Not your grandfather's JG Skyhigh
Four Seasons memories + Philly ice cream shop openings + thoughts on gold
Good morning and happy Saturday.
A friend told me last week to keep publishing these on Saturday mornings, so here I am, giving the fans what they want! Transparently I wasn’t going to write anything this week, and I found myself down the rabbit hole of excuses that range from “well it’s not like you have 10,000 subscribers refreshing their email every five minutes” to “this isn’t paying the bills” to “you’re on a deadline”, but I’m a firm believer that as soon as the excuses start piling up, that’s when you need to push through and do the thing the most. And anyway, writing this letter has been a reprieve from the hectic weekly pile-ups.
There’s an ice cream shop boom happening in Philly, and okay fine, I will volunteer to find out which one is serving the best flavors. Twist my arm!!! My sights are on Irv’s on E Passyunk and Birdhouse Gelato in Bella Vista. Weckerly’s has a new Rittenhouse location coming very soon, and it looks like a possible Cuzzy’s comeback is in the works?
Bethenny Frankel sounded off: The Four Seasons in Philly is the nicest hotel in the country. They put up with my friends and I, already four drinks deep, going up to their bar twice a week for an entire summer in crop tops and cutoffs, so I’d agree!
well yes! A core JG Skyhigh memory is when we prompted two older men in tuxes to mutter under their breath, “I guess it’s not our grandfather’s JG Skyhigh anymore”. Live a little, this isn’t Downton Abbey! And JG didn’t open until 2019, so unless your grandfather is six…
The Points Guy, AKA Brian Kelly, posted a reel about Shay’s Steaks on 16th and Race, and up until that point, I had never heard of this place. I wouldn’t consider myself the most “plugged in” when it comes to cheesesteak openings, though. Is this a safe space to say I can only eat one of these things like, twice a year max? Shay’s uses a lot of adjectives in its marketing, so I’m going to try to make their “iconic” Wagyu beef steak one of my two for the year. Even though Wagyu is spelled wrong on their website, lol.
Thinking about this…
Do you ever pass those side-of-the-road soft serve / barbecue / hot dog / burger joints and think, when is it going to be the right time to pull over and saunter in? I had that thought passing Bell’s Breakaway BBQ & Creamery in Coatesville last week. It has yet to be the Time, but one day it will be the Time, and you’ll be the first to know.
I’m sorry, I’ll say it: I’m extremely excited for Borromini to finally open. Starr’s new venture, co-designed by Keith McNally, is being dubbed the Italian Parc (or is that just in my friend groups…). Great news for MOI. Speaking of McNally, this SSENSE piece on his daughter, Alice, came out this week. I love a profile about a sceney elusive nepo baby. Borromini is set to open this fall.
Curious about Doom Bar, a heavy metal bar in Callowhill that The Infatuation likens to “Dracula’s den”. Apparently they’re the place to go for really good wings and music that’s loud but not too loud if you’re on a date. My threshold for sound levels on dates is extremely low, but they have a Cosmic Brownie Ice Cream Sandwich, so.
I think you’re always going to get a bunch of curmudgeons on a post like this, but I do think a second Angelo’s location is imminent…
NY Mag’s fifth edition of its grammar newsletter (for subscribers only) drops next week. It’s written by their Copy Chief, Carl Rosen, and personally, I hope he covers the war on em dashes.
Who else is watching this gold thing closely? I loved Kelsey Lim’s breakdown last month of what this means from a jeweler’s perspective:
And it was covered in as seen on this week, too:
The Wall Street Journal thinks you should be paying more attention to silver. To me, people who love silver are the same people who wear Golden Goose’s.
A bit shorter this week but I hope I gave you something to chew on!!!! I wrote this mostly at 11:03 PM and entirely in silence, if that tells you where I’m at.
XX,
Rebecca
bethenny raving about the four seasons and JG’s was the crossover we never knew we NEEDED!!