The Polo Bar Date Night

and UTOPIA, RHONY & Upper East Side Shopping

Clockwise from Top.

After a (very) long hiatus - due a mix of travel, COVID and just life - we are re-starting this in time for the last few weeks of summer! :)

Country Club Dinner

It took a few years, but we finally had dinner at The Polo Bar, which was quite the experience. We hired a babysitter, drove into the city, found cheap street parking, and had a lovely Friday night. We talk about it in more detail here on our podcast.

For a noted celebrity hang out

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, we did not see any VIPs. The food was quite good, and best of all it was different than most of the other restaurants we have been to lately. A quiet and relaxed country club atmosphere, with a huge wait staff that provided great service.

Raquel loved the 5-star lighting, and the ketchup buckets (like a horse feed bucket, but for ketchup) that accompanied the hand-cut fries.

And, just painting after painting of horses. Horses everywhere. I asked how many there were, and no one seemed to know.

They also have locations in Paris, Milan, Chicago and Chengdu.

UTOPIA

Travis Scott, serial fashion collaborator and partner to Kylie Jenner, just released his new album UTOPIA. You know it’s meant to be a serious work of art because it’s CAPITALIZED as is each song name.

His previous album, ASTROWORLD, was a huge hit when it came out in 2018. Five years later, UTOPIA will also be a hit, though after listening to it a few times this week, it seems just okay? The critics seem to be in agreement:

The bar for him as a rapper is already low; he’s here for the vibes, not the skill, and that’s fine. But what happens when the vibes are off? UTOPIA is a more expensive model of his previous albums, but it doesn’t sound like he’s leveled up because his life is so different now that when he tries to act like it’s not, he comes off as fake as hell.

Despite the so-so effort, I have no doubt it will be a huge commercial success. Certain things in life are can’t miss, and this is one of them.

Give it a listen here or here.

RHONY

We have been completely absent from the giant reality TV behemoth that is Bravo, but we did just start watching one of their big shows.

Jenna Lyons, Raquel’s former boss at J.Crew, is part of the revamped crew for season 14 of The Real Housewives of New York along with five other women. We didn’t know who the other ladies were, but did enjoy seeing them fight over a bad restaurant reservation that the producers kept bleeping out (and which seems to be Catch).

It’s still early in the season, but we’re going to be watching Jenna’s debut season! 🫡

Comp Shopping

I tagged onto Raquel’s Upper East Side comp shopping trip last week, which started bright and early at Ralph’s Coffee for some buttery croissants and people watching.

We had a little bit of time to kill before meeting her team, so we popped into the the Chrome Hearts

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location on Madison for a few minutes to check out the jewelry. Then quickly onto Prada to look at the bag Raquel continues to want to buy.

The first official stop was at the new Loro Piana flagship, which was absolutely enormous. Bonus points to the team here for offering us sparking water immediately. The store was quite beautiful, and had a huge kids assortment laid out on the main floor. We did see a very harried CEO rushing out, presumably after dropping some serious $$$’s there.

My last stop was at the new Hermès boutique on Madison. They recently moved across the street to a bigger and better location, with equestrian gear on the first floor and sweeping white staircases that funnel customers up to their top floor cafe and Birkin room. They are so family (and client!) friendly that there were children running around in their bare feet while the parents shopped.

<3

Chris & Raquel

PS Links back next week!

1. Research indicates that the following dine there regularly: Taylor Swift, Gwyneth Paltrow, Tom Hanks, Bradley Cooper, Martha Stewart, the list goes on…

2. The resale value of the stuff if out of control!