Club. The night ended with cocktails in the upstairs members club at storied mainstay Quo Vadis. London, I’ve concluded, rewards saying yes.

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Day 2

Lunch: Tavern

Miraculously, I was not hung over from the previous night’s adventures, but we’ll skip straight to lunch since my breakfast of matcha and yogurt was unremarkable. This airy bistro, housed in an old Victorian building, is a fun, buzzy new addition to Old Street’s restaurant scene. I’d call its cuisine “post-British.” Its succulent, melt-in-your-mouth pork chop was one of the best I’ve had, served with a sharp hit of whole-grain mustard and jus-braised greens. I also loved the chunion (cheese and onion) puff, and the pork and cuttlefish chorizo; the pickleback martini is a more dignified version of the dive-bar throwback. The restaurant, while gorgeously outfitted, was boiling and smoky inside from the live-fire cooking, yet none of us wanted to leave. Heaven is good conversation over a table crowded with delicious things.

Drinks (and snacks): The Seven Stars

The food at this historic Holborn spot is excellent, it’s home to a famously spoiled cat (now second-generation) wearing an Elizabethan ruff, and the cozy dining rooms feel more like a grandmother’s living room than a commercial establishment. I could happily lose an entire rainy afternoon here, drinking cider and sampling dishes from the blackboard menu.

Dinner: Cycene

Cycene was, perhaps, the most memorable meal of my trip. Its tasting menu, from chef Taz Sarhane, feels historical and transportive in spirit and decidedly modern in execution, celebrating aged meats, foraged ingredients, and English terroir with remarkable precision. Many elements are pickled, cured, and fermented. The evening begins at the downstairs bar with cocktails, charcuterie, and a rich broth made with pork feet before moving through the kitchen for a tour of the pleasures to come; then, you’re whisked into a candlelit dining room where tomato-butter-topped scallops, jewel-like duck breast, and breathtaking desserts unfold before you over nearly four hours. Best to go with someone whose company you really enjoy.

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Day 3

Lunch: St. John

Fergus Henderson’s legendary restaurant remains a house of meat worship and nose-to-tail dining, and also a case study of beauty in restraint: lobster toast, roast bone marrow, Welsh rarebit, braised lamb, and fresh-baked madeleines; adding a gin fizz, glass of wine, or martini feels fitting. We lingered at our long, many-coursed, boozy lunch here for nearly four hours (yes, another four-hour meal), a life-affirming practice that London still seems to encourage.

Drinks: Le Beaujolais

Run by French people, perfumed with bloomy-rind cheeses, and decorated with hundreds of neckties hanging from the ceiling, Le Beaujolais is the sort of place where you can post up and split multiple bottles over delectable fromage and ripped hunks of baguette. I was especially charmed by a framed letter from a regular who once drunkenly stole the restaurant’s enormous wooden table before returning it with an effusive handwritten apology. This is the kind of restaurant lore I live for.

Dinner: Mountain

No restaurant was recommended to me more frequently or enthusiastically than Mountain, the Basque-inspired Soho restaurant from chef Tomos Parry. I started with — and loved — the savory Olive + Almond cocktail — a tequila-and-sherry riff on a dirty martini. An earthy morel mushroom omelet with Spenwood cheese became the table favorite, alongside roasted duck, short ribs, paper-thin cured beef, and a bright, kumquat-studded crudo of pollock and monkfish. No wonder Dua Lipa loves this place.

Late-night drinks: A Bar With Shapes for a Name

We ended the night at A Bar With Shapes for a Name, a conceptual cocktail bar with a moniker to match. The alchemic drinks were worth the wait (even at an ungodly late hour) to get in, especially the Kazimir, made with clarified peach-yogurt vodka, absinthe, saline, and “recomposed” lime. A woman holding a trembling Chihuahua casually divulged trade secrets about a major toy company before disappearing into the night. I love London.

Where I want to go next time: Tatar Bunar, a new Ukrainian bistro with dill gintinis and a “borscht ceremony for two;” Casa Fofò, a seasonally driven restaurant in Hackney with a unique, affordable set-price menu; Cece’s for fun Italian with a side of glamour.

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