Be the Buyer

ModCloth Asks Customers to Be the Buyer
A retailer's primary role may be that of curator and tastemaker, but that doesn't mean that the crowds can't pitch in to help. Online indie clothing retailer ModCloth asks its customers to help choose which items to take into production. [...]

BE THE BUYER
SAMPLE 46
This dress is hot. it's not overly flared...I think it would be extremely flattering on many body types...those needing to hide curves and those needing to build curves.

It's beautiful! What a great piece to spice up with some color! It's beautifully tailored as well.

Drab and unflattering.

oh this is soo cute. my bottom is curvy so i don't know how it would fit me. i'd try it with a pair of black tights. i think it would look lovely on my one girlfriend who has no butt- it would help create the illusion of curves.

The pleats at the hip aren't flattering. It will make me look like a giant pear....not good.

Very pretty. I agree though that the shape is a little tricky to rock...

I'm not a fan of the shape. If you can fill it out you'll pull at the pleats, if you can't fill it out you look like exotic vegetable matter.

SAMPLE 9
I loooove this dress! It has a beautiful ethnic pattern on the bottom, and it think it would look fabulous with platform heels and chunky bracelets.

I really am not a fan of all these dresses with the cotton tops. Not expensive looking enough.

I think that if you got this and got the right jacket to go over it, it would look pretty nice.

SAMPLE 9
The zipper is kind of a killer for it, but it's also so small of a detail that I don't think it deserves a skip. It's still pretty and a jacket or cardigan or something could cover the zipper.

The zipper makes it look tacky.

I too, was about to vote YES but then saw the zipper, which make it looks cheap and sleazy. I feel modcloth demographic is better represented by chic, retro, semi-trendy, classy styled women and although the zipper fits the retro category the front of the dress is more cross over retro-trendy. Sorry it's a no!

It's not my style but I was all for voting yes on it until I saw the zipper! Now while I love the exposed zipper trend it just looks so sloppy here! Like a 101 fashion student slapped a zipper on the back from the craft store. Not attractive at all.

SAMPLE 6
Another 'cute' dress that I skipped, because it looks so insanely short/revealing. As someone who hates the "dress over skinny jeans/leggings/pants" look... I would love for ModCloth to get more mid-length dresses and skirts. More options around knee length would be fantastic!

The tailoring is amazing! Very flattering and feminine with a play on menswear with the details... would look great with the shabooties that are said to be the newest trend this fall..

I'm not crazy about the colors, and I feel like it could have been more feminine. It's a nifty cut and all, but I think I"ll skip it.

I love the front! So gorgeous!

Cute, but I can't help thinking the front of the top looks a bit stripper like.

Nice, flattering silhouette.

I don't know if I love it or hate it. It might just be the colors. I also kind of wish that instead of the polka dot fabric that it was sheer and lacy instead. I think I'll skip.

Cute. Reminds me of an abstract tuxedo t-shirt though.

ABOUT US
Eric & Susan of ModCloth

JUST A GIRL IN A THRIFT STORE
It’s hard to believe that’s how ModCloth began!

In high school, I fell in love with vintage fashion and the thrill of scouring thrift stores or estate sales for amazing finds. No matter what the size, I couldn't leave a beautiful piece of clothing behind. I'd buy it for a friend or swear to use the buttons someday, and I started to acquire quite a collection.

Then, during the summer after our senior year, my techie boyfriend, Eric, helped me create ModCloth. It was very small at first. We only had a few items in each category, but we had a sale on the very first day! [...]
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Shop Till You Drop: Modcloth
I’ll make this short because I have some drama I need to attend to this a.m. If you know anything about me, I’m NOT a fan of drama. I am however a fan of ModCloth! Featuring some of our favorite indie brands like Soundgirl Clothing, Jeffrey Campbell Shoes, Tulle, Stop Staring, Poketo and Nick & Mo this site is sure to become one of your top shopping destinations. [...]
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MISSDELITE'S PICKS
Bande a Part tunic__Nouvelle Vague__$44.99

Salutations dress__$57.99

Corner Office skirt__$39.99 (sold out)

Street Art skirt__Mink Pink__$82.99

Lillehammer booties__Jeffrey Campbell__$149.99

Electra heels__$47.99 (sold out)
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NEW POSTS
Gustavo Dudamel
Quote
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You've Been Served

100 Things Restaurant Staff Should Never Do (Part 1)
Herewith is a modest list of dos and don’ts for servers at the seafood restaurant I am building. Veteran waiters, moonlighting actresses, libertarians and baristas will no doubt protest some or most of what follows. They will claim it homogenizes them or stifles their true nature. And yet, if 100 different actors play Hamlet, hitting all the same marks, reciting all the same lines, cannot each one bring something unique to that role?

1. Do not let anyone enter the restaurant without a warm greeting.

2. Do not make a singleton feel bad. Do not say, “Are you waiting for someone?” Ask for a reservation. Ask if he or she would like to sit at the bar.

3. Never refuse to seat three guests because a fourth has not yet arrived.

4. If a table is not ready within a reasonable length of time, offer a free drink and/or amuse-bouche. The guests may be tired and hungry and thirsty, and they did everything right.

5. Tables should be level without anyone asking. Fix it before guests are seated.

6. Do not lead the witness with, “Bottled water or just tap?” Both are fine. Remain neutral.

7. Do not announce your name. No jokes, no flirting, no cuteness.

8. Do not interrupt a conversation. For any reason. Especially not to recite specials. Wait for the right moment.

9. Do not recite the specials too fast or robotically or dramatically. It is not a soliloquy. This is not an audition.

10. Do not inject your personal favorites when explaining the specials.

11. Do not hustle the lobsters. That is, do not say, “We only have two lobsters left.” Even if there are only two lobsters left.

12. Do not touch the rim of a water glass. Or any other glass.

13. Handle wine glasses by their stems and silverware by the handles.

14. When you ask, “How’s everything?” or “How was the meal?” listen to the answer and fix whatever is not right.

15. Never say “I don’t know” to any question without following with, “I’ll find out.”

16. If someone requests more sauce or gravy or cheese, bring a side dish of same. No pouring. Let them help themselves.

17. Do not take an empty plate from one guest while others are still eating the same course. Wait, wait, wait.

18. Know before approaching a table who has ordered what. Do not ask, “Who’s having the shrimp?”

19. Offer guests butter and/or olive oil with their bread.

20. Never refuse to substitute one vegetable for another.

21. Never serve anything that looks creepy or runny or wrong.

22. If someone is unsure about a wine choice, help him. That might mean sending someone else to the table or offering a taste or two.

23. If someone likes a wine, steam the label off the bottle and give it to the guest with the bill. It has the year, the vintner, the importer, etc.

24. Never use the same glass for a second drink.

25. Make sure the glasses are clean. Inspect them before placing them on the table.

26. Never assume people want their white wine in an ice bucket. Inquire.

27. For red wine, ask if the guests want to pour their own or prefer the waiter to pour.

28. Do not put your hands all over the spout of a wine bottle while removing the cork.

29. Do not pop a champagne cork. Remove it quietly, gracefully. The less noise the better.

30. Never let the wine bottle touch the glass into which you are pouring. No one wants to drink the dust or dirt from the bottle.

31. Never remove a plate full of food without asking what went wrong. Obviously, something went wrong.

32. Never touch a customer. No excuses. Do not do it. Do not brush them, move them, wipe them or dust them.

33. Do not bang into chairs or tables when passing by.

34. Do not have a personal conversation with another server within earshot of customers.

35. Do not eat or drink in plain view of guests.

36. Never reek from perfume or cigarettes. People want to smell the food and beverage.

37. Do not drink alcohol on the job, even if invited by the guests. “Not when I’m on duty” will suffice.

38.Do not call a guy a “dude.”

39. Do not call a woman “lady.”

40. Never say, “Good choice,” implying that other choices are bad.

41. Saying, “No problem” is a problem. It has a tone of insincerity or sarcasm. “My pleasure” or “You’re welcome” will do.

42. Do not compliment a guest’s attire or hairdo or makeup. You are insulting someone else.

43. Never mention what your favorite dessert is. It’s irrelevant.

44. Do not discuss your own eating habits, be you vegan or lactose intolerant or diabetic.

45. Do not curse, no matter how young or hip the guests.

46. Never acknowledge any one guest over and above any other. All guests are equal.

47. Do not gossip about co-workers or guests within earshot of guests.

48. Do not ask what someone is eating or drinking when they ask for more; remember or consult the order.

49. Never mention the tip, unless asked.

50. Do not turn on the charm when it’s tip time. Be consistent throughout.

Next week: 51-100.

COMMENTS
I don’t know–I was a bartender here in NYC from 1978 to 1993, and I wouldn’t protest a single one of these. They are all perfectly logical and appropriate to me, and I would have been happy to work at, and be happy to be a patron at, any establishment that followed these rules.

This should be a must for every server and restaurant employee to memorize. I agree with all 50 and look forward to the next 50. The best one is when a waiter tells you which is their favorite. Do I care? No!

This makes me a bit nostalgic for the days I waited and bused tables. Incidentally, Bruce, you seem like the kind of diner whose food would get spit in. I’m not your slave and if I want to complement somebody I will, and when I’ve got 8 other tables I’ll take your order when you’re ready, I don’t see why I have to stand around waiting for a lull in your conversation.

I don’t EVER want to hear a waitperson say “Still working on that?” when eyeing my not-empty plate! Food is for pleasure, not for work.

Circulate this widely please.

What about a list of things diners should never do? As a former server, I can give you one-hundred of those and then some. Servers are generally far better behaved than some of the customers we have to deal with. Period.

These are actually good rules for the guests too–never touch the server, never curse, never ask for the server’s favorites, etc. It is easy to forget that a compliment to one person, when in a group, often means others feel left out. No one means to snub, but they happen. If we all thought about the over all experience our interactions create, we would be much better off.

This will probably be covered in the next installment but please, never, never ask, “Do you want change?” Don’t try to shame me into giving you a tip larger than I intended - just bring the change.

How arrogant! The author should describe what staffers should DO, and WHY; not what they should NOT do. That simply shows that the author is a terrible manager and has chosen employees poorly in the past. Anyone who applauds this article should be forced to wait on people to get a glimpse of reality.

I don’t like it when a restaurant removes each plate as soon as the person finishes eating, finally leaving one lone member of the party finishing up. This seems to be standard operating procedure now, though.

Okay, just two more and we’re in dining heaven:
1. Do not ask, “How is everything!” when a diner has his or her mouth full.
2. Do not ever comment on the conversation at a table. Once a waitress came over and said, “Sounds like a great movie!” when a friend was telling me a serious story from his life.

Oh boy, thanks for mentioning #17! It drives me crazy when the busboy starts removing plates while somebody is still eating. As a former restaurant owner, this is the first thing I taught my employees. How stupid does one feel when they’re still eating and everybody else has had their plates removed? Some people eat faster than others, or somebody is talking more and eating less quickly, I hesitate to mention this to the bus person, as they’re just doing as they’ve been told, and I don’t want to cause trouble for them, but I do occasionally say something to the manager and of course they ‘yes’ me but I know they just don’t get it.

Hallelujah! I want to send this to the last place that we had an atrociously bad waitress. I was reamed on Yelp for giving a bad review for the service, but they deserved it after violating MANY MANY of the above….I stand by my review. Waitstaff should know better, particularly in a fancy place.

As a consumer, I appreciate this list. I also hope that the restaurant owner and manager offer their employees the same level of treatment–measured in respect, salary, and benefits–that they expect from them.

Here’s some tips from the Brotherhood of Servers & Busers to a restaurant wage:

1) Offer your serving staff health insurance;

2) Offer your serving staff paid vacation, sick leave, and personal days;

3) Pay overtime out-of-pocket and do not expect tips to properly compensate for long hours — servers often work “doubles” over 10+ hours in a day. They should be compensated accordingly at a minimum of $15 per hour for hours logged over 8 in a day;

If you abide by these 3 basic, just and fair tenets — you can fully expect an exceptional level of professionalism from your servers. If you’re greed gets the best of you, be happy with whatever you get & keep your 100 tips in good use by reciting them to yourself each night as you struggle to fall asleep.

— Retired Waiter

I agree with all of them except #7. Nothing turns a server’s head faster than “Justin.” if their name is Justin. Knowing that allows a guest to get their server’s attention without flailing about. It also allows me to tell management about a fine or not so fine job.

I was looking for my pet peeve, the server who auctions off the food at the table because it is apparently too complicated to remember who ordered what. I found it, # 18.
Hard to imagine 51 - 100. This list seems to cover it all.
What is the name of the seafood restaurant the writer is opening? I WILL be a customer!

On point #14, my family and I went out to dinner and at one point I quietly remarked that some times it seems as if waiters automatically ask “is everything okay?” without really caring about the answer. As if on cue, a waiter came by and asked the question. My father-in-law, who was having a bad time with some overcooked, tough steak, answered “no” and explained the problem, to which the waiter answered “good, good” and walked away.

Regarding #18: My favorite is when the server comes to the table and says, “Are you the trout?”

I used to be a waitress myself. How hard is it to remember what people ordered? That’s the waiter’s job. And don’t hand me the plate for goodness sake. Put it down in front of me.

A pet peeve of mine is any restaurant personnel who says “Oh I’m sorry, so and so was supposed to do that” I don’t care. Apologize for the problem, and fix it. Don’t tell me who you blame. You can argue about who does what after I leave. And you will get a bigger tip for fixing the problem than trying to make it look like you don’t make mistakes.

When waitstaff ask too many times, “Is everything all right?”, I eventually reply, “Just what’s bad that I should I be looking for?”

[Comment total: 1,158]
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RELATED
Liz, Best Waitress Ever

How to Be a Better Restaurant Customer (blog)
Restaurant customers do some rude, insensitive, and downright stupid things! Not only do these behavioural issues frustrate servers, they interfere with the quality of service that you, the customer receive. STOP SABOTAGING YOUR OWN DINING EXPERIENCE!

Men Hunt in Packs But the Waitress is NOT the Prey
For a female server getting hit on regularly is part of the job. Especially when waiting on a large group of guys. They tend to egg each other on. I get all of the classics. "Did you get a traffic ticket today? Cuz you got FINE written all over you!" or "Is your mother a terrorist? Because you are the bomb!" I'm multi-racial, and some guys tell me I look like Mariah Carey and I've had a few think it was cute to say "oh, we didn't know Alicia Keys would be waiting on us today!".

That's just great, but I'm married to a gorgeous guy and even if I wasn't, I'm at work to get money, not compliments or dates. I endure stupid pick-up lines politely because I assume extravagant talk will be accompanied by extravagant tips. Sometimes there are astronomic sums involved, such as $100 on a $200 tab, $50 on a $40 tab, or a guy that told me I could name my tip, whatever I wanted. Other times you'll get four guys, bill well over $100, all think they're the Don Juan of the new millenium, and they each leave you a buck. What?!? And y'all told me I was the most beautiful waitress you'd ever seen! What do you leave the ugly waitress, 40 cents?

To all the men out there, for future reference, you're not doing the waitress a favor by hitting on her, nor are you making her day. You're probably getting on her last nerves! You want to show the buxom waitress your appreciation for her awesome assets? Show her the money!!
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RELATED
A Dozen Food Trends We're Tired of
High-end burgers, high-end pizza, high-end Bánh Mì — can't we just put a thousand-year ban on this crap already?
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RELATED
How Men Eat
A personal catalog of likes, dislikes, habits, and rules. By men.
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"I'm obsessed with burgers."

Pics by CC

For Halloween, CC's lawyer goes all out at his place in Forest Hill. He says over 1200 kids stopped by last year...
Welcome

Bloody patient

Grave digger

Brains for dinner

Guillotine

Batman and The Joker

Justice of the Peace

Monster

Alien
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NEW POST
Herbert von Karajan
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LINKS
The Apology Project
The Apology Project (vid)

The Apology Project
As I sit down to write my apology I find myself overwhelmed with guilt, shame, and uncertainty. I must admit that when I was first incarcerated I felt more sorry because I was caught than I was about what I had done. I truly did not connect with the pain that I had caused my victims.

The Apology Project, a 1980 conceptual art project, was created by Allan Bridge who employed the pseudonym Mr. Apology. Bridge used an answering machine to record confessions from anonymous callers. More than 1000 hours of confession were recorded, ranging from common confessions to ritualistic murders.

Some of the confessions were published in Bridge's magazine Apology.

This American Life: Apology (broadcast)
It's rare that a successful apology happens.

Group Hug is a website that publishes anonymous confessions. Readers of the site are encouraged to "confess" using a simple form. All confessions go through a lengthy public screening process before appearing on the main page. The site was launched in October 2003 by Gabriel Jeffrey...

Boo!

[Ebay.com]
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NEW POSTS
ROPE
Black & White
Scare Tactics
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LINK
Holt Renfrew - Fall line

Steven & Chris

Chris Hyndman & Steven Sabados, hosts of Steven & Chris on CBC

The Steven and Chris Show: Two Gay Hosts Take Canadian TV by Storm
Move over Martha: former Designer Guys Steven Sabados and Chris Hyndman will be taking up residence on Canada's national station, CBC, with a fresh new daytime talk show. Think Queer Eye meets Oprah.

Toted as a "lifestyles" show, Steven and Chris will tackle pertinent issues of the day such as entertaining, cooking, fashion, health, and their specialty, home decor. The bickering boys will also interview a slew of celebrity guests, who no doubt will have to fight to get a word in edgewise amidst the hosts' constant (and entertaining) cattiness.

This will be the fourth show that the Canadian twosome have hosted together. They are more widely known for their design program, Designer Guys, which aired for 3 seasons and has been seen in the US and over 17 countries worldwide. The premise of that show had the two guys coming into someone's space and helping them revamp the decor, complete with snarly comments usually directed at one another. A spin-off show, Design Rivals, had the two competing to win a client by offering up two different re-decorating scenarios. Whomever the client chooses to go with is the design that they must carry out. So Chic With Steven & Chris saw them moving away from their design roots and instead, overhauling innocent women and showing them how to be chic on a shoe-string budget.

Previously relegated to specialty channels like Home and Garden Television, Steven and Chris have finally made it onto a mainstream network with the CBC. This marks the first daytime talk show ever to be hosted by not one, but two, openly gay men. Kudos to CBC for putting it on the air! And with personalities as big as Steven and Chris', there is no doubt that this will be a program worth tuning into. Steven and Chris premieres January 14th, 2008 on CBC.

"Designer Guys" Come Out as Lovers
[BGay.com / 01-10-08]

TORONTO, CANADA -- Canada's former Designer Guys hosts Steven Sabados and Chris Hyndman have officially come out as lovers, and have just taped the first episode of their new daytime lifestyle show, Steven and Chris.

The long-time gay couple was busy Wednesday with taping the very first episode of their new show, which debuts Monday afternoon at 2 p.m. ET on Canadas CBC TV station.

Together for years, Sabados is the more serious half of the couple who keeps his emotions in check, while Hyndman is the joker, cracking wise and cracking up routinely, The Canadian Press reports.

"I am a control freak," Sabados admits backstage after the lifestyles coach told him as much on-air.

"That's exactly what he is," Hyndman agrees.

"I now take that as a positive," Sabados says.

"Well, you have to love yourself, don't you? It's important to love yourself no matter what. I'm a freak and you're a control freak so that's the way it works."

Despite their different personalities, the couple say they rarely get on one another's nerves even after long and hectic days at work.

"It's like we don't know anything different," Hyndman says.

They fight sometimes, Sabados says, but it's nothing out of the ordinary.

"Of course we do, everyone does, but what's nice about it is that I can say: 'I had a really exhausting day, I'm fried and I'm wired.' And he had the same day. Neither one of us is going to want to go out and party."

The pair is delighted the CBC is taking a chance on them with the new show, and pleased they've got a lot of input into what "Steven and Chris" will explore every day.

"They're producing a show around what we love, what we do, what our hobbies are, what our passions are, what we're interested in, so they've taken everything that we do and made it into a show," says Hyndman. "We're not really just hosts - this show represents who we are."

CBC-TV Ends Production on Fashion File, Steven & Chris
Citing economic concerns, CBC-TV announced Tuesday it is ending production on two lifestyle shows: daytime chat-fest Steven & Chris and long-running runway chronicle Fashion File.

"Like every other media organization right now, we're facing big challenges as a result of a significant drop in advertising revenues," Kirstine Layfield, CBC-TV's executive director of network programming, said in a statement.

"We're not able at present to make the kind of expenditures we ordinarily would."

Steven & Chris will conclude production April 15, while Fashion File will wrap up March 31. According to CBC spokesman Jeff Keay, the decision affects 34 jobs: six permanent and 28 contract positions.

After production ends on the two programs, the shows will continue in their respective time slots in reruns, until the announcement of a new afternoon schedule "in several weeks," Keay said. [...]

COMMENTS
[CBC.ca]
I can't believe that the show is going off the air. It is one of the few CBC television shows I truly enjoy. Big mistake as far as I'm concerned. You could go a different route with the show to suit the economic times. We've got great Canadian talent here, and CBC could really be tapping into something big. If not I'm sure they will be picked up by another television studio. Hope you change your mind!

This is the worst day ever for Canadian Television. I absolutely love Steven and Chris, as well as Fashion File. This is terrible. Whatever they are replaced with will never be as good.

It's a sad day when a show as good as Steven and Chris gets a hiatus. It is a great, uplifting show......but I bet the networks will still want to keep showing all of us the bad news in the world, and that won't be cut! We need to keep these good shows going! If I win a lottery I am gonna try and help them out!

London, England__[Twitter.com / 10-15-09]

Steven & Chris - blog
YOUR BOYS ARE BACK!
[10-08-09]

Life has just become little more fabulous! Steven and Chris are coming back with new episodes starting January 4, 2010 at 2 PM everyday on CBC!

During the summer, Steven and Chris travelled across the country and abroad, researching the latest trends in lifestyle, decor, food, fashion and more. They have returned rested, fresh, and excited to share their experiences with all of you!

The boys will kick off their return in December with a prime-time Holiday Special, and will follow in January with new daily shows. They'll be expanding 'Ask Steven and Chris', where you can get the boys' expert advice on your pressing decor questions, and will continue to host experts and celebrities to bring you the latest trends in entertaining, exercising, beauty, relationships and more.

We hope you're as excited as we are, and that you'll join us again in the New Year for more fun, laughter and fabulousness!

Steven and Chris - design collection & bios
Steven believes the most important design element of any decor is the person who will be living in it. [...]

Even at a young age, Chris Hyndman understood that color was often the lifeblood of a room, bringing a vital energy to everyone who entered. [...]


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LINK
Adam Lambert's Album Cover is Bad
COMMENT
Uh, Dana, I think the people on this website know more about "challenging the views of gender roles" than a straight female. Do you know where you are here, sweetie? LMAO

(soto voce: don't do it…don't do it. Oh, f*ck, what the hell!)

And Dana, some of us here are Adam fans, but we're still trying to get over the way he prostituted himself so ludicrously last week for his "straight female" fans. I for one did not like seeing him make such fool out of himself. The album cover's kinda cool, kinda tacky, and really majorly ADAM! But why don't you ladies stay out of here and let us heal. LMAO!!!!!!
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NEW POST
Autumn

Bits and Pieces

Face Your Pockets

From Cityfile: New York
Jolie Palm dessert

DAILYFILE
[10-26-09]
If you love Top Chef and Top Chef Masters, you'll be pleased to hear that a third iteration, Top Chef: Just Desserts, will debut on Bravo next year. [via]

Mikhail Prokhorov

Nello Balan Strikes Again
[10-23-09]
The Post reports that Mikhail Prokhorov, the Russian billionaire close to sealing a deal to buy the Nets, stopped off at Nello's on Wednesday and dropped $19,000 on lunch. What did he spend all that cash on? Miraculously, a crack reporter at the paper managed to obtain the bill:

$825 for three orders of truffle tagliolini
$600 for four orders of truffle carpaccio
$210 for three orders of veal chops with mushrooms
$72 for six large waters
$15 for a bowl of chicken soup
$5,000 for a bottle of vintage 1998 Chateau Petrus
$3,600 for two bottles of 2002 Montrachet Latour
$3,750 in tips

Of course, Nello Balan, the restaurant's bleached-blond owner and one of the city's most relentless publicity seekers, had absolutely nothing to do with revealing any of these details: [...]

Nello Balan: Call Your Lawyer
Nello Balan is the owner of Nello, the exceedingly mediocre Italian restaurant on the Upper East Side. He's also one of the city's most shameless—and most notorious—publicity hounds. Balan's latest attempt at drumming up attention, however, now appears to be exploding in his face. Last week, a receipt "surfaced" indicating that Russian oligarch Roman Abramovich had spent $52,000 on lunch. (The bill was for $47,000, but TMZ, which first reported the story, said the billionaire had tacked on a $5,000 tip.) But a spokesman for Abramovich tells us the bill wasn't his and the mogul may pursue legal action against Balan for suggesting otherwise. [...]

COMMENT
Why compliment Nello's by saying the food is mediocre when we all know you can get better tasting pasta at a church social in rural Appalachia. The owner of Nello's obviously needs mental counseling and seems to be a compulsive liar. What's really more telling is the stupid people who eat there. It speaks volumes about them. When will Madison Avenue be rid of such a greasy shit hole run by an equally slimy creep?

RELATED
Nello
You might think that a restaurant where $26 buys you four slices of roasted beets and a dollop of baked goat cheese would be a gastronomic paradise, whose heavenly dishes demand sky-high prices. But if you thought that about Nello, a perennial redoubt of the Upper East Side's rich and occasionally famous, you would be wrong. While the food is excellent—not only those beets, perched delicately between sweet and savory, but also pastas like a penne rigate with brightly anise-flavored sausage—eating is not a particularly important activity. What counts at Nello is being seen at Nello: seen in your Chanel, your St. John's knits, your tailored Italian suit; seen canoodling on the banquette with your co-star; seen escorting your grandson to a lunch he'll ignore in favor of watching Spy Kids on his personal DVD player. Not that there's anything wrong with any of this. The culture of celebrity (and of money) is the culture of Manhattan, and if dropping upwards of $100 per person lets you experience for a few hours the life you desire, then a night at Nello can't be, well, beet. — Matt Gross

Cafe Bruxelles fries

DAILYFILE
[10-22-09]
Star chef Alain Ducasse weighs in on New York's best french fries. [via]

DAILYFILE
[10-26-09]
Jennifer Aniston is reportedly close to signing a deal to host a weekly talk show on OWN, Oprah's long-delayed cable network. Go figure. [via]

DAILYFILE
[10-26-09]
Bad news for CNN: The network now occupies fourth (and last) place in the cable news ratings. Not only did it fall behind Fox News and MSNBC in October, it also dropped below its sister network HLN as well. [via]
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NOTEWORTHY
Georgina Chapman
WHO
The arm candy of film producer Harvey Weinstein, ex-model Georgina Chapman is also one-half of eveningwear label Marchesa and a small-time movie actress.

OF NOTE
Because the notoriously pushy Weinstein is her husband and backer, Chapman's quick rise to the top has been controversial, to say the least. The movie mogul has pressured the actresses in his movies to wear Marchesa on the red carpet, it's claimed—a charge he's denied. (Although a number of women in Harvey's extended circle, including Cate Blanchett, Renee Zellweger, Sienna Miller, Anne Hathaway, and Jennifer Lopez, have all walked the red carpet in Marchesa gowns.) It also emerged that Weinstein had attended a meeting with Anna Wintour and promised to help Vogue land covers with his actresses if she provided the fledgling label with exposure in the mag.

Jared Kushner
WHO
The son of real estate developer Charles Kushner, Jared is also the proud owner of the Upper East Side's favorite weekly, the New York Observer.

TRUE STORY
Jared's application to Harvard is discussed in detail in Dan Golden's 2006 book, The Price of Admission, which explores the system by which the extremely wealthy donate millions to universities to secure admission for their kids. Cited as one of the most egregious cases of pay-for-play, Golden revealed that Charles pledged $2.5 million to Harvard to gain admission for Jared, despite the fact his academic record hardly warranted it. "There was no way anybody thought he would on the merits get into Harvard. His GPA did not warrant it, his SAT scores did not warrant it. We thought, for sure, there was no way this was going to happen," Jared's high school English teacher told the author.

Shepard Smith
WHO
Fox News Channel host Shepard Smith is famous for his rapid-fire delivery, weird eyebrows, and ambiguous sexuality.

ON THE JOB
Smith consistently performs well in the ratings game—The Fox Report is the top-rated newscast in its slot cable—but he also has a reputation for being blunder-prone. He notoriously jumped the gun on announcing the death of Pope John Paul II, making the proclamation a day before the holy man actually passed away. In another slip-up—one that later became a YouTube sensation—Smith said that Bronx residents were more likely to give J. Lo "a curb job than a blowjob." (He meant to say "block party.")

CRIME FILE
During the 2000 Bush-Gore debates, Smith was arrested in Florida and charged with aggravated battery with a motor vehicle, after brawling with a fellow reporter over a parking space. The charges were later dropped.

PERSONAL
Smith has repeatedly dodged the question of his sexuality, but in 2005 he was outed in a column in the Washington Blade. Kevin Naff, the managing editor of the gay weekly, said that Smith "chatted me up in a New York City gay piano bar, bought me drinks, and invited me back to his place." He lives in a two-bedroom West Village loft that he purchased for $1.87 million in 2004. Fashion designer (and fellow gay) Michael Kors lives in the same building.

Padma Lakshmi
WHO
An ex-model and the ex-wife of novelist Salman Rushdie, Lakshmi is an author, the host of Bravo's Top Chef, and an aspiring brand name.

PERSONAL
Lakshmi met author Salman Rushdie at the 1999 Liberty Island launch party of Tina Brown's Talk. She introduced herself to Rushdie, and he stunned her by proceeding to rattle off a list of facts he already knew about her. (As it turned out, he'd been infatuated with her since he'd read a magazine profile of her years before.) Padma became the fourth Mrs. Rushdie in April 2004, when Rushdie was 56 and she was just 32. Three years later, after months of rumors that their marriage was on the rocks, the couple announced they were divorcing. She's since been linked to a series of older billionaires, including Ted Forstmann—the buyout mogul who also happens to own IMG, the agency that represents her—and Adam Dell, the venture capitalist and brother of Dell founder Michael Dell.

Stephen Colbert
WHO
Adored by smug blue-state yuppies everywhere, Stephen Colbert is the host of the second most popular fake news show on Comedy Central.

BACKSTORY
Colbert could hardly avoid a comedy career, given the laugh riot that was his childhood: He grew up in South Carolina, the youngest of eleven children in a strict Irish Catholic family, and lost his father and two brothers in a plane crash at age ten. [...]

IN PERSON
Speak loudly into his left ear, he's deaf in his right one. He's also a religious Catholic, notwithstanding the fact that his audience consists mainly of godless heathens. He claims to keep Lent, attend church regularly and teach Sunday school.
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Vending Machine Sells Ideas

SPRINGWISE
Helping readers take blogs offline, Zinepal lets any user convert their favourite online content into ebooks and printable, magazine-style PDFs. [via]

Mix-ins have been a staple in many ice cream shops for years already, allowing customers near infinite possibilities in designing their own creamy confection. Now bringing comparable potential to the world of cookies is Toronto's Sweet Flour Bake Shop, which lets patrons design their own baked treats and eat them fresh from the oven just two minutes later. [via]

Premium ice-cream is a highly sophisticated food category that doesn't shy away from unusual flavours. But none of these stray quite as far from plain vanilla as an x-rated gelato by The Icecreamists that's touted to have the same charge as a dose of Viagra. [via]

It used to be that hiring sites focused primarily on objective information about the jobs they listed. Then the transparency movement set in, and sites like CareerTours, MedRecruit, Glassdoor and KODA increasingly began including more subjective considerations. Now continuing in that vein comes GetaGreatBoss, a South African site that aims to help workers find great bosses. [via]

Whether it's a consumer product or a piece of music, there's much to be said for allowing fans to have a say in how it's designed and marketed. Just as Dutch media entrepreneur John de Mol turned to the crowds last year for help creating the next reality-show hit, so brand-new site Genero.tv is relying on music fans to create the next winning videos for a variety of participating bands. [via]

Long gone are the days of boring mugs and faded postcards, as museums and other cultural institutions have become increasingly savvy retailers. Aiming to build on that strength, CultureLabel showcases products from over 60 galleries, museums and other cultural entities, 'exploring the space where culture and consumer culture meets'. [via]

Street Sign Table

Real-time price search has arrived, and with it some unexpected bonus features for consumers. German site Apnoti claims to have the first search engine to index prices for the German, American and French markets in real time. Currently in beta launch, the engine crawls over 65 million items in more than 10,000 affiliated stores for each and every search request, presenting users with a comparison of products' price trends over the past four weeks and current prices, accurate (in theory) to the past few seconds. Apnoti differentiates itself from other price comparison services which usually rely on daily updates by their operators, claiming that these services cannot cope with the price fluctuations that often occur throughout the day. [via]

A new crowdsourced initiative invites fans to remake Star Wars. People can sign up on Star Wars: Uncut to recreate up to three of the 1,313 fifteen-second clips that make up the epic space film. They then have 30 days to film and upload their segment before the slot is offered to someone else. The 337 contributions submitted so far range from live action and animation to stop motion and cardboard shadow-puppetry. Submissions can be viewed on Star Wars: Uncut, side-by-side with the original. Eventually, the site's administrator—Casey Pugh, a Vimeo staff member—will stitch all of the pieces together, letting the project reach its ultimate goal of recreating the entire movie. [via]



The internet may have given music fans unprecedented access to the world's music, but finding it in any kind of organized way can be a challenge. Now providing a location-based approach comes CitySounds.fm, a music browser that streams the latest music of the world, city by city. [via]

Just a few weeks ago we wrote about My Fashion Plate, a wardrobe management community for clothes hounds. While a variety of features are available on that site—including even personal shopping services—Looklet is a new contender that focuses exclusively on the design end with a virtual studio through which users can mix and match real designer clothes. [via]

Air quality is a matter of urgent concern to residents of most large cities, and Paris is no exception. There are currently only 10 public sensors monitoring that important variable in the City of Lights, however, so a new initiative now aims to equip everyday citizens with a special device that can measure and report air-quality data regularly for collective use.
The Green Watch, or La Montre Verte, is a specially equipped device worn on the wrist that includes not just a time piece but also a GPS chip, a Bluetooth chip, and ozone and noise sensors. At scheduled times—or on request of the wearer—the watch measures and saves air-quality and noise data, describing them in qualitative terms such as "good" or "bad." [via]

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