We are planning a trip to Montreal in November, we think one of the best times of year to visit one of North America’s best cities. We thought we would share some of our favorite spots in Montreal this week, quite hard to narrow down in fact because there are so many! We should start by saying that we eat very well in Montreal. Our go-to restaurants include Olive + Gourmando for lunch and L’Express for dinner, always. This next trip will also include Au Pied de Cochon, a place we have been meaning to go to for years. At the very top of our list is Joe Beef, hands down one of the restaurants we most enjoy, anywhere. It’s not just the food, which is consistently amazing and enlightened and changing daily, but the total experience. The first word that comes to mind is authentic. The vibe is relaxed, friendly, unpretentious, and thoroughly cool. One immediately gets the sense that every person in the building loves being there, staff and guests alike. Joe Beef and its neighbor, Liverpool House, are owned by great friends and Montreal restaurant veterans David McMillan and Frédéric Morin. It feels like a very personal extension of themselves and it is such a pleasure, if only for a meal, to be a part of their fun and happy world. Take a look at their fantastic cookbook and love letter to Montreal, The Art of Living According to Joe Beef. We guarantee, after reading it you will be booking your own trip to their great city. The Art of Living According to Joe Beef (Ten Speed Press, 2011) www.joebeef.ca
René Magritte, The Lovers, 1928 Gift of Richard S. Zeisler, The Museum of Modern Art
copyright 2013 C. Herscovici, Brussels/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York
A few weeks ago we went to see Magritte: The Mystery of the Ordinary, 1926-1938 at the Museum of Modern Art.René Magritte is certainly among my favorite surrealist painters and it was rather tremendous to be among so much of his work, over 80 pieces in total. The exhibition, by virtue of itself, very much reinforced how intellectual Magritte’s work really is, as well as quite obviously the artist himself. And as an aside, I must admit, I was completely taken with Magritte’s rather perfect handwriting (so beautiful that I’m still thinking about it), as evidenced in his numerous word paintings and ancillary documents contained within this fantastic show. Magritte: the Mystery of the Ordinary is on view through January 12, 2014 — I’ll most definitely be making a return trip. www.moma.org
We LOVE all things Wes Anderson and were over the moon when the trailer for his newest film, The Grand Budapest Hotel, was released last week. With a stellar, pure Andersonian cast (Jason Schwartzman, Bill Murray, Owen Wilson, et al) that also includes some fantastic new faces in his oeuvre (Saoirse Ronan, Léa Seydoux, Mathieu Amalric), we think it could be his best film yet. Set to come out on March 7, 2014, we quite seriously wait with bated breath. https://www.grandbudapesthotel.com/
She has arrived! Clare Vivier just last week opened her first east coast shop on Elizabeth Street in NoLIta. Recently rebranded Clare V., Vivier’s range of irresistible leather bags are a brilliant fusion of classic French style with a very distinct southern California vibe. You might remember we wrote about Clare Vivier here last December, never dreaming she would one day be but a subway ride away… Clare V., 239 Elizabeth Street, NYC www.clarev.com
One of our most recent brides wore this butterfly printed taffeta gown in white by Zac Posen. It was breathtaking, we literally gasped at the first look. She descended the massive sweeping staircase inside the New York Public Library, in the evening, amidst lovely projections of butterflies — fantasy indeed of the highest order. Serendipitously, I am right in the middle of reading Studio Saint-Ex, by Ania Szado. It is a brand new novel about Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, his exile in New York City in the early 1940s and the writing of The Little Prince. It is also very much about the fashion world during the war years. A certain collection of butterfly gowns is a central element at the start of Studio Saint-Ex, a character in itself, just as Zac Posen’s gorgeous butterfly gown was a most fabulous guest at the wedding.
Studio Saint-Ex by Ania Szado(Alfred A. Knopf, 2013)
When we first wrote here in anticipation of Angelin Preljocaj’s new work for New York City Ballet, we never could have predicted what it would be. Now that we have seen Spectral Evidence, we can tell you it was magnificent. The choreography, set to vocal music by John Cage, was primal and powerful and quite unfamiliar for that stage. The costumes by Olivier Theyskens were a perfect compliment to the movement and to Preljocaj’s starting point for the creation of this ballet, the Salem witch trials. Spectral Evidence is by far one of the most exciting, impactful and important contemporary pieces I have seen NYCB perform, included on this list are Red Angels and DGV: Danse à Grande Vitesse. The great news is it will be performed again this winter!
Edmund de Waal, Atemwende, 2013, copyright Edmund de Waal Photograph by Mike Bruce
For the past month, Gagosian Gallery has presented Atemwende, the first exhibition in this country of the work of notable British ceramicist Edmund de Waal. This is most certainly a show worth seeing. The vessels themselves are completely modern and seemingly free of historical and stylistic reference. However, the complete works and installation, in vitrines as collections, are perhaps a nod to the past, his own family history. Edmund de Waal is, afterall, the author of The Hare with Amber Eyes, one of my favorite books of the last few years. It is the remarkable, beautifully told story of de Waal’s Jewish family and the collection of Japanese netsuke (miniature carved sculpture) that has passed down through five generations beginning in 1870s Paris, residing presently with the artist himself in London. Atemwende runs through October 19 at Gagosian Gallery, 980 Madison Avenue, NYC. www.gagosian.com
