Latest news with #LukeFortney
New York Times
22-05-2025
- Entertainment
- New York Times
Why Lucali (Still) Isn't On Our Best Pizza List
For those of us in the business of being journalistically critical, there is a grab bag of ways that the job can go wrong. A chef could confront you over your review. Your social media mentions could become a garbage fire. Your inbox could pile up with emails from angry readers. But the greatest nightmare might be sending someone into a subpar dining experience — one that might not be worth their time, effort or hard-earned money. In October we published our list of the best pizza spots in New York City, and hawk-eyed readers noticed that Lucali, the infamously hard-to-get-into restaurant and pizzeria in Carroll Gardens, was nowhere to be seen. This week, we updated that list and, once again, there's no Lucali. Why? Well, the hassle-to-quality ratio is out of whack. Lucali is still difficult to get into — would-be diners often have to stand in line for hours before the restaurant opens — and if you are able to secure a table, the food might not deliver. For this go-round, I sent Luke Fortney, an energetic and intrepid food reporter, to retest the waters after Priya Krishna's visit last fall. On a Monday in March, Luke lined up at 1:30 p.m., two-and-a-half hours before a host appears and starts taking reservations. At 7 p.m., he and a few friends were seated for dinner. I'll let Luke take it from there: I had done this song and dance before but I didn't remember the service being so rushed once you were inside. Our dinner for a table of three — two pizzas, a calzone and a pasta — lasted 72 minutes. We would have lingered, but we were asked to leave with a half-finished bottle of wine. I liked, not loved, our pizzas. The tomato sauce was as good (salty) as ever but the dough was denser than I remembered. A few weeks later, I returned to order a takeout pizza with a 20-minute wait. That was when I realized it wasn't really about the wait or the service. The pizza just wasn't there. Both Priya and Luke made the point that you could enjoy equally good pizza at nearby restaurants without the hassle. (Embrace the hot restaurant dupe!) And I've lived here long enough — going on 13 years — to know that at the end of most long lines there is regret, disappointment or a mixture of both. Want all of The Times? Subscribe.
New York Times
06-03-2025
- Business
- New York Times
Europe's Most Famous Restaurant Turns to Coffee Roasting
Welcome to the T List, a newsletter from the editors of T Magazine. Each week, we share things we're eating, wearing, listening to or coveting now. Sign up here to find us in your inbox every Wednesday, along with monthly travel and beauty guides and the latest stories from our print issues. And you can always reach us at tmagazine@ Drink This Noma Launches a Coffee Subscription Service By Luke Fortney In 2017, Carolyne Lane was working as a barista in Bielefeld, Germany, when she saw a YouTube video of René Redzepi talking about coffee. 'Back then, specialty coffee shops were a rarity in Europe,' Lane says. And yet Redzepi, the chef behind Noma in Copenhagen, was pledging to have a world-class coffee service at his restaurant. The following spring, Lane drove north and asked for a job. Noma has a hyper-fixation on local food — the bark, branches, crickets and reindeer on the menu can all be found in the Nordic region. One of the few exceptions is coffee. 'It's the most exotic thing in the restaurant,' says Lane, who now manages the coffee and tea services at Noma. The restaurant began roasting its own coffee last year under the brand Noma Kaffe. This month, the beans will be packaged and shipped internationally for the first time as part of a subscription service. Offerings will change monthly, drawing from producers around the world. Some of them, like the Intzín family, a community of Indigenous farmers in Chiapas, Mexico, have supplied Noma in the past. The beans are roasted in Copenhagen and shipped to subscribers with notes on sourcing and brewing. 'These coffees are very easy to make,' Lane says. 'They taste good at home.' Noma Kaffe is the latest packaged product from the restaurant, which has been building out a pantry of consumer goods ranging from pumpkin vinegar to corn yuzu hot sauce. Noma Kaffe subscriptions will be available online beginning on March 6; from $65 for two bags of coffee beans, Stay Here A Ritz-Carlton With Treehouse Tents in Costa Rica's Tropical Forest By Jenny Comita Nekajui, the name of the new Ritz-Carlton Reserve property on Costa Rica's Peninsula Papagayo, means 'lush garden' in the local Chorotega language. It's a fitting description of its deeply verdant location. Hailed as one of the most biodiverse places on earth, Costa Rica's Guanacaste region is home to about 7,000 types of plants, in addition to sloths, sea turtles, monkeys and approximately 500 avian species, including toucans and the rainbow-bright parrots from which the peninsula takes its name. Situated in a tropical forest atop coastal cliffs, Nekajui is surrounded by a 250-acre wildlife sanctuary where guests can partake in zip-lining, guided nature hikes and canoe excursions through the mangroves. The resort itself has seven restaurants and bars, a 27,000-square-foot spa, two large pools and a full-service beach club. Accommodations include 107 ocean-facing guest rooms and a handful of private villas — one with 10 bedrooms — but perhaps the most intriguing options are the three luxurious canvas-roofed, family-size casitas elevated on stilts to sit eye level with the forest canopy. Though they're billed as treetop tents, they make glamping look like roughing it, with butler service, marble bathrooms and private plunge pools. From $2,390 per night, Buy This Colorful Outdoor Furniture From Dusen Dusen and Fatboy By Kurt Soller In 1998, the Finnish designer Jukka Setälä released a vibrant beanbag chair called Fatboy, which was named not for its slouchy, oversize form but for the musician Fatboy Slim, whom he often listened to while working. As a child, the American designer Ellen Van Dusen, founder of the 15-year-old pattern-heavy housewares brand Dusen Dusen, had a solid red Fatboy in her room in Washington, D.C. Now all of that history is coalescing in a collaboration between the two companies that's part of a pop-up beginning March 12 online and in-person at New York's MoMA Design Store, where Van Dusen has been selling products for the past six years. The idea here was to create a new suite of outdoor furniture — a modular couch, a hammock, some poufs, pillows and bean bags, among other items — that's as durable and versatile as it is bright and fun. On the sofa, for instance, there's an orange pattern inspired by oak-tree bark; on smaller pieces, green or blue stripes are meant to reflect the land or the sky. All were envisioned with Van Dusen's own Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn, outdoor space in mind, with its abundant greenery and mosaic tiling by the artist Matthew Chambers — but would make any area look bolder. 'I've been working on my own backyard for years, and most outdoor furniture that's good-looking isn't comfortable,' she says. 'I often design because I want something exciting and useful in my own life.' Fatboy x Dusen Dusen launches March 12, Want all of The Times? Subscribe.
