Restaurant Postcards Are the New Matchbooks

Eateries aim to make receiving the bill more palatable. Plus, a dispatch from Canyon Coffee’s new Brooklyn outpost.

The Art of the Lobby Book Display

From Sunset Tower Hotel and Chateau Marmont to Sardi’s, hospitality beacons are embracing literature. Plus, where Broadway will eat when Sardi’s goes dark

Jay McInerney Talks Mortality

The legendary author discusses his first novel in a decade. Plus, behind the scenes of the iconic Bright Lights, Big City cover

The Next Cecchi’s

In an interview, maître-d’-turned-restaurateur Michael Cecchi-Azzolina reveals plans for his new brasserie. Plus, bidding farewell to Donohue’s

Selling Stahl

Checking in on the iconic Case Study house as it awaits a buyer. Plus, a dispatch from a New York Review of Architecture party.

This Brand Turns LA Lore into Streetwear

Paly Hollywood’s Kyle Lindgren checks in from Paris Fashion Week. Plus, filmmakers found a missing soccer pro at a closed-down West Hollywood motel

The Young Creators Keeping Old Hollywood Alive

Jeri Mae James and Merch Motel discuss their kitschy collab. Plus, highlights from the Academy Museum’s Marilyn Monroe exhibition

Furniture of Frieze

Exploring the decor that galleries bring to New York Art Week’s busiest fair. Plus, Dakota Butler’s standouts from TEFAF, and Zephyr’s picks from NADA and Tribeca Gallery Night

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Story /// One Saturday night earlier this month, Craig Wedren took the stage in front of thousands of people outside the Autry Museum of the American West in Los Angeles. Filmmaker David Wain was on drums, and actors including Elizabeth Banks, Joe Lo Truglio, and Marguerite Moreau were on backing vocals. Wedren sang “Higher and Higher,” which he wrote with Theodore Shapiro for Wain’s 2001 film Wet Hot American Summer. Lyrics appeared on a massive screen behind Wedren, but it’s unlikely the audience members, some of whom were dressed as characters from the cult classic, needed them. A 25th anniversary screening of the film followed.

“It was like 2,500 people, which could never have happened before now,” Wedren said over a matcha latte and an omelette last week at Clark Street Diner at the base of the Hollywood Hills. “If you’d done it five years ago, you wouldn’t have gotten that many people. If you’d done it 10 years ago, it would have been even fewer…. It doesn’t seem to follow normal rules of popularity.”

Wedren is having a busy couple of weeks. He, Wain, and the Middle Aged Dad Jam Band took the Wet Hot songs on the road. The tour stopped at the opera house in Waterville, Maine, near their former sleepaway camp that helped inspire Wet Hot. He also composed the music for Wain’s Gail Daughtry and the Celebrity Sex Pass, which came out last month. And he’s been busy composing for the TV show Yellowjackets.

Then there’s Shudder to Think. Wedren’s band is releasing its first new studio music in almost 30 years. They’re playing the Bowery Ballroom in New York City on Sept. 12 and the Masonic Lodge at Hollywood Forever in LA on Sept. 20. To be returning to multiple projects from decades ago is “a little Hot Tub Time Machine,” he said.

In the middle of all this, Wedren, 57, is dropping off his son for freshman year at New York University. Wedren sees this as part of the full-circle moment he’s having. Not only did Wedren attend NYU, where he roomed with Wain, but also his son will be rooming with Wain’s son.

Wedren and Wain met at age 4 at Park Synagogue day camp in Cleveland. As they got older, they attended sleepaway camp together and remained friends even as Wain spent his time filming sketches in his basement and Wedren started fronting a band. On their first day at NYU, they met Ken Marino, who would become a regular in Wain’s films. Later in college, when Wain began performing in the comedy troupe that became the State, Wedren composed its music.

After NYU, in the mid-1980s, Wedren moved to Washington, D.C., where a post-hardcore music scene was burgeoning. He joined the band that became Shudder to Think. They released several albums before hitting pause in the late 1990s. “There was still a lot of love,” Wedren said. “But it was very dark and bitter in that classic bands-breaking-up-in-their-20s kind of way, because of ego and competition and ambition and failing to break through commercially.”

Then came Wet Hot. Directed by Wain and written by Wain and Michael Showalter, the film follows counselors and other staff members through absurd antics on the last day of Camp Firewood in 1981. The cast includes Showalter, Marino, Banks, Lo Truglio, Moreau, Michael Ian Black, Paul Rudd, Amy Poehler, Christopher Meloni, Janeane Garofalo, David Hyde Pierce, Molly Shannon, and an early-career Bradley Cooper.

Wedren and Shapiro composed the music. (Shapiro is now best known for writing the Severance theme.) A standout from the soundtrack is “Higher and Higher,” an upbeat, ‘80s-sounding rock song. The songwriters knew it was a hit when they wrote it. “We were like, this is the song that’s going to be on our gravestones,” Wedren recalled. Then the movie flopped, critically and financially. “We were like, man, nobody’s going to know about ‘Higher and Higher,’ arguably the best piece of work that either of us will ever do,” he said.

But over the years Wet Hot developed a cult following. Netflix took notice and rebooted it in 2015 for a television show. The show took place on the first day of the same summer, meaning the actors had aged a decade and a half but were playing even younger teenagers than they had in the film. This time, Wedren wrote a variety of music, both diegetic (performed on screen) and non-diegetic (soundtrack music not performed on screen). He drew inspiration from the Pretenders, Pat Benatar, and the Cars.

He also returned to “Higher and Higher,” adding more lyrics. The last-day-of-camp characters from the film get first-day-of-camp origin stories in the show, and “Higher and Higher” features into characters’ storylines. Wain gives viewers an understanding of how, by the last day of camp, the song had become the soundtrack to the summer.

This echoed Wedren and Wain’s real-life sleepaway camp experience. Wedren recalled how a 15-year-old Wain improvised a song at their camp’s Shabbat dinner about George Washington that caught on. “I think it’s still part of the Shabbat dinner singalong canon at our summer camp,” Wedren said.

Most recently, Wedren and Wain collaborated on Gail Daughtry, about a woman pursuing her celebrity crush, Jon Hamm. “Craig has always exhibited a warmth, a sense of adventure, a tireless creativity, a sophisticated sense of humor, and a willingness to question norms, both in his entire body of work and as a human being,” Wain told Zephyr by email. “Having a lifelong friendship parallel to a lifelong collaboration is such a gift. There’s nothing like having a shorthand that goes back decades with someone you trust and who inspires you.”

As for Shudder to Think, the band decided it was time for new music, which they recorded in Wedren’s backyard studio in Hollywood. “We’re still figuring out, how does this work with a bunch of adults who have other careers, families, and wonderful lives, full lives?” he said. This time around, “there’s a lot more joy and love,” he said. “The bad, dark, yucky things from our twenties just have mostly burned off.”

He’s especially excited about their show at Hollywood Forever, located near Clark Street Diner, where during the interview Wedren ran into and chatted with legendary former MTV VJ Matt Pinfield. The recent full-circle moments have Wedren feeling reflective. He said, “There are so many projects that we all have and have had throughout our lives that start as this little dumb obsession, turn into a viable, usually, cult-level thing, and then you want to continue doing it for the rest of your life.”

Bonus /// The best bookstore in LA might surprise you. Up a couple of stairs and in a corner of Amoeba Music on Hollywood Boulevard is a small but well-curated books section. There are new and used titles and a substantial graphic novels section. It’s got au courant novels like Yesteryear and Butter. But its best selections might be LA- or film-related, like Quentin Tarantino’s Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood novelization, Kenneth Anger’s Hollywood Babylon, and Michael Mann’s Heat 2, which is becoming a movie.

Amoeba’s book buyer David Gomez said the store always sold some books since opening in LA in 2001, and that it began having a standalone books section around 2010. “It just started growing from there,” he said. He doesn’t know what percentage of the store’s sales comes from books, but he said it seems to be more than it used to. According to Gomez, LA books sell particularly well, and U.S. political books do not. “I know what works for Los Angeles,” he said. “The city dictates what we buy.”

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Story /// Architect John Lautner’s Sheats-Goldstein Residence in Beverly Crest is one of the most recognizable midcentury modern homes in Los Angeles. It appeared in The Big Lebowski and countless photoshoots and design magazines. With a living room that opens up onto a sweeping view of the city, and a distinctive, angular roof, the house is so architecturally significant that it is becoming part of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art.

Just a couple of miles away in Westwood, another building Lautner designed for the same owners is an unofficial fraternity house. Steps from the University of California, Los Angeles, it sits on fraternity row, and students have rented rooms there for decades.

During a visit last month, balconies contained a beer pong table, a surfboard, and a Nu Alpha Kappa sign. There was a gaping hole in the driveway, covered haphazardly by planks of plywood. Photos in one apartment listing show a Red Bull-branded cocktail table and a Corona 12-pack. As of late July, a top-floor unit was available for $1,500 a month.

“It’s been allowed to really deteriorate badly,” said Eleanor Schrader, an architectural historian who is on the board of directors of the John Lautner Foundation and is an instructor at UCLA Extension. “I just wish there was more respect for it, but it’s a bunch of kids who are living on fraternity row, and they have no idea who John Lautner is.”

Fariba Ghaffari, who manages the property and whose family has owned it since around 1990, doesn’t dispute the condition of the building, known at various times as the Sheats Apartments, L’Horizon, or The Treehouse. “It is not in the best shape,” Ghaffari said. “Twice we’ve refurbished it…. I always say I wish I could pick up the building and move it somewhere else. Fraternity boys do not take care of the building.”

Lautner, a Frank Lloyd Wright protégé, designed the seven- or eight-unit building for Helen Sheats, an artist, and Paul Sheats, a UCLA professor. Construction finished in 1949. (The more famous Sheats-Goldstein Residence was completed in 1963.) In an article titled “New Apartment Structure is One of Most Unusual,” The Los Angeles Times described it in 1950 as “one of the most unusual and beautiful luxury apartments in the country.” The city of LA designated it a historic-cultural monument in 1988. Paul died in 1984 and Helen died in 1999.

From the street, the building appears to have two cylindrical forms with windows wrapping around, sitting on top of a flat base, with a carport underneath. It resembles the Guggenheim Museum in New York City, which Wright had designed a few years earlier but had not yet constructed. Additional units are further back into the hillside, and there is a central courtyard with trees and a small waterfall. The Los Angeles Conservancy describes the building as forming a “strangely harmonious, abstractly futuristic, and truly organic-feeling whole.”

“It’s just an unusual form,” said real estate broker Brian Linder of the Value of Architecture, who in December sold Lautner’s Salkin House to eyewear designer Jérome Mage, as Zephyr previously scooped. “It’s got these mushroom columns and every apartment is unique…. You see Lautner’s creativity.”

“I Need To Live Here”

The unusual look and innovative layout has long attracted tenants. Blythe Mayne, whose husband is Pritzker Prize-winning architect Thom Mayne, lived there as a UCLA freshman in 1973. “I walked by the building and I looked at it and it had this waterfall coming down and trees, and it was gorgeous,” she said. She recalled knocking on the manager’s door and saying, “I need to live here.” The manager was Tuck Taylor, the son of Helen Sheats. He told her a tenant was getting evicted and she could have the unit. “I thought I was going to fall on my face with happiness,” she said. “It couldn’t have been more beautiful.”

Her unit was circular, with a fireplace in the middle. Half of the circle consisted of a wedge-shaped kitchen, two wedge-shaped bedrooms, and a bathroom. The other half was the combined living room and dining room, with a balcony, and there were windows everywhere. “Immediately, I was like, this guy was a genius, whoever this guy was,” Mayne said about Lautner.

Apparently the deterioration had already started by the time Mayne arrived. She recalled hearing from Taylor that his parents once leased the building to a fraternity and discovered the tenants were hacking out pieces of wood from the basement to burn in their fireplaces. Still, she said, “it was pretty much the perfect possible place to live.”

More recent inhabitants hold a less romantic view. “Like many students … my introduction to The Treehouse was at a raging frat party,” Lena Wang wrote in 2018 in University of Sydney student newspaper Honi Soit after having lived at the Sheats Apartments while on an exchange. “It has hosted so many, its hardwood floors have long since been lacquered with layers of booze, tears, and other miscellaneous fluids.” A 2002 article in UCLA’s Daily Bruin said, “In a word association test with the building, students would doubtfully say ‘architectural marvel,’ and would more likely come up with ‘party’ or ‘kegger.’”

The John Lautner Foundation’s Schrader recalled that during a visit around 20 years ago, “it was just a mess inside.” She said students were still asleep on a couch when her tour rolled through. “It’s party-central,” she said. “I don’t know if they don’t care, if they don’t realize what they have.”

Who Would Buy It?

Sheats Apartments tenants might not appreciate the architectural significance of the building, but Ghaffari, the property manager whose family owns it, does. She said she knew of the building as a master’s student in architecture at UCLA, and that when it came up for sale, she told her family to buy it. When the sale went through, they held a big party with lots of architects in attendance, though not Lautner, who died a few years later, she said.

Not only do fraternity brothers not make great tenants, but also maintaining an old building is expensive, Ghaffari said. Since 2015, LA has required retrofitting certain older wood-frame buildings for earthquake protection, and Ghaffari said doing this cost her family nearly $300,000.

After the retrofit, the building’s exterior walls and floors cracked due to construction of a new building next door, Ghaffari’s family has alleged in official documents. “There are millions of dollars, from what I understand our experts have said, that it would take to refurbish it, to fix what has happened,” Ghaffari said. A February 2025 complaint against the property was filed with the city for “buildings in need of general repair,” but the city found no violation, according to a public database.

Other Lautner properties have been rehabilitated. Lautner’s Salkin House, which is a year older than the Sheats Apartments, went through a restoration a couple of years ago that The New York Times described as “a major undertaking” that lasted more than two years. The Lautner Compound hotel in Coachella Valley includes four units that were built around the same time as the Sheats Apartments and were described as having fallen into disrepair before a four-year restoration started in 2008.

Those who love the Sheats Apartments wonder if a collector would take on the building. As the Times put it in the Salkin House article, “For house collectors in Southern California, there is no better score — no child more golden — than a Lautner dwelling.” Mayne, the former tenant, said the location might deter a high-brow collector. “It couldn’t be a worse environment for living in, if you’re anything other than a student,” she said.

Ghaffari has an idea. Perhaps her family can work with UCLA to rent it exclusively to architecture students. “Non-students wouldn’t rent that close … to fraternity row,” she said. “But if the entire building after it’s fixed is occupied by architecture students? … It’s something that I should have thought of before.”

Related: Selling Stahl: Checking in on the iconic Case Study house as it awaits a buyer.

Dispatch /// Last Thursday, and hosted a movie meetup. Zephyr joined 15 or so people at Amarone Ristorante & Bar, next to frank’s headquarters on Beverly Boulevard in Fairfax. Conversation topics included people’s favorite microcinemas, and the best film format for watching The Odyssey. of MovieTown was there, as was director William Lancaster and actors Joe Gillette, recently of Nobody Wants This, and Daniel Dorr, who had a part in The Odyssey. The group then migrated a few doors down to Quentin Tarantino’s New Beverly Cinema for a screening of 1981’s My Dinner With Andre.

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Story /// Evan Ferrante was sitting at the counter at Max and Helen’s in Larchmont Village for only a moment when a server brought him a coffee. Never mind that Ferrante already had one that he had brought in with him. And never mind that he didn’t seem to need more caffeine.

Ferrante is the rare actor in Los Angeles who doesn’t need to audition for roles. That’s not because he’s an A-lister. It’s because he impersonates one, and he does it really well. For years, Ferrante has been appearing at events and in videos as Tom Cruise, whose upcoming Digger is one of the most anticipated movies for the fall.

There are other Cruise impersonators, but Ferrante is the one whom actor and comedian Chase Hofer featured in a video earlier this year that got millions of likes and many more millions of views. Hofer has a video series in which he books impersonators and other performers for just himself in his home. The joke isn’t so much on the impersonator as it is on the cringeworthy situation of the one-on-one performance.

“Every once in a while, I do a super viral video that launches me on this really big wave that I hope doesn’t crash,” Ferrante said about the experience with Hofer. “I loved working with him, and he really understands the comedy, and that played very well. And I’ve been working very consistently since then.”

In the clip, seconds after Hofer opens the door to his home, Ferrante, wearing a leather jacket, jeans, a black T-shirt, sunglasses, and a hair piece, breaks into a memorable line from Cruise’s monologue as a “seduction guru” in Paul Thomas Anderson’s Magnolia. He follows that with “Show me the money” and “Help me help you” from Jerry Maguire.

Hofer, who shoots these encounters with Meta glasses he’s wearing, learned of Ferrante from an Austin Powers impersonator he also hired. “I’ve never seen so much energy in a single person,” Hofer said about Ferrante, adding that he is a big Cruise fan. “I was nervous at first,” Hofer said. “You don’t know what’s going to happen going into these things. People are just coming over to your house, but he blew the roof off it.”

While eating a scoop of egg salad and a scoop of tuna salad at Max and Helen’s, where he’s a regular, Ferrante said he first imitated Cruise while a freshman at Boston University in the late 1990s. Due to a paperwork issue, he and other students were living at a Howard Johnson’s hotel. “We had to go out of our way to make friends and meet people,” said Ferrante, who at 47 is 17 years younger than Cruise. He and a friend, now-director Alex Merkin, decided to go knocking on doors. The friend did a Jean-Claude Van Damme impression, and since Jerry Maguire had recently come out, Ferrante quoted that movie. “Sixty, 70% of the time, the icebreaker worked and we made friends, and then the rest of the time the doors shut in our face,” he said.

A couple of years later, when YouTube took off, Ferrante began posting videos of himself doing what he describes as Cruise’s “greatest hits.” Soon after, a sketch he did as Cruise appeared on Funny Or Die, the comedy video website that launched early viral videos, and he started getting calls for paid work.

These days, Ferrante’s gigs are often corporate appearances where he is doing “Tony Robbins-esque drumming up, or just inspiring, the sales force of all these Fortune 500 companies,” he said. He delivers an “uplifting message from the one person who can deliver that message, Tom Cruise, at the highest level of energy.” He’s mostly quoting from Jerry Maguire, Top Gun, and Mission: Impossible, and mimicking some of the actor’s off-screen behaviors. “A lot of couch jumping,” Ferrante said. “A lot of high fives and fist-bumping.”

Ferrante, who also works as a real estate agent, said he met Cruise one time, at Chateau Marmont around 2013. Ferrante was in the garden and his girlfriend spotted Cruise at the valet and got the star to wait until Ferrante ran over. “We shook each other and said [to each other] it’s an honor and a privilege to meet you and you complete me,” Ferrante recalled. “It was very exciting.”

Fellow impersonators recognize Ferrante’s talent. “You have to use what you have, and Evan is a very exuberant, energetic, social, creative, funny person,” said Ben Cornish, a Leonardo DiCaprio impersonator who also appeared in a video Hofer did. “He has a great temperament for doing this …. It’s not effortless, but he makes it seem effortless.” Cornish said the two met at a corporate event around 2018 and now they talk almost every day. “It’s been really nice having a friend over the last many years to feel like you’re not just totally alone in the business,” he said.

Cornish’s path to impersonation differed from Ferrante’s. People kept telling him after Titanic that he resembled DiCaprio. Later, when he started acting in New York City and then Los Angeles, those comments continued. “I wanted to be known for my own work and explore my own instrument,” he said.

That changed around 2013, when Scary Movie 5 needed a DiCaprio-type to spoof the film Inception. Cornish got the part and figured afterward he would go back to the acting work he had been doing. Then “the movie came out and people found me online, having seen the film or heard about me, and started reaching out,” he said. DiCaprio’s The Great Gatsby also came out in 2013, and Cornish fielded requests for Gatsby-themed parties.

“People get such a kick out of it,” he said. “They project onto you their feelings and thoughts about the actors, the celebrity, the characters that they’ve played, their persona. And you’re reflecting it back to them, and it becomes this really fun, heightened, engaging experience for everybody.” The skill comes from how the impersonator engages with the audience. “It’s not just that they want to meet the celebrity,” he said. “They want to have an experience of the celebrity being interested in them.”

Another impersonator Cornish and Ferrante know is Norman Deesing, who for nearly two decades has been doing appearances as Jack Nicholson. Under the moniker “SunglassJack,” he’s appeared in films, music videos, TV shows, and variety shows, and he even once stood in as a photo-double for the Chinatown star, Deesing said.

Deesing approaches the Nicholson work not as a direct impersonator. “I greatly respect him, but I do add a lot of my own personality to my lookalike performances,” Deesing said. “I’m looking like Jack, but there’s a lot of me that’s peppered into the whole thing.” One specialty he has is acting like Nicholson caught by the paparazzi.

Doing this work for nearly two decades, one difference Deesing has noticed is that the money is better. “It used to be a couple hundred bucks an hour and now it’s exponentially higher than that,” said Deesing, who is a retired art teacher and a sculptor.

There’s a side to this world that audiences don’t see, especially from high-energy impersonators like Ferrante. “You do have those moments where you look in the mirror and you’re like, what the hell am I doing?” Cornish said. But then there’s a certain magic when you show up to an event and, in Cornish’s case, the Titanic theme music comes on. “You’re almost surprised every time at the alchemy that happens in those couple of hours,” he said. “After the event, you’re like, ‘Oh, yeah, OK, I remember. That’s what this is.’”

Dispatch /// El Cid on Sunset Boulevard in Silver Lake is said to have been one of LA’s first silent film theaters. So it makes sense that once a month, crowds pack in there for , a free film festival showcasing local talent.

“I do get a little anxious before each screening,” Jared Corwin said minutes before the doors opened last Friday. Corwin and Benjamin Sharpe are co-executive directors of the festival. Corwin said they’re looking for submissions that feel “undeniably creator-driven,” whether professional quality or student films. “It’s really important for us to give room and space for those that are emerging to screen among those that are more established because it really lifts everybody up,” he said.

Silver Lake Shorts launched in 2019. Sharpe founded it while he was working as a manager at El Cid, and Corwin came on board in 2022. Now once a month they hold simultaneous screenings indoors and outdoors at El Cid, often followed by an after-party at nearby Drugstore Cowboy. (Andy Dick was there on Friday.) Silver Lake Shorts has also held non-screening meet-up events and has a filmmaker fellowship program, through which it’s distributed more than $50,000 in grants. “We have awesome people that work with us, and we make it happen, always,” Sharpe said.

Filmmaker Olive Milford, whose mixed-media short Roots screened on Friday, met Corwin when he visited CalArts, where Milford is a student. “It’s incredible,” Milford said. “There’s such a variety of talent. It just feels really good to see such different types of creativity in the same curated screening.”

Another one of Friday’s filmmakers, Olivia Sui, said she chose to submit to the festival because she grew up nearby and lives in Silver Lake. “It just feels so close to home, and I love how unique and creative all the shorts are here,” she said.

Jerome Hughs, who screened the short Watch Your Mouth, an animated music video featuring comic book characters he created, said that with Silver Lake Shorts, “they care about both the indie voice, and they’ve created a space of honesty with no judgment.”

Text Zephyr story ideas. Really. 917-342-2736‬📱

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Story /// John Fante’s Ask the Dust is widely considered the quintessential Los Angeles novel. Published in 1939, the same year as The Big Sleep, The Day of the Locust, and The Grapes of Wrath, Fante’s semi-autobiographical book follows Arturo Bandini, an aspiring writer in LA’s Bunker Hill who deals with poverty, ambition, and romance during the Great Depression.

Author Héctor Tobar has named Ask the Dust his favorite LA novel. And when a 2006 film adaptation came out starring Colin Farrell and Salma Hayek, written and directed by legendary Chinatown screenwriter Robert Towne, J.R. Moehringer wrote in the Los Angeles Times, “Many consider [Fante] the best novelist Los Angeles has ever produced. In spare, gleaming prose, John painted a city that was nasty and harsh, but also shot through with magic—part land mine, part gold mine.”

As a new book out July 24 explains, Ask the Dust likely would have been forgotten if not for another celebrated LA novelist, Charles Bukowski. In John Fante Tapes, Italian researcher Alessio De Stefano accounts how Bukowski and journalist Ben Pleasants resurrected Ask the Dust. De Stefano told Zephyr about Fante, “He was writing so well, in a way that it was so effective, ironic, sympathetic, and brilliant.”

Fante was born in Colorado in 1909. His father emigrated from the Abruzzo region of Italy, where De Stefano lives now. De Stefano created the Piccola Biblioteca Marsicana, a project that preserves stories of the region. “I found that there are so many stories about our hometown, about Abruzzo, but really a lot of stories changed to the stories of people that went abroad,” like Fante’s father, De Stefano said. The novelist remains big in Abruzzo; the annual John Fante Festival has been taking place there for 20 years. The celebration every August includes multiple days of literary talks and other events.

Ask the Dust was neglected when it first came out partly because the publisher was busy with a legal battle over the reprinting rights to Adolf Hitler’s manifesto. “Because of the Mein Kampf, Ask the Dust didn’t have any republishing, didn’t have any promotion, didn’t have anything,” De Stefano said. “Ask the Dust just fades away.”

That is, until the book wound up in the hands of Bukowski, a poet, novelist, and screenwriter whom the New York Times described as “a bard of the barroom and the brothel.” Years before Bukowski published his debut novel, 1971’s Post Office, he discovered Ask the Dust in the non-circulating section of the LA Public Library. He began to idolize Fante.

Bukowski talked about Fante to journalist Ben Pleasants, who tracked down the older writer, then in his 70s, and who had moved on to screenwriting and was blind and dealing with health issues. While Bukowski’s thought had been, “you don’t mess with the gods,” De Stefano said, Pleasants looked up Fante in the Malibu phone book. “He just called him and John Fante answered,” De Stefano said. Pleasants and Fante ended up doing a series of interviews between 1978 and 1981. Pleasants made the recordings public and they became known as the “John Fante tapes.”

Bukowski went on to spend time with Fante, too. He documented aspects of a meal they shared in a short story titled “I Meet the Master.” “For him, it was his master,” De Stefano said. “Bukowski had precious memories of this meeting, and for that moment and for all his life, he [wrote] a lot of poems dedicated to John Fante or [about] John Fante.” The increased attention eventually led to a 1980 republishing of Ask the Dust and the resurrection of Fante’s literary career.

De Stefano first learned about this story around 2013. He later traveled to the U.S. to search the archives of people involved. At the University of Arizona he found Pleasants’ photocopied version of Ask the Dust, with Fante’s phone number scrawled on the front page.

Kim Cooper, who with husband Richard Schave runs quirky tours of LA through and spoke with De Stefano as he worked on the book, said John Fante Tapes tells an important story about the novelist who had been “writing these stories of real LA people, strivers,” but then “had to set his artistic ambitions aside.”

Now De Stefano is “telling the story of how Fante is given an opportunity at the end of his life to know that it wasn’t for nothing, that people still remember and care and want to know who he is,” said Cooper, who with Schave got LA to name a square for Fante in 2010 outside the Central Library downtown.

Fante died in 1983 at age 74. He was living at the Motion Picture & Television Fund Country House in Woodland Hills. Bukowski died in 1994 at 73. “Even [in] one of his last poems, he speaks about John Fante, saying that the moment when he met him was one of the best moments in his life,” De Stefano said. “He was very bound to the John Fante writer and human being.”

John Fante Tapes is available through Radici Edizioni, currently only in Italian.

Dispatch /// On Monday, Canter’s Deli on Fairfax Ave. in LA was offering its famous pastrami sandwiches for just 95 cents to celebrate its 95th anniversary. The deal also included coleslaw, a pickle, and chocolate chip rugelach. People began lining up around 3 p.m., some of them with chairs, ahead of the dine-in deal’s 6 p.m. start time.

When one thinks of LA institutions, Canter’s comes to mind for many people. Even as the Fairfax District where the 24-hour deli moved in 1948 has changed from a center of Jewish establishments to a strip of streetwear shops and empty storefronts, and Guns N’ Roses comes by less often, Canter’s continues to draw locals and tourists alike.

Both types turned out on Monday. There appeared to be longtime regulars and also first-time customers. Some people said they came for the deal, while others seemed excited to be part of what felt like a celebration.

Once the doors opened, the staff kept every table and most of the counter space full, but the atmosphere wasn’t hectic. One server said, “No rush. Take as much time as you want here. You waited in line long enough.” By 7 p.m., the line wrapped around a side street and all the way down Hayworth Ave., behind the restaurant.

“Canter’s is a place where grandkids grow up and bring their grandkids,” third-generation owner Marc Canter, who hosts tours of the deli, told Zephyr by email. “It’s a lot of hard work to keep this institution going with 125 employees running 24 hours a day, but worth it, and [I’m] very proud to keep it going. It feels like a giant family, and we’re all doing our part to make people happy.”

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Except this wasn’t Santa Monica, or even Venice, where Coffee & Chill started. It wasn’t Los Angeles at all. It was a rooftop in Queens. Day parties like this are less common in New York City, but people were into it. “This is so fun,” April Zhang-Autio, who is often spotted at art happenings around the city, told Zephyr at the event. “You feel like we’re in Miami or LA.”

LA wellness and social events, especially from the West Side, are making inroads in New York City. Besides Coffee & Chill, RummiKlub LA, which started in West Hollywood and throws Rummikub game nights in stylish settings, hosted an event this month at the West Village outpost of San Vicente Clubs, another LA transplant. Also this month, SOSO Club, from Santa Monica, popped up in New York City and is planning to return August 16.

Coffee & Chill seems quintessentially West LA, with participants who look like they could appear on the upcoming Baywatch reboot. But the formula, which includes coffee and cold plunges in what resemble very high-end kiddie pools, has worked elsewhere. Blake Waller, who co-founded the event in 2023 as a way for his friends to gather without alcohol, said they decided to expand as requests came in from people in other cities. First came Miami, followed by New York City in 2025. They also host events in Austin and San Diego.

“We didn’t really feel that there’s anything like it in this space,” Waller said, referring to the New York City scene. He cited Bathhouse and Othership, but those are brick-and-mortar wellness businesses, not pop-up events. (In a reversal of the trend, New York City-based Bathhouse is opening a Hollywood location, in the old Amoeba Music space.)

Whereas LA events are often in parking lots, and Miami ones are by the beach or a pool, Coffee & Chill’s New York City organizers have relied on rooftops. At one early event, they had to rig a hose to a bar faucet to fill the ice baths. “Maybe the reality is that Coffee & Chill could have only been born somewhere like LA or Miami,” Waller said. “Who would think to fill up an ice bath from a water faucet on a rooftop in Chelsea?”

The gatherings in each city have their own character, according to Waller. “The LA events feel different than the Miami events, that feel different than Austin, that feel different than New York,” Waller said. Each city has local organizers. “That’s a space that they want to create, rather than us being transplants,” he said.

Still, local flavor only goes so far. Looking at photos from each of the cities, it can sometimes be hard to tell where they are. “When it comes to the actual event experience, I would say that there is a decent amount of consistency, in terms of what the tubs look like, the merch, what that looks like, even the touch points of what brands we’re working with,” Waller said.

Another series, RummiKlub LA, launched in early 2025 and has hosted three events in New York City. The city has plenty of board game gatherings, but founders Marnie Wekselblatt and Laura Galvan, both LA residents originally from New York, intend for this one to feel more chic, with RummiKlub-branded game sets and post-game cocktails.

“We really want it to feel like a really premium experience,” Wekselblatt said. Galvan added, “It’s not just bringing your board to a cafe or a park. It’s really like a night out, where you can get dressed up, have cocktails, mingle, meet friends, and there’s a whole night after the game play is done.” Past LA locations have included buzzy restaurant Craig’s and the West Hollywood Edition hotel on the Sunset Strip.

New York City actually came to them. Wekselblatt and Galvan said Tao Group Hospitality approached them about hosting events, resulting in back-to-back game nights at Moxy Lower East Side in July 2025. The people who attended, some of them visiting from LA, were dressed for a nightclub, not a board game night.

The New York and LA crowds are similar, according to the founders. “Both cities are really interested in these gaming experiences,” Wekselblatt said. “Everyone has the same end goal and wants to be part of RummiKlub because it’s this curated event and night out that’s different from the traditional going for drinks and standing at a bar.”

The events are similar, too. “It almost feels like we’re copy-and-pasting on different coasts,” Galvan said. “I wouldn’t say that we necessarily have an intention to bring LA to New York … but from a logistics standpoint, I would say that the flow of the event is pretty much standard throughout.”

Also from LA is SOSO, a singles meetup group that began in Santa Monica in 2023. Stephanie Scheele and Mackenzie Zoppi started it after they noticed the dynamics of socializing and dating had changed coming out of the pandemic. “People were really looking for in-person connections, just more than what the apps were offering,” Scheele said.

SOSO arrived in New York City in 2024. “New York has always been at the top of our list,” Zoppi said. “It has a huge population of young professionals, and we have friends in New York and we know it’s difficult to date in those places, so we had people messaging us constantly asking us, when are you coming to New York? And eventually we realized that there was definitely enough demand.”

They’ve had around seven events in New York City and Brooklyn. Sometimes the founders fly in to host, while other times they have what they called a small “boots on the ground” team. “The mission just translates really well,” Zoppi said. “Whether you’re in LA or New York, people want the same exact thing, an excuse to get off their phones and get out of the house and meet people face to face.” The organizers don’t want their New York City events to feel like LA ones. Zoppi said, “We want people to date the New York way.”

Dispatch /// The intersection of Broxton and Weyburn Avenues in the Westwood Village section of LA is livelier than it has been in two years, now that the Fox Westwood Village Theatre, known for its distinctive art deco tower, reopened to show The Odyssey on 70mm.

The screenings are happening through Aug. 6 thanks to American Cinematheque, the nonprofit that starting next year will be running a full slate of programming at the theater, which it is calling Directors Village. Filmmaker Jason Reitman was behind the project. A sign in the lobby named more than three dozen additional filmmakers involved, including The Odyssey’s Christopher Nolan.

Locals and film lovers were excited to return. At a Sunday night screening, many were talking about how they hadn’t been there in years. John Starr posted on Instagram that having grown up in Westwood and watched The Godfather and other classics at the theater, “it was an incredible experience to see the magnificent ODYSSEY” there. Starr called the theater a “movie temple.”

The reopening coincided with the announced rescue of another historic LA cinema. Last Wednesday, Sony Pictures said it would reopen the Cinerama Dome in Hollywood that closed in 2020. While hundreds of theaters have shut down in the past couple of years, these historic theaters hold extra meaning for local moviegoers.

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“This was my first rodeo. This was a really exciting new opportunity,” Marcus told Zephyr about a month after the early-June primary election. Pratt ultimately ended up coming in third place, with top-two finishers Mayor Karen Bass and City Council member Nithya Raman advancing to November’s general election.

Marcus is a lifelong Angeleno, having grown up there and stayed close by for college. While at Chapman University, she interned at Us Weekly and became a full-time reporter before graduation. It felt like a double life. “I call it my Hannah Montana moment,” she said. “I would have finals in the morning, [when] I would literally be at the Oscars the night before.”

In 2019, she decided to move into PR. She was fielding publicists’ pitches as a reporter and thought she could do a better job, especially when it came to the emerging type of celebrity who was building massive social media audiences. On one side was digital-native talent, and on the other side was the mainstream media. “A lot of publicists at the time were struggling to bridge the gap,” Marcus said. “There were a lot of people who were becoming famous almost overnight, and I was really interested in the concept of turning that virality into longevity.”

So she started Emily Blair Media, which now has around 25 employees and presences in Santa Monica, New York, Dallas, and London. Her client roster has included model and influencer Olivia Ponton, who has more than 10 million followers across platforms and nearly a billion video likes on TikTok, and reality TV personalities Gia Giudice and Ekin-Su Cülcüloğlu. Her client Sophie Saint is currently Playboy’s “Miss July.”

Among Emily Blair Media’s highest-profile clients are Pratt and Montag. The couple entered the public consciousness on MTV’s The Hills in the early 2000s. Marcus, who used to write about the couple for Us Weekly, said Montag became a client through a referral. When Pratt started his election bid, helping him with PR seemed natural.

Pratt, who after The Hills appeared on Celebrity Big Brother, launched his campaign on Jan. 7. Though detractors perhaps dismissed this as a publicity stunt, his focus on dealing with homelessness and crime and replacing incumbent Bass due to her handling of the Jan. 2025 wildfires, in which Pratt lost his Pacific Palisades home, caught on with certain voters. “His message was resonating with people all over the world,” Marcus said.

From a PR perspective, there’s no denying the spike in Pratt’s visibility. Google searches for him were up 600% compared to the previous year, and The New York Times mentioned him hundreds of times. CBS News and NBC News aired sit-down interviews with him. He also landed the cover of Marcus’ former publication, Us Weekly, though he had done that at least two other times, in 2008 and 2017. The latter featured “exclusive” photos of his baby.

As Pratt and his campaign became an object of media fascination, in part due to AI-generated videos, the buzz meant work for Marcus. “I’m used to having especially busy periods as a publicist, if there’s a launch or if there’s a dilemma or if there’s some kind of moment we’re preparing for, but usually you know that it’s coming,” she said. “Becoming a hotline of sorts was insanity. It was crazy and it definitely was unlike anything I’ve experienced.”

But she found the experience a welcome break from the routine. “A lot of what I do is, same blueprint, different font. I treat our clients with incredible care and thoughtfulness, and they’re all individuals, but … you get into the flow of it,” she said. “Getting to work on a campaign was a really exciting, different challenge.”

Still, Marcus remained in the background. None of the campaign news coverage appeared to name her fully, at least not until after Pratt lost. “I always joke that our uniform for events is publicist-black,” she said. “It’s because we are not the center of attention. When we are working for clients, we’re working on an event, we’re with clients on a red carpet, it is about them and it is their moment to shine.”

Marcus’ journey into politics actually resembles that of another person linked to a reality TV star who ran for office. For the 2016 presidential election, Donald Trump brought on Hope Hicks, who had been doing PR for Ivanka Trump’s fashion label. Hicks ended up following Trump to the White House.

But Marcus isn’t sure about doing another political campaign. “This one felt really authentic because it was with an existing client and it was with the city I grew up in, and I really resonated with what was being communicated,” she said. Plus, the nature of politics is not always ideal for someone building a company. “Politics can be a very polarizing conversation, and I have clients from all walks of life who think all sorts of ways,” she said. “I always welcome new opportunities, but I’m really focused on the core clientele of our business.”

She said she hadn’t thought about Hope Hicks. But her profile is already rising. When she participated at an event at the Cannes Lions marketing festival last month, Axios noted that she had been Pratt’s flack.

Bonus /// The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger, one of the quintessential New York City novels, turned 75 last Thursday. Commemorative events took place with the author’s son, Matt Salinger, at the Strand Bookstore and Bryant Park. In honor of the milestone for protagonist Holden Caulfield, here’s an excerpt from its original 1951 review by Nash K. Burger in The New York Times:

This was a perilous undertaking, but one that has been successfully achieved. Mr. Salinger’s rendering of teen-age speech is wonderful: the unconscious humor, the repetitions, the slang and profanity, the emphasis, all are just right. Holden’s mercurial changes of mood, his stubborn refusal to admit his own sensitiveness and emotions, his cheerful disregard of what is sometimes known as reality are typically and heart breakingly adolescent.

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Since June 28, thousands and thousands of soccer fans have flooded Brookfield Place for what the mall is calling Match Day Live. The free “experience” in the mall’s “Winter Garden” consists of a huge 36-foot LED screen, a pop-up Stella Artois beer garden decorated with flags, soccer photographs, and faux brick decals, an arcade area with soccer-inspired games for kids, and an indoor soccer pitch that hosts activities.

Located in the 14-acre complex formerly known as the World Financial Center, the mall is connected to office buildings and the Oculus, a separate mall that links to a dozen subway lines and also PATH trains.

That makes Match Day Live convenient for tourists coming from the World Trade Center area and also for office workers in the complex, whose major tenants include American Express. Indeed, the beer garden advertises a “work from bar” experience. During one recent weekday game, people were watching in business attire, and more than a few people had their laptops out.

But Match Day Live also has been attracting soccer fans as its own destination, not just a place to stop by during work or while sightseeing. Every attendee Zephyr spoke with during one recent game said they had gone there specifically for the match. A large portion of attendees were wearing soccer jerseys, indicating that they too were not just dropping by.

“This summer, we’re transforming our campus into New York City’s premier destination for live soccer viewing, creating an electric atmosphere where every fan feels immersed in the action,” Rachel Wachtel, head of real estate experience for Brookfield Properties, said in a press release. “By bringing the excitement of the global game to Lower Manhattan, we’re creating unforgettable moments for both local and international visitors alike.”

It’s no surprise why so many people are choosing Brookfield Place to watch the tournament. While the mall lacks the intimacy of a bar or the energy of a team-specific watch party, its air conditioning, bathrooms, food court, and roof overhead make it an attractive option. Seating is easy to come by, too. Though the beer garden has been reaching capacity, a big staircase serves as makeshift stadium seating, and there is additional seating on a second-floor balcony. The enormous space, with its potted palm trees and glass ceiling, feels almost like a town square. The staircase can bring to mind Rome’s Spanish Steps.

During England vs. Norway on Saturday, family friends Chester Andrews and Darius Titus were wearing soccer jerseys and waiting in line for the beer garden. They had come from New Jersey, where Andrews said he had been watching games at Newark Fan Village and now was seeking more excitement.

“For a lot of these European teams, I’m trying to come to the city more because I know there’s going to be a lot of tourists, a lot of people coming from other countries to watch the game here,” he said. There were also logistical reasons for choosing the mall. “It’s a hot day,” he said. “I didn’t want to be outside.”

At the same game, Lily Claudio was sitting on the steps and wearing a “London” tank top. She had taken the bus from Paterson, New Jersey, and was waiting for a friend who had come across an ad for the watch party. “I’m hoping I can see,” she said. “I wore my glasses. Usually I try to be cute and don’t wear my glasses.” She said she was rooting for England because of her devotion to British musician Matty Healy from the 1975.

Standing on the floor near the arcade area was Lulu Cheng, wearing a Germany jersey, and Steve Cruz, in a FIFA France “Coupe du Monde” T-shirt. They said they had been watching games at the mall because they live nearby. “This is the most people I’ve seen over here,” Cheng said. If she had one complaint, it would be that the palm trees slightly obstruct the screen, a point others mentioned in interviews.

Besides the palm trees, it’s possible die-hard soccer fans would want the sound to be louder (during at least two recent games, it was hard to make out what the televised announcers were saying), or they would prefer watching at venues tied to the countries playing. Others might bristle at the late-stage capitalism nature of watching the game next to a Louis Vuitton store. Another drawback might be that the event ends at 7 p.m., so later games are not shown.

Still, the popular event comes at a helpful time for Brookfield Place. Ongoing construction on a flood barrier has cut off the mall from the Hudson River, shutting down an area that this time of year typically has outdoor dining, boats in the marina, and a temporary tennis court. The construction is expected to last for years.

Whether Match Day Live has boosted businesses in the mall is unclear. During the England vs. Norway game, stores like Alo and Nike, right next to the viewing area, had few customers. One employee at a store near there said people didn’t come in during the games or afterward. If your team wins, you go celebrate, and if it loses, you go home, the employee added. The food court was busier than the stores, but not as much as during the workweek.

Brookfield representatives declined an interview request and said by email that Match Day Live attendance numbers were not available. The mall will be showing the World Cup final at 3 p.m. local time Sunday. Either France or Spain will be playing England or Argentina.

Bonus /// On Friday, the Rolling Stones released their 25th studio album, Foreign Tongues. They shot a music video for the new song “Jealous Lover” at the Hollywood Premiere Motel in East Hollywood. Earlier this year, the band collaborated with Los Angeles-based streetwear label Paly Hollywood.

“Los Angeles has always been particularly a Stones city,” Robert Greenfield wrote in Rolling Stone magazine in 1972, when the band was releasing Exile On Main St. “Their music is forever coming out of car radios and jukeboxes. Nowhere else is an English accent, a velvet suit, or a ruffled shirt more in demand.”

In honor of the band’s new album, here are some LA spots associated with the group.

The Sunset Strip. The Stones famously used to stay at the Continental Hyatt House, also known as the Riot House, now the Andaz West Hollywood, on the Sunset Strip. More recently, the band’s 2024 music video for the song “Angry” featured Sydney Sweeney dancing on the back of a red Mercedes-Benz convertible driving down the Strip as images appeared of the band on the boulevard’s famous billboards.

Sunset Sound. The Stones recorded parts of Exile on Main St. at Sunset Sound in Hollywood. Miraculously, the studio still exists, in an area with lots of old vacant buildings. The studio’s website features images of the band.

Laurel Canyon. In 1969, the band rehearsed for a tour at a house here owned by Stephen Stills of Buffalo Springfield and Crosby, Stills & Nash.

Franklin Canyon Park. This area in Beverly Hills was the setting for the band’s U.S. cover photo for 1966’s Big Hits (High Tide and Green Grass).

San Bernardino. Not in LA but close-by, this city was where the Stones played their first ever U.S. gig, at the Swing Auditorium in June 1964. The late KMEN DJ Bill Watson, who reportedly got the band to play there, once recalled, “The audience went insane. Objects were thrown on the stage, girls fainted, the screams were deafening, and the Stones began to feel at home.”

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Paly draws from the city’s iconography and in a way that is nostalgic and gritty. Pieces reference movie stars who died young, like the “James Dean Death Cult” hat. A recent campaign was shot at what looks like the kind of seedy motel that lines Hollywood Boulevard, for a collection named after Jim Morrison’s Room No. 32 at the Alta Cienega Motel in West Hollywood. A tag line on the brand’s website reads, “Hollywood is Hell.” Franco has said he found inspiration in the book Hollywood Babylon, Kenneth Anger’s 1959 account of Tinseltown scandals and secrets.

At the same time, Paly apparel is meant to be high-quality, to justify prices that can be hundreds of dollars for a hat or thousands for a T-shirt, while also appearing distressed and already vintage. That combination has earned fans among streetwear enthusiasts who seek out the limited-edition pieces on resale platforms like Grailed and Mercari.

Its fan base also includes celebrities. The Daily Front Row declared that “every cool actor is wearing Paly.” Euphoria showrunner Sam Levinson appeared in a Paly hat that references Hollywood Forever Cemetery in an April photoshoot, and Euphoria star Jacob Elordi has appeared in Paly at least 10 times, according to The Elordi Archives. Perhaps it’s no surprise that a Paly hat showed up in the most recent season of Euphoria.

The brand’s approach now continues with its Fall/Winter 2027 collection, which Paly debuted at Paris Fashion Week late last month. The brand described it as an “exploration of Hollywood folklore by concentrating on the legendary figures, scandals, and outlaw narratives that emerged from California’s desert communities.” The lookbook features Yellowstone actor Max Madsen, son of actor Michael Madsen, who died a year ago and was known for playing “bare-knuckled heavies,” as his New York Times obituary put it.

The new collection comes on the heels of a collaboration Paly did with the Rolling Stones, who have a new album out Friday and just released a music video set at, of course, an LA motel. Almost all of the items in the collaboration sold out, including a $2,690 T-shirt and a $315 hat featuring the band’s tongue logo. Also this year, Paly released a campaign featuring prolific actor Eric Roberts.

Lindgren, who previously was a senior designer at clothing and lifestyle brand Madhappy, answered questions by email from Paris.

What’s your process for coming up with new pieces and collections? From where do you get your inspiration?

Hollywood has always had a profound influence on culture. We explore its hidden stories, triumphs, and scandals to create garments that feel like artifacts pulled from a forgotten layer of the entertainment industry, translating abstract ideas into physical textiles through an obsessive, hands-on design process.

For example, our SS26 collection is inspired by infamous hotel stays, drawing from stories surrounding cultural figures like Jim Morrison and Robert Mapplethorpe, the places they stayed, and the lasting influence those moments had on art and culture.

How do collaborations happen?

Our collaborations have come to life in several different ways, but we’re so honored to have become a trusted source for storytelling for many of the world’s most iconic figures in entertainment. Mass blockbuster collabs can often be surface-level, but we take a deeply researched, narrative-driven approach to design. It ends up being a strong vehicle for those looking to extend their legacy in a contemporary but incredibly meaningful way.

Why the Rolling Stones, and what was it like to work on that one?

It’s not every day you get to collaborate with the world’s greatest rock ‘n’ roll band. The process took nearly a year, digging through thousands of images, logos, tour graphics, and vintage merch archives to build a 10-piece collection that bridges past, present, and future, further honoring their legacy and ongoing cultural impact. I’m told the band personally signed off on the final designs, which I’ll happily take as a win.

Your spring/summer campaign features Eric Roberts. Why him?

Eric Roberts is the most-credited actor in the United States and widely regarded as the hardest-working person in Hollywood. His undeniable legacy reflects the evolution of the industry over time. He himself is a visual representation of the trials and tribulations associated with Hollywood.

Paly appeared in this season of Euphoria, with a hat worn by a fictional TV actor. What did you think of that?

Admittedly, we actually miss a lot of these placements in real time because we’re so focused on design and upcoming seasons. But when we do catch them, it’s always fun and a nice reminder that the stories we’re telling through our designs have extended beyond the garments themselves and carry on to have a whole new cultural influence.

Six years in, Paly drops often quickly sell out. What do you think the appeal is?

We’re lucky to have a community that really appreciates the obsessive design and storytelling behind each piece. Every garment is carefully considered, with a lot of attention to detail, storytelling, treatment, and construction, but always with wearability in mind.

Even though the process is intensive (hand-finishing, distressing, and refining each piece), our goal is for them to feel lived-in from day 1 and meant to be worn every day. We’re protective of the design, not the wearing of it. Not to mention, we just try to create really cool drops that we absolutely love.

Can you hint at anything people should be looking out for from Paly in the near future?

We’ve been spending a lot of time in Milan working closely with some of the best suppliers in the world, many of whom also produce for leading luxury houses. We’re so excited to very carefully expand into new categories and fabrics in upcoming seasons! We know the Paly community is going to be hype.

Related: Zephyr 010: Inside the Vintage Knicks Merch Mecca

Bonus /// An old U.S. Route 66 motel in West Hollywood had closed down to become a homeless shelter, so filmmakers Ramiel Petros and Nick Freeman wondered why they kept seeing a man sitting there on a balcony. In 2023, with the writers strike underway, they started talking to the man and decided to do a project on him. “It was just an interesting place and person,” Petros said. “We were like, let’s take this month to go make a doc, and then we had no idea what was to come.”

It turned out that the man, Tony Powell, had been a celebrated professional soccer player in England and then disappeared from the public eye for decades. Not even his family knew what happened to him. When Petros and Freeman encountered him, he had been living at and managing the Holloway Motel for 20 years and now found himself out of a job and needing a new place to live.

The filmmakers, who met at New York University’s film school, shadowed Powell for nearly two years. The result, The Last Guest of the Holloway Motel, debuted on streaming platforms last Wednesday after a run at Lumiere Cinema in Beverly Hills and a premiere at New York City’s Tribeca Film Festival last year. Within a day, the film became the no. 1 documentary on Apple TV.

The film focuses largely on Powell’s soccer career, which the filmmakers expertly explore through archival footage, photos, and news clippings, and interviews with former Norwich City Football Club teammates. Much of it also explores the difficulties of being a gay man in professional soccer at the time. “He was opening up about stuff that he hadn’t thought about ever,” Petros told Zephyr in a joint video interview with Freeman the day of the streaming release.

Some of the film’s most fascinating moments have to do with the fact that Powell had not communicated with his family in decades. “Through a lot of internet sleuthing and research, we eventually tracked down some people that truly had not heard from Tony in 40 years and could not believe that we were calling them,” Freeman said. A movie trailer quote promises surprises right until the closing credits. It’s not lying.

The Last Guest of the Holloway Motel is available on Apple TV and Prime Video.

Related: Zephyr 008: The Fight to Fix Hollywood

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Tell me about your relationship with David Hockney.

My dad was a big printmaker in the ‘80s. He’s known David since they were both kids in London running around. Growing up, I would spend summer vacations with him, Christmases with him. He’s obviously painted my dad. He’s also painted my mom, and then eventually me.

I remember being a kid and feeling very competitive with David because I could tell that everybody really wanted a piece of him, and they really wanted his attention and his time, and I didn’t understand why. When you’re a kid, you think of course the world revolves around you, and so you feel very competitive. My mom actually sent me a video today of both of us, I think in 2008, my winter break, and I’m visiting him in the country in England. We’re playing this game that had just come out on iPhone where the tiles fall and you press the keys on the piano. The video shows the two of us playing these chords, and David’s probably late 60s, and we’re just so competitive with one another. He’s going really slowly because obviously he’s much older, and I’m not giving him a lot of grace to catch up or being nice at all. I’m kind of laughing in his face.

He just was one of my parents’ good friends. It wasn’t until I worked for Sotheby’s my first year after college in 2022, and I worked in the bids department and there was an auction, and in the auction was a David Hockney piece, and I remember commenting to one of my co-workers, “Oh, he’s painted me.” And her reaction was just, amazed. Genuinely, up until that moment, I was like, this isn’t even impressive. Like, who cares? She told people and then word spread, and seeing their reaction to it, I was like, oh, I guess this is a big deal.

What was it like to sit for him?

It’s one of the most incredible experiences of my life, probably. I try to close my eyes sometimes, especially now, and picture it in great detail. The year is 2014, he’s spry and just like so full of life. We go to his home [off] Mulholland Drive. And this home, it feels like you’re stepping into one of his paintings. He painted the bottom of the pool. There were lots of red and blue and bright colors. And I remember thinking, wow, this home’s really cool, this is really fun to step into David’s world, like Dr. Seuss.

A bunch of his nieces and nephews were there, and we were all playing tag at the pool during the day. At the end of the day, I was running around the pool, wet, and I slipped and fell and hit my hip really, really hard. And I think as anyone does when they hurt themselves physically, there’s a feeling of embarrassment and shame, probably magnified more so by the fact that I was 14. I felt really embarrassed and sad and I was trying to hold back my tears.

And then we all sat down for dinner and the whole time I can’t stop thinking about how badly my hip hurts and how embarrassing that was. He goes to bed. Then an hour later, we’re all sitting around the dinner table, my mom, my dad, some of his family, and he comes out in this like yellow plushy robe looking like Daffy Duck or Big Bird or something, and points at me and he’s like, “You’ll bring her tomorrow to the studio.” And I was like, OK, I guess he didn’t notice me falling on the floor, that’s awesome. That’s more what I was concerned about.

The next morning, I picked this J.Crew striped dress because it was the top thing on my suitcase, and these Jack Rogers gold sandals that I’d been wearing all summer, and I didn’t even give a second thought. Honestly it sounds so silly, but it didn’t register that I was about to be immortalized by David Hockney and perhaps I should give some real thought to what I want to wear. I just grabbed the things that I was wearing every day during the summer and showed up to the studio with my mom and I heard him whisper to my mom, “You made her choose that dress, didn’t you?” Because I guess stripes are harder to paint and doing the lines would have been really difficult for him because you sit down and they crease and fold. Which is just funny. I like the idea that I made it a little bit more challenging for him.

And then I sat down and he just had this way of really piercing into your soul, not breaking contact, really staring at you in a way where you felt very perceived, but also a little bit vulnerable. And I remember that when he was painting, he loved to smoke and he would always joke that smoking is what kept him young. I would always scoff and hold my nose and make fun of him for smoking cigarettes because I didn’t like the smell. And so he’d be smoking a cigarette and then hold his hand down with the cigarette still in it, forget that it was in his hand while he was looking at you and painting you, and then you would just like watch it burn to a nub in his hand, and you’re like, are you seeing what’s happening? And he just never even noticed it.

My mom is a portrait painter too, so I’ve had to sit for things in the past, but never for longer than an hour or two. And I was like, three days of sitting? I really didn’t want to do it, to be honest. I was like, I don’t know if I can do this, this doesn’t sound fun. But it went by really quickly.

Why are people so drawn to Hockney and his work?

These days it’s really hard to have a unique perspective and do something entirely your own, but I think David really achieved something totally unique to him and created this world where he just experimented with color and perspective.

Throughout his career, he changed so much, and I know that some people don’t like the iPad paintings and they don’t like the work that he did with technology, but for someone to do that later in life, at his age to embrace technology, I think he was always willing to try new things and experiment. He never had ego to the point where he wasn’t willing to experiment with new mediums and try new things. I think a lot of other artists maybe get recognized early on in their career and then have a really big ego and then don’t change at all or grow. And I think he was constantly growing and challenging himself.

And there’s something so dreamy about his work, and idyllic. Obviously he’s this English guy, but he captured California to its essence. I’ve heard people who were born and raised in California say the same thing, in the same way that I feel like he’s really captured the English countryside. Obviously they’re not super photorealistic either. So he’s done a great job of capturing a feeling of places and also a feeling of time too, because I look at his paintings from the ‘60s and the ‘70s, and you can feel the time in which they were made.

Dispatch /// Last Wednesday, Broadway-world insiders descended on Sardi’s for its final night before a hiatus of unannounced length. The caricature-lined theater district haunt has been around since 1927. The New York Times broke the news in March that owner Max Klimavicius was selling to the Shubert Organization and the theater landlord would be closing the restaurant for several months for renovations.

Around 8 p.m., Klimavicius made his way clockwise around the second floor. He greeted patrons including Julie Besonen, the writer of that New York Times article; actor and Group Sales Box Office founder Ronnie Lee; and Shubert Organization executive Julio Peterson, to name just a few.

“I feel great. I feel at peace,” Klimavicius, who originally worked in the kitchen and is retiring, told Zephyr while making the rounds. “It ensures the continuity that is so important to me, in terms of the legacy of Sardi’s into the future.” Klimavicius said he trusts that the new owners will make appropriate updates to the space: “They know very well what Sardi’s means to this community.”

Most of the renovations will be to back-of-house infrastructure, like electric and plumbing, while the front-of-house will get a refresh, Klimavicius said. The Shubert Organization is enlisting Tony Award-winning lighting designer Ken Billington and reframing the caricatures with museum glass, according to Klimavicius. “This is going to pop,” he said of the artwork.

A Shubert Organization press release on Thursday said La Masseria Group, which lists five restaurants on its website, would be the operating partner, and that the restaurant will reopen in the fall.

Though the first-floor dining room was relatively quiet and last-minute reservations remained available, upstairs was crowded. Bartenders in red jackets poured martinis and Manhattans, and employees in white uniforms brought out orders of french fries. Groups sitting at tables multiplied. Patrons hugged and wore red or black Sardi’s hats. Some tables had signs saying they were reserved for the Shubert Organization.

The actor JR Carter said he first came to Sardi’s in 2009 when he got his Equity card. “It was important to me to be here,” he said. “This is home. This is like being around your family, being around your people.” He was skeptical about the closure: “Whenever they change things, it’s not the same.”

Sitting near Carter was playwright Raffaele Pacitti, whose Mister Halston debuted at Sag Harbor’s Bay Street Theater this month. Pacitti said Sardi’s stands out from other establishments because you can “talk to people as fellow artists,” he said. “You can’t always do that. An opening night party at Cipriani, it’s a whole different vibe.”

Lee, the actor and group ticket sales company founder who was talking to Klimavicius, recalled first coming to Sardi’s around 76 years ago. At the time, he was turning 14 and playing the crown prince in the original Broadway production of The King and I. “I thought if I had lunch here, I would be a star,” he told Zephyr. Asked what is special about Sardi’s, he responded, “What’s special about breathing? If you’ve come up in the theater, it’s indescribable. It’s part of your system.”

At around 8:30 p.m. a glass clinked and Broadway producer Cody Lassen stood on a chair for an impromptu speech to thank the bartenders. “So many of us have celebrated opening nights here. We’ve cried on closing nights. We’ve cried after breakups. We’ve celebrated after hookups,” he said. “Jeremy and Orlando and the entire team have treated us like family.” He added, to laughs, “We’re all going to be back here in three years.”

The Zephyr tip line is now open. Text story ideas to ‪917-342-2736‬.

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James said it was her first big mainstream project. “It’s a beautiful song,” she said. “It’s used so often in people’s weddings or special moments, and to think that I got to be even just a little part of that in the video is something I’m just very grateful to have had to happen.”

No doubt thanks in part to the video, James has gained nearly half a million followers online, where she posts photos and videos in a throwback aesthetic that celebrates old-timey glamour, often with a Lana Del Rey song in the background. “My style isn’t specifically to recreate Marilyn, so much as it is to kind of live in an echo of that old Hollywood blonde archetype,” she said.

While her appearance and mannerisms immediately bring to mind Monroe, who is the subject of a new Academy Museum of Motion Pictures exhibition that coincides with the June 1 centennial of the actress’ birth, James said she is a fan of all the bombshells from Hollywood’s Golden Age: Jean Harlow, Mae West, Betty Grable, Carole Lombard. She said, “I find a lot of inspiration in them.”

To connect with her fan base, James is teaming up with Barkev Msrlyan, whose Merch Motel documents historic places in Los Angeles and elsewhere and creates vintage-inspired souvenirs for them. On Saturday, Merch Motel and James are hosting an event at the 111-year-old Fair Oaks Pharmacy in South Pasadena. The event is also a celebration of the centennial of Route 66, which goes through Pasadena.

In a joint video interview with Zephyr, James and Msrlyan said the event will be reminiscent of the old Hollywood starlet fan clubs, with retro souvenirs available like pennants, buttons, postcards, and glamour shots. Msrlyan described the collection as “kitschy Hollywood, classic Hollywood …. Of course there’s going to be a lot of pink.”

James and Msrlyan are part of a group of content creators who share their love for classic Hollywood and vintage LA with others. It’s been a longtime interest for James. “I grew up on old Hollywood films,” she said. “When other kids were watching Nickelodeon, I was watching TV Land.”

After some time modeling in LA, she found a niche channeling a style that evokes old Hollywood glamour. “I started photographing myself just to bulk up my modeling portfolio a bit,” she said. “After a while I realized, hey, maybe I could share this online and in the meantime maybe build a little bit of an audience that also appreciates the same kinds of things I do.”

Msrlyan is also a fan of the oldies, especially architecture and design. He grew up in Pasadena and would notice that buildings and signage he admired were disappearing. He began taking photos to capture details while they still existed, like notable stained glass windows and doorknobs. “I decided to share the love of that with people, with documentation,” he said.

With a background in product and toy design (his resume lists Disney and Hasbro), Msrlyan collaborates with longstanding businesses to design vintage-looking souvenirs for them. “It’s just everything I love—very geeky, specific niche interests, with documentation, appreciation of architecture, and souvenirs,” he said. Merch Motel has done more than a dozen collaborations, including with Canter’s Deli, Bob Baker Marionette Theater, and Magic Lamp Inn.

Given their similar interests, it’s no surprise that James and Msrlyan encountered each other at events and became friends. Eventually, Msrlyan pitched James on doing an event together. “We love old Hollywood souvenirs and fan clubs. I’m like, what if we do the Jeri Mae James fan club collection? How fun is that?” he said. “I was very excited to capture Jeri’s personality and essence and … vision within a physical product.”

The two creators attribute the appeal of content like theirs to people’s desire for levity. “In everyday life, there’s not a lot of fantasy anymore,” James said. “Things have gotten heavy in the world, and there’s something about glamour that inherently has a sense of humor because it’s so unnatural.” She added, “It’s a way to play and be more playful in life, which I think we all could use.”

While some people feel discouraged when old places vanish, James and Msrlyan said they are optimistic about how many people are discovering and celebrating the past and bringing older concepts of art and design into new spaces and objects. Msrlyan said, “Whatever has remained is celebrated by many people, and I feel like more and more people every year are loving it.”

Related: Zephyr 005: Selling Stahl

Bonus /// The exhibition Marilyn Monroe: Hollywood Icon recently opened at LA’s Academy Museum of Motion Pictures. The show presents hundreds of objects related to the actress and model who would have turned 100 this month. Here are some highlights from the exhibition, on view through February 2027:

Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (1953) Dress: The William Travilla-designed dress is a centerpiece of the exhibition. It’s on a Monroe-like mannequin with arms outstretched, in a pose from the “Diamonds Are a Girl’s Best Friend” scene. The mannequin is on a red-carpeted podium surrounded by chandeliers, resembling the film set. Madonna later recreated the scene in her “Material Girl” music video.

Personal Letters: Among the archival documents on view is correspondence between Monroe and gossip columnist Hedda Hopper. Art & Object said this shows “a rare moment of warmth after the two crossed paths at a party.” There is also correspondence between Monroe’s husband Arthur Miller and Some Like it Hot (1959) director Billy Wilder.

Personal Items: A recreation of some of Monroe’s Brentwood home is on view, with real pieces she owned including a cabinet, glass tumblers, a Mexican wool tapestry, and a teak wood chair, according to Art & Object.

JCPenney Jeans: A pair of jeans Monroe wore in River of No Return (1954) is on view. “She’s often shown in these glamorous looks, but this was a really relaxed, outdoorsy Marilyn,” associate curator Sophia Serrano told Fox 11 Los Angeles.

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As the Knicks advanced in the NBA Finals, ultimately leading to its first championship win in more than 50 years on Saturday, New York City’s East Village and Lower East Side became a hub for the team’s vintage apparel.

Business at Mr. Throwback on East 9th St. was “booming,” Spitz said Friday. He believes people are drawn to vintage apparel instead of newer products because of the old-school graphics and the higher quality of items from the 1980s and 1990s. “People are interested in things that are built to last,” he said.

While eBay and other online retailers also have classic Knicks offerings, shopping in person enables customers to walk in, talk to salespeople, and walk out and enjoy an item immediately. “On eBay, you’ve got to look at it, buy it, wait a week, get it, it’s dirty, it’s disgusting, it doesn’t fit you, can’t return it,” Spitz said.

Mr. Throwback was also selling Knicks T-shirts with a ‘90s look that are not actually vintage. Selling those enables customers to shop more affordably, as vintage shirts can cost hundreds of dollars, according to Spitz. “They want to be a part of it, but they just don’t want to spend that kind of money,” he said.

Content creator and stylist Marisa Menist of posted at least two videos in Mr. Throwback apparel. Spitz said the shout-out was organic and that after Menist posted to her more than 38,000 Instagram followers, the shop sold 200 of the shirts she wore.

Another content creator, Jake Shane, who has 1.7 million Instagram followers and appeared in a Panera Bread commercial during Game 5, posted a photo of the shop’s exterior last week. “A bunch of girls came from that,” Spitz said. “We need[ed] more small sizes.” Mr. Throwback has been dutifully re-posting photos and videos from the many customers who tagged the shop.

One customer who went to Mr. Throwback on Friday after seeing an online post was Sara Patel. She admitted that she was a new Knicks fan. “I saw someone that posted on Instagram and that’s what brought me here,” she said, as she was comparing shirts on a rack to an image on her phone. She came for a specific shirt, and only XXLs were left, which she said was “not ideal, so we’re trying to work with what the selection is here.”

A few blocks away on Avenue A, the shop Mag New York City had by Friday sold out of the “Vintage New York Knicks Capsule” it had advertised. The collection consisted of a rack of Knicks-related shirts, jackets, and pants from the 1980s and 1990s. It sold out in about a week and a half, according to Dani Moot, who works at the shop.

Moot said the store had been getting five to 10 people daily seeking the merch. “Every time a customer comes in and asks me a question, I feel like they’re going to ask me if it’s here,” she said. Mag New York City expected the excitement to continue; the shop announced it would be restocking on Monday with 20 to 30 more Knicks pieces.

A couple of blocks farther south, First Team Vintage NYC on Ludlow St. also has seen merch fly off shelves. “It’s like mania. Everyone’s coming in asking for Knicks stuff,” Freedom Garcia, who works there, said Friday. “More and more people are coming looking for pieces as the Knicks are doing better and better.”

Garcia said customers have run the gamut from those looking for basic items to wear at a watch party, to collectors seeking more specialized pieces. “I feel like we do a good job of curating enough stuff to cover the spectrum of what people are looking for,” Garcia said. Among the items on sale were a pair of never-worn 1989 Knicks Converse for $500, and Knicks-branded leather shorts for $240, which content creator posted online.

Like Mr. Throwback’s Spitz, Garcia said there are advantages to buying vintage from a local store rather than online. “We can provide education … and give people a little bit of the lore of some of these things,” Garcia said. “Here, they can ask questions. We can help them find something that maybe suits their style more.”

Knicks fans aren’t buying only classic gear. Among the many brands participating in the hype is Barney Greengrass, the Upper West Side deli institution that as Caper reported has been getting into apparel. The deli sold out of an online run of T-shirts featuring the Knicks colors in 10 minutes, according to The Wall Street Journal.

The vintage apparel sellers were planning to work right up until Game 5 on Saturday. Spitz said he usually watches from the bar and grill American Whiskey near Madison Square Garden, but he thought it might be too hectic this time. “I’m 43 years old,” he said. “I don’t want to get punched in the face and have to explain to my son that I had the best time of my life and I got a black eye.”

Knicks fever has already continued post-Finals, and the championship ticker-tape parade will take place Thursday. Meanwhile, the sports season continues with the FIFA World Cup. Soccer jerseys have become a common sight around New York City in recent days. Mag New York City has already dropped a World Cup “capsule.”

Dispatch /// A few hundred people, mostly young and fashionable, filled an indoor basketball court in Nolita on Wednesday, a few hours before the dramatic Knicks Game 4 win. They weren’t there to play basketball. They were there for the Sports x Fashion Summit hosted by ’s Shop Rat and Systemarosa, founded by Naomi Accardi and Sam Herzog.

Attendees mingled for an hour as caterers from Williamsburg restaurant Balera passed around wine, bottles of Modelo, and caprese skewers and other bites. Hannah La Follette Ryan of Subway Hands was snapping photos of guests against the backdrop of the gym, part of a former youth center on Mulberry St. that is now the Aula stage and studio space.

The next two hours featured three panels discussing the intersection of sports and fashion. During the first one, i-D magazine editor-in-chief said his “hot take” was that “both sports and fashion have become almost too cultural …. I just feel like we’ve lost the plot on that a little bit, but it’s also kind of my fault a little bit.”

During the second panel, Gotham Football Club forward Midge Purce said an athlete’s style isn’t just about their clothes, but also their “energy and aura and swag.” Purce has also played on the U.S. Women’s National Soccer Team.

The third panel featured Office Magazine senior fashion editor John Colver, fashion collector Arianna Cho, and soccer jersey collector John Palumbo. Palumbo said he secured a jersey from the 1994 World Cup game between Morocco and Saudi Arabia at Giants Stadium that he hadn’t gotten when he attended at 11 years old with his mother, who has since passed away. “I waited 30 years to finally get it,” he said. “It just brings back great memories. Value doesn’t matter. It just brings you back to better times.”

Story /// When Vidiots reopened in 2023 after closing several years earlier, the Los Angeles video store decided to add a small screening space in the historic Eagle Theatre it was taking over. This space would be in the storefront, separated by a soundproof and lightproof accordion wall. Streaming platform Mubi joined as a sponsor with naming rights for the space, and Vidiots later got 36 vintage seats from a theater in Palm Springs.

Maggie Mackay, executive director of Vidiots, a registered nonprofit located in the Eagle Rock neighborhood, said the Mubi Microcinema “allows us to really get creative with things. Not every movie will be able to attract an audience of 270 people.” She added, “It’s affordable and comfortable, and you can usually just walk up and get a ticket.”

Cinephiles are flocking to lower Manhattan this week for the Tribeca Film Festival, and many of them are likely regulars at microcinemas. The term generally means film screening spaces with 50 or fewer seats. These have been popping up in Los Angeles and New York City. In December, IndieWire declared a potential “golden age of microcinemas,” noting the ability of these theaters to avoid costly theatrical distribution rights for new movies, and the desire of audiences to gather in authentic ways post-pandemic.

Observers see the trend as a reaction to movie theater changes over the past few decades, with stadium seating, reclining seats, and meal service. They say microcinemas bring people back to a more pure moviegoing experience.

Robert Viagas, author of Right this Way: A History of the Audience, said microcinemas combine the intimacy of a living room with the perks of going out to the movies. “You have a small audience,” he told Zephyr. “You don’t have to sit in this giant theater where you don’t know, are people going to spill popcorn on you? Are they going to talk during the movie, going to use their cell phones?” Viagas likened the smaller environment to that of an Off-Off Broadway show.

In a May essay in the architecture and urbanism publication The Plan Journal, Diego Terna and Luca Maria Francesco Fabris described the microcinema as “a fluid space within broader functions, where watching the projection on a screen offers an opportunity for intellectual speculation, no longer tied to personal concentration alone, but to public dialogue.”

According to the essay, the earliest moviegoing experiences were for individual viewing on Kinetoscope devices. Collective spaces followed, starting with nickelodeons and then larger theaters during the cinema boom of the 1920s and 1930s. Multiplexes arrived in the 1960s. The authors noted that artists Rebecca Barten and David Sherman are said to have coined the term “microcinema” when they opened a 30-seat theater in the basement of their San Francisco home in 1994.

These days, Mackay said programming the microcinema at Vidiots can be more experimental than in the main space. It also hosts programs including Movie Den, which offers $2 movies and free popcorn for teenagers. The program started in the wake of the January 2025 wildfires and “was born out of this need to try to figure out how to get my own kids off of small screens,” Mackay said.

Another program there is Rough Cuts, through which Vidiots members can sign up to screen films in the microcinema for free. “A lot of filmmakers really want to be able to see their films and hear their films in a proper theatrical setting while they’re in post[-production],” Mackay said. “We got so many requests early on, and we know how hard it is for a lot of filmmakers budget-wise.”

Another LA movie theater with a microcinema separate from its larger viewing space is Los Feliz’s Vista Theater, which filmmaker Quentin Tarantino owns. The Vista’s Video Archives Cinema Club contains 20 seats and screens VHS tapes and 16 mm prints from Tarantino’s collection, often as double-features. Many viewers attend solo, and conversations can feel easier to start than in the bigger space. The “club” also retains an in-the-know feel, as even some Vista devotees haven’t heard of it.

Other LA microcinemas include Whammy! Analog Media in Echo Park; the referral-only Tub Theater in Koreatown; Now Instant Image Hall in Chinatown; and Soho Cinema Club in Boyle Heights. They tend to have quirks that differentiate them from larger theaters in ways besides their sizes. Soho Cinema Club features a magician during intermission, and the Tub Theater has an arcade game in its lobby, for example.

On the other coast, New York City has Low Cinema in Ridgewood, Queens, owned in part by filmmaker John Wilson; Film Noir Cinema in Greenpoint, Brooklyn; and Spectacle Theater in South Williamsburg, Brooklyn.

Filmmaker Danny Whalen hosted a friends-and-family screening of a short at Film Noir Cinema on Sunday. “It’s so amazing having dedicated spaces like that, where there’s an informal community built around indie artists trying to get their stuff out there anywhere that will let them,” Whalen said. “It also really helps to be able to screen a movie in a theater where the stakes are low but the quality is high, and you get to really see what it looks like on the big screen.”

Like some of its West Coast counterparts, Film Noir Cinema also sells videos. Owner Will Malitek said business has been growing, but he estimates that 90% of his theater revenue comes from rentals of the space, not his scheduled programming. “There is no money in tickets at all, I can tell you that,” he said. “I am really surprised how cinemas survive on tickets only.”

Perhaps the littlest of all microcinemas is Davey B. Gravey’s Tiny Cinema, currently based in Silver Lake. The theater is a refurbished cargo trailer containing four vintage theater seats. Filmmaker David B. Weaver runs the cinema as the street barker character Dr. Davey B. Gravey. He opened the theater in Colorado in 2014 and brought it to Los Angeles around 2021.

Weaver projects Super 8 mm shorts of between 2.5 and 12.5 minutes. Some of these he made himself, and others are abridged silent versions of titles that studios put out decades ago for use on Super 8 home projectors. He also handles musical accompaniment on ukulele and synth instruments. “It does harken back to the origins of the medium being this, like, traveling road show, almost vaudevillian, thing,” he said. “It’s very exciting to people and surprising and delightful.”

Weaver believes the appeal of microcinemas is community. “​​In these stadium-seating mega-chair situations, you’re more disconnected from your fellow audience members,” he said. “In a more intimate microcinema experience, you get back to that [feeling of], ‘I’m here with people.’”

Bonus /// Viewers have called it “the perfect movie.” Turning 35 next month and with anniversary screenings happening and a television adaptation on the way, Point Break is experiencing a revival. A recent 4K restoration screened at New York City’s Paris Theater in January, and LA’s Cinespia showed it at Hollywood Forever Cemetery last year. In January, the Los Angeles Times ranked it 64 out of the 101 best LA films. Substacker Shea Serrano of Good Movie wrote in April, “If you look past the flair and the fireworks and the firearms, there’s an unmistakable thoughtfulness tucked inside it.”

The 1991 flick stars Keanu Reeves as Johnny Utah and Patrick Swayze as Bodhi. Kathryn Bigelow directed the film, about an FBI agent who infiltrates a group of LA surfers to nab serial bank robbers. It also has Gary Busey, Lori Petty, John C. McGinley, and Anthony Kiedis of the Red Hot Chili Peppers.

Point Break belonged to a wave of cop movies set in LA around that time, including Lethal Weapon, Die Hard, Heat, and Speed, also starring Reeves. Redditors have said Point Break has everything: “One-part cop film, one-part high-speed heist film, one-part epic adventure, one-part bromance…. You want action? Perfect. Daring stunts? Tons of ‘em. Love story? You got it. Drama? You bet your ass.”

Point Break is considered genuinely good, with a 68% rating on Rotten Tomatoes. But it’s also a cult classic due to outlandish lines and moments. The surfing bank robbers parachute out of an airplane while the song “Over the Edge” by LA Guns plays. A character pulls a gun on another character mid-sky dive. The most memorable line might come from Busey’s character when ordering meatball subs: “Utah! Get me two!”

A 2015 remake bombed. The upcoming TV series for AMC will reportedly be about a present-day crew of robbers with ties to the group from the original film. There’s never been a better time to discover or rediscover Point Break.

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But for now, to walk around that same area means navigating sidewalk tents and trash and passing empty lots and vacant buildings, some of them historic. The massive empty former home of EI School of Professional Makeup sits vacant, as do the landmarked former offices of The Hollywood Reporter and LA Weekly. Across the street is a boarded-up Rite Aid, the lot where a historic theater burned down, and remnants of the former Hollywood Center Motel, which was destroyed in a fire in January amid landmarking efforts. One of the only non-empty storefronts that isn’t a motel is a substance-abuse clinic.

Conditions in the neighborhood of Hollywood have been a topic of debate ahead of Tuesday’s nonpartisan primary election in Los Angeles. The issue has been a talking point for candidates in the mayoral race and for City Council District 13. The election comes on the heels of a May 21 RAND Corporation report on homelessness that found the number of unsheltered people in Hollywood remained flat in 2025 despite efforts to fix the problem. There also was a 20% rise in “rough sleeping,” defined as sleeping without a tent, vehicle, or other shelter.

Kim Cooper, a well-known local preservationist who runs the unusual-sightseeing tour company Esotouric with her husband Richard Schave, blames the city government for what’s happened to the area.

“The reason that the neighborhood is blighted and that nobody lives in Hollywood anymore, and no one votes in Hollywood anymore, is that City Hall has systematically gotten rid of the human beings who lived in this neighborhood and turned it into just a clear-cut investment vehicle,” she said.

“The only people who are left living in Hollywood are extremely vulnerable, sick, addicted, homeless, troubled people,” she added. “They don’t vote. They’re not Angelenos. They are dying on the streets. They are breathing in the asbestos. They are burning down landmarks. They are being villainized and used for political purposes.”

Kathleen Rawson has heard such complaints. “There shouldn’t be such a dramatic difference when you’re driving from Hollywood and you drive into West Hollywood,” said Rawson, president and chief executive officer of The Hollywood Partnership, a nonprofit that manages the Hollywood Entertainment District property business improvement district. “You know immediately when you cross the border.”

The HP covers a 1.4-square-mile geographic area around the Hollywood Walk of Fame and part of Sunset Blvd. Property owners pay The HP an assessment, which the group uses primarily for cleaning, hospitality and public safety, and to a lesser extent, beautification, activations and marketing, and advocacy and development.

“We’re basically a mini public works department,” said Rawson, who also serves as vice president of the Los Angeles City Tourism Board of Commissioners and previously served as CEO of Downtown Santa Monica for 25 years.

“The City of Los Angeles has budget woes, and so their base level of services, their version of street sweeping and trash collection, is pretty minimal,” she said. “So our work is very important in the area.” The HP’s numbers are impressive: in 2025, it collected 880 tons of trash and its dispatch center handled 421,000 interactions.

Rawson said there’s reason to be optimistic. She pointed to the planned opening of the first West Coast flagship of Bathhouse, the buzzy New York City-based wellness club, in the old Amoeba Music space on Sunset. She also mentioned the recently-opened Vinyl Room, a lounge inspired by Japanese listening bars, at the historic Hollywood Palladium theater; the planned takeover of the former NeueHouse space by the Fitler Club, a private members club; and a new location of Bristol Farms, the upscale grocer. The perception of the neighborhood as only for tourists is changing, she said.

But major construction projects announced to much fanfare before COVID have yet to come to fruition, including Crossroads Hollywood. The HP’s website lists 55 development projects, only five of which are fully entitled, meaning they have the necessary approvals to proceed. “The capital market is challenging right now,” Rawson said. “We’re helping, as much as we can, show and demonstrate that Hollywood is worth the bet.”

The City of Los Angeles spends $2,945 per capita per person, compared to $9,266 by the city of Beverly Hills and $4,568 by West Hollywood, according to The HP’s data.

That’s where the group can come in. To turn things around, the HP is pushing a reinvestment program that seeks to raise $30 million a year for the next 10 years, all of which will go into that 1.4-square-mile stretch.

As for the parts of Hollywood outside the group’s reach, Rawson said the group intends to expand its boundaries, if the property owners give the green light. She said she expects to know by September how they feel about the proposition. “We need to go all the way down to Sunset,” she said. “The area at Sunset and La Brea looks like shit.”

Rawson added, “The neighborhood has been put together with sticky tape and thumbtacks for decades. We’ve squeezed every bit of juice out of the reputation of our name and of our image, and now it’s time to feed her.”

Bonus /// Luxury grocer Laurel Supply opened on Santa Monica Blvd. in early May, and the reviews are in. Zephyr asked Barney’s Beanery, which has been on the block for 99 years, for thoughts about its high-profile new neighbor. AJ Sacher, regional manager, said by email:

“We are really excited for them and for the efforts they’ve put in to bring a great business concept to the block. They’ve done such a good job with the space, maintaining the historic design with a cool, clean look to the new concept. Any new and well-run business uplifts all adjacent businesses, and that’s exactly what they are doing. We are big fans of their concept, and our customers are having fun bouncing back and forth. We all want to see continued business investment around here, and hopefully their new success will be a proof-of-concept to other businesses that are considering opening in the neighborhood.”

Barney’s Beanery got a new sign in May, and the update received attention online. Sacher said the revamp wasn’t to coincide with the Laurel Supply opening. “We aren’t that sophisticated,” Sacher joked by email. “We’ve had a plan to convert the sign to LED for a while, and the work just happened to line-up, scheduling-wise. We’ll continue to work on putting our best foot forward while maintaining our classic look and feel.”

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Cecchi-Azzolina’s backstory is well-known, thanks to his 2022 memoir, Your Table Is Ready: Tales of a New York City Maître D’. He worked at iconic New York City restaurants including Raoul’s, The River Café, Minetta Tavern, and Le Coucou. The book, described as “a front-of-house Kitchen Confidential,” doesn’t hold back on decades of restaurant-world lore from a participant and eyewitness. It got media attention, sold out its initial run, and preceded other industry memoirs by Keith McNally and Drew Nieporent. “It’s just nuts,” Cecchi-Azzolina said. “It was translated into Chinese.”

Your Table Is Ready ends with Cecchi-Azzolina deciding to start his own restaurant and call it Cecchi’s (pronounced CHECK-ees). The modern bar and grill on West 13th Street opened around seven months after the book was published. It took over the former space of Café Loup, a French institution where New York City’s literati congregated before its 2019 closure. Cecchi’s retained some elements of its storied predecessor: the maître d’ stand, the cane-backed chairs, parts of the bar, even one of the servers.

If Cecchi-Azzolina writes another memoir, it would probably start here. Opening Cecchi’s in July 2023 took almost two years and cost around $2 million, according to its proprietor. “The place was in bad shape when I took it over, filthy,” he said. The design was important to him. “The lighting had to be great, the welcome had to be wonderful … and I wanted the murals to be sexy and titillating.”

The hard work paid off. Condé Nast Traveler said, “This is where you go to remember why you live in the city.” Eater said Cecchi’s “serves one of the best burgers in town.” “We’ve been busy from day 1,” Cecchi-Azzolina said, adding that the waitlist on weekends regularly hits 1,000 people. Part of the appeal is that the place has “heart,” he explained as Dave Brubeck’s “Take Five” played over the sound system. But part of it is also him. Book clubs read Your Table is Ready and then go there to discuss it. “We had three book clubs last week,” he said. He makes a point to be there five nights a week. “I touch every table. People love to see that there’s an owner here, that someone cares,” he said. “If they read my book, they get so excited to meet me. It’s crazy, seriously crazy.”

That personal touch is what used to make restaurants great, according to the restaurateur. “When I came up in the business, every neighborhood had a restaurant that had one owner, and you knew the owner, or maybe you knew the chef,” he said. “They don’t exist any longer. I don’t know anyone like me who’s doing this in Manhattan.” Now it’s all hospitality groups, he said. “The restaurant business in New York has lost its personality. How many Dantes can you go to? And who’s there that you know? Is there an operator there? Almost never.”

Another gripe he has is with influencers. During one recent visit to Cecchi’s, a pair of young patrons appeared to spend half their time filming themselves eating, with phones propped up on the table, and the other half reviewing and editing what they had shot. There are plenty of videos online of others doing the same there. Cecchi-Azzolina said he would have stopped that behavior if he saw it. “If I open up my Instagram, there’s probably 20 people that want for me to give them free dinner so they can come in here and post on us. I don’t want that,” he said. “I don’t want influencers here. I really don’t.”

Running Cecchi’s hasn’t been easy. “It’s the first time in my life that I’m doing this myself, and all the decisions, good and bad, are mine,” Cecchi-Azzolina said. “But it was all my decisions, and I knew what not to do, pretty much, because I watched people make stupid mistakes.”

Now with Cecchi’s under his belt, Cecchi-Azzolina has news: he’s opening a new restaurant. He’s preparing to take over a space in the SoHo area, one that will be bigger than his current spot. “I’m doing a New York brasserie,” he said. “Two floors, two bars, two private dining rooms.” He doesn’t have a name for it yet, and he expects it will take about a year to open.

Why go through the process of launching a restaurant again? “I love creating things, and it’s an addiction,” he said. “I have one more in me.” He said he’s turned down offers to open restaurants in Chicago, Los Angeles, Miami, and West Palm Beach, but doing one close by would allow him to retain control. “With a five-minute bike ride, I’ll go back and forth,” he said. He needs to be there. “The world’s getting more and more depersonalized and people are really grasping for human contact,” he said. “When you start to lose that, what the fuck’s the point?”

Related: Zephyr 004: Restaurant Postcards Are the New Matchbooks

Dispatch /// Last Tuesday, exactly a month before its planned June 19 closure after more than 75 years, Donohue’s Steak House on the Upper East Side was full by 6:30 p.m. Owner Maureen Donohue-Peters, who was pouring Beefeater and Ketel One martinis at the bar, said there had been increased interest since the restaurant signaled its plans to close, but she’s more concerned with the regulars.

Indeed, over the course of an hour, Donohue-Peters said hello and goodbye to many of those people. She told some she’d see them out East, referring to the fact that she will keep the restaurant’s Westhampton Beach location that opened last summer. “Think of all the years,” she told one party on its way out, adding, “You have my number.” Multiple people left with newly purchased quarter-zip sweatshirts emblazoned with the eatery’s name.

From outside, the Lexington Ave. restaurant resembles an Irish pub, with a medium-size window, an aging red sign, and a green awning. It’s below an out-of-business eyebrow threading salon. But the inside is transporting, with a classic checkerboard floor, a wraparound bar in the front, and black vinyl booths and red tablecloths in the back.

Donohue-Peters’ father and grandfather opened the restaurant in 1950. The New York Times described it in 2015 as “a place dating to a John O’Hara period when gin joints and steakhouses figured large in the social and literary life of Manhattan, when the rich and powerful routinely rubbed elbows with hoi polloi.” It seemed to retain that spirit; The Infatuation last year called it “one of New York’s great antidotes to trend fatigue.”

Over the years, Donohue’s became an art-world haunt (dealer Robert H. Ellsworth bequeathed Donohue-Peters and her niece each a $50,000 tip when he died in 2015). Last Tuesday evening, TEFAF had just ended its six-day run at the Park Avenue Armory a few blocks away, and some of the fair crowd had migrated over. A gallerist from Ben Brown Fine Arts was eating a cheeseburger and scrolling through coverage of the previous night’s Christie’s auction. Another patron with a TEFAF badge was draining a martini before heading back to the Armory for the de-install. Dan Rosen, co-host of the podcast Middlebrow, was there, as was Vanity Fair art correspondent Nate Freeman. There was a two-hour wait for tables, and a landline phone was ringing and ringing.

Donohue-Peters said closing this chapter of her family’s legacy is the hardest part. “I’m saying bye to my father,” she told Zephyr. “It’s his baby.” Otherwise, she seemed at peace with the decision. She said she was even thinking of opening another location out East in a year or two. “New York City isn’t the same,” she said. “It’s time to go.”

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“We’re really conscious about how people navigate the booth, the different entry points, and not having it feel too crowded,” said Kristen Smoragiewicz, the gallery’s senior director. “We just like to have enough space for everything.” The stackable, plastic stools were by Martino Gamper, whom the gallery represents.

From Wednesday to Sunday, Frieze hosted 67 galleries from 25 countries at The Shed in Hudson Yards. The lineup included many galleries with locations on both coasts. While the focus for visitors was on the art, galleries also brought with them furniture to use when working, eating, and meeting with clients. Interviews with Zephyr revealed intentional furniture choices, including seating by artists on the galleries’ rosters or from gallery owners’ personal collections.

David Zwirner brought a table, chairs, and armchairs by the late Austrian artist Franz West, with whom the gallery has had a long history. The gallery uses West’s furniture at all their locations and has been bringing it to fairs for years.

In a booth nearby, The Modern Institute had a bench by painter and carpenter Marc Hundley, whom the Glasgow gallery represents. Hundley incorporates benches into his shows. “The idea is that he installs them in his exhibitions and you would sit on them almost like a bench at a bus stop, waiting for the bus,” said Bobby Sinclair, sales associate at the gallery. “You sit there and you look at the paintings and you live with them for a little.” Sinclair described the bench as “a functional artwork,” since it served as a surface for business cards, water bottles, and other supplies. The gallery also displayed a painting by Hundley.

Southern Guild, which started in Cape Town and opened in New York City a few weeks ago, brought a glazed stoneware and mild steel table and stools by ceramist Chuma Maweni, whose work is in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. As both a work of art on display and furniture for gallery staff to use, “it has a dual purpose,” said director Andréa Delph-Dorcely.

Other galleries chose decor not necessarily from their own artists, but that would correspond with the pieces on display. Rio de Janeiro’s A Gentil Carioca brought red folding chairs from a collaboration between Pantone and Italian design firm Seletti. “We decided we wanted to do everything in red,” said Marianna Quartieri, the gallery’s fairs director and sales and artist liaison. Quartieri said they asked their artists to incorporate the color, and that the gallery has all the Pantone chairs.

Pace Gallery had a wooden George Nakashima bench that harmonized with materials the two featured artists, Maya Lin and Leo Villareal, incorporated. “We were thinking very intentionally about the use of wood in our booth,” said sales assistant Hannah Goldstein. “We wanted to bring some cohesion to the space.”

At other booths, furniture came from gallery owners’ collections. That was the case at Esther Schipper, from Berlin, and Tina Kim Gallery, which had Jean Prouvé chairs that travel with the gallery to all the fairs.

The concept of “fair furniture,” a single setup that a gallery regularly takes to events, came up frequently in interviews. Gallerists said they typically choose these items for a combination of aesthetic and logistical reasons.

“Fair furniture” is often mid-century modern, a choice insiders said was because its timeless look tends not to clash with the art. At Frieze, such decor included Eero Saarinen’s Tulip Table and Alvar Aalto’s Stool 60. OMR, a gallery from Mexico City, was using an Isamu Noguchi Cyclone Table that New York City furniture store Found Objet provided.

Some galleries turned to Danish mid-century furniture. Hauser & Wirth, White Cube, and Almine Rech all had the Hans Olsen Roundette dining set. Hauser & Wirth also brought a credenza, good for storage and setting a scene with a living-room feel, according to the gallerists.

Victoria Miro also went Danish, with a Hans Wegner table and chairs. “They come everywhere with us,” said Fern Warriner, associate director of sales. Warriner said they keep one set in New York for U.S. fairs and another in London for European ones.

Other galleries went with late-mid-century Italian designs. Andrew Kreps Gallery staff members were sitting on Giancarlo Piretti’s Plia folding chairs and at Piretti’s Plano table that folds from the center. “It’s a design that we like, but it’s also very economical,” said gallery director Alex Fitzgerald. Nearby, Alexander Gray Associates and James Cohan Gallery both had Vico Magistretti’s Stadio table and Selene chairs, convenient to pack because the legs detach and the chairs are stackable.

The Frieze furniture choices caught the eye of Camila Navas, an interior designer and art consultant who was attending with her father, photographer and painter Antonio Navas. “I really like when the galleries put interest into the types of seating they have in their booths and the type of lighting,” she said. Booth design, like when “galleries have Noguchi furniture, [is] just really speaking to the type of art that they have.”

A few galleries took unique approaches. Stevenson, from Cape Town, used an art-shipping crate as a surface for books and business cards. The crate even still had art packed inside it. And Gagosian had a wide, backless bench that resembled museum seating. This seemed to encourage visitors to slow down and take in the art, instead of moving quickly through the booth.

Instituto de Visión, which started in Bogotá and has expanded to New York City, had furniture from Colombia’s Tucurinca. “For us, it really reflects the spirit of the gallery and who we are, our identity,” said gallery co-founder and executive director Omayra Alvarado-Jensen.

Fair organizers typically offer furniture for rent, but no gallery interviewed took that approach. Alvarado-Jensen said of those options, “It’s for other kinds of trade shows, not for art.”

Bonus /// New York Art Week also included the TEFAF and NADA fairs and Tribeca Gallery Night. For standouts from TEFAF at the Park Avenue Armory, Zephyr turned to , a creative consultant and “arbiter of taste” who attended the fair. Here are Butler’s picks:

Salon 94 showcased John Kacere’s depictions of the female midsection alongside Tom Sachs light sculptures made of latex and plywood. I thought they were the perfect juxtaposition. Both were vibrant literally and figuratively. The glow of Sachs’ lamps reflected the luminous skin of Kacere’s models.

Didier Ltd had an incredible selection of jewelry pieces by artists I love: a silver shackle-like choker by Louise Bourgeois; an 18-carat gold cuff by Lucio Fontana with a protruding ornament showcasing his “Concetto spaziale” motif; and a ring by Jenny Holzer in the shape of a snake inscribed with [the words], “With you inside me comes the knowledge of my death.”

Hauser & Wirth’s booth had a beautiful curation of Vilhelm Hammershøi paintings. The fair had an overwhelming amount of brightly colored works that began to feel claustrophobic. These felt like a cool breeze blowing through you.

Tina Kim’s booth had pieces from two artists I have been desperately wanting to see in person: the paintings of Kim Tschang-yeul and a sculpture by Minoru Niizuma, both of which have a serene quality to them.

Shiro Kuramata chairs, originally designed for the Soseikan-Yamaguchi House, were shown in Friedman Benda’s booth. I’ve seen “Miss Blanche” (1988) and “Armchair” (1976) before, which I think can only be seen as sculptures, but these have an Arts and Crafts quality to them that I adore. Humble. I can imagine them in my home.

Pace Di Donna Schrader’s booth had the brightest Rothko I had ever seen. A beautiful chartreuse color field blending with ivory and soft taupe (“Yellow and White,” 1956.)

And here are Zephyr’s standouts from those other events:

TEFAF

1. Adolph Gottlieb’s “Untitled (Alex with Mandolin)” and “Untitled (Cora’s Two Sisters”) at Pace

2. Osang Gwon’s “River” at The Page Gallery

NADA

1. Jacopo Zambello’s “Tommaso II” at The Address Gallery

2. Yam Shalev’s “Caught off Guard” at Room 57 Gallery

3. Qian Zhong’s “Where do I end?” at Soho Revue

Tribeca Gallery Night

1. Marin Majić’s “Take me down” at Nino Mier Gallery

2. Sedrick Chisom’s “The Historical Reenactment of The Empire’s Counterattack on The Monstrous Races, Restaged as a Minstrel Comedy” at Matthew Brown Gallery

   Related: Zephyr 002: How to Buy an Ed Ruscha For Cheap

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Now the property is for sale for the first time, and real estate insiders and architectural historians say the asking price probably has a lot to do with that photo. The house hit the market to much fanfare in November at $25 million. Last month, the price dropped to $20 million. The Shulman photo is the first one in the listing.

Architect Pierre Koenig designed the Stahl House, completed in 1960, as part of the Case Study Houses program that Arts & Architecture magazine sponsored. The program consisted of around 24 homes built between 1945 and 1966 and another dozen unconstructed designs. These homes were meant to be prototypes for simple, innovative, low-cost housing in the post-war era. Koenig made Case Study House No. 22 for Buck and Carlotta Stahl, using glass and steel, the latter of which was unusual for residences back then.

While those materials were simple, the way the house sat on a hill overlooking the city gave it drama and power, said Elizabeth Smith, an art historian who curated a 1989 Case Study Houses exhibition and is now executive director of the Helen Frankenthaler Foundation. “It wouldn’t be quite the same house if it were situated in another setting,” she said.

House No. 22 stood out in the Case Study program. “The Stahl House just captured the imagination of the architectural world because it just embodied all the things: modern materials, steel and glass, the possibilities of life in a beautiful place up in the hills,” said architect and historian Alan Hess. “That was just such a compelling image of modern life.”

By the 1980s, modernism was out and postmodernism was in, with the rise of architects like Frank Gehry. But Smith’s 1989 exhibition at LA’s Museum of Contemporary Art changed things. The show featured a full-size recreation of the Stahl House. Smith recalled that they designed it with the Shulman photo in mind, having the structure perched in a darkened area meant to evoke nighttime, and lights shining below. (A recreation of the Eames House, also from the Case Study program, was on view until Sunday at Milano Design Week, as Sanctuaries LA noted.)

After the MOCA exhibition, “there was a reawakening of interest in the houses,” Smith said. The Stahl House soon became an official LA historic monument, and later it earned a spot on the National Register of Historic Places and began welcoming public tours, leading to even more notoriety. Instagram is full of people recreating the Shulman shot. The property stayed in the Stahl family, and they also made it available to rent for parties and shoots. “What’s so fabulous about it is that it’s somebody’s home,” said Eleanor Schrader, an art and architectural historian who for years has brought people for tours of the property. “You do feel a warmth there.”

Now Shari Gronwald and Bruce Stahl, the children of Buck and Carlotta, are selling. “After 65 years, our family has made the heartfelt and very difficult decision to place the Stahl House on the market,” they wrote online. “This home has been the center of our lives for decades, but as we’ve gotten older, it has become increasingly challenging to care for it with the attention and energy it so richly deserves.” They didn’t say whether tours would continue under the new owner, only that they hoped the buyer would “be committed to protecting the house today and far into the future.” The family did not respond to interview requests.

The listing went to William Baker of The Agency, who for years had been organizing special “twilight” tours of the house. According to the listing, the single-story 2,200-square-foot home on 0.29 acres has two bedrooms, two and a half baths, a pool, and a hot tub.

Baker declined an interview request but said by email, “What makes the Stahl House so special is its singular place in the cultural imagination.” He cited the famous shot: “While the Case Study program produced many extraordinary homes, the Stahl House is the one that transcended architecture to become its most enduring image, cemented by Shulman’s 1960 photograph.”

One agent who said she has shown the house to multiple clients is Linda May of Linda May Properties Group and Carolwood Estates. “It is an extraordinary property and one in a million,” she said. “It’s a house that anyone who has a passion for architecture always is excited to see…. It’s a collectible.” May represented the buyer, reportedly former Google Chief Executive Officer Eric Schmidt, in the biggest home sale in Los Angeles last year, $110 million for Aaron Spelling’s former Holmby Hills mansion.

Some in LA’s real estate world question how serious the Stahl House listing is. Brian Linder, founder of The Value Of Architecture at Compass, said it seems like a publicity stunt. Linder in December sold the John Lautner-designed Salkin House in Echo Park to eyewear impresario Jérôme Mage, which does not appear to have been previously reported.

“The Stahl House isn’t for sale,” said Linder, who noted that he has rented out the property in the past. “I don’t think they want to sell it for less than $20 million, because they’re making a ton of money on it just renting it out every night.” Linder said his sense from speaking with Baker was that the family hadn’t intended to sell but liked the potential sales numbers they were hearing.

Asked whether the listing was a stunt, Baker responded by email that he “can confirm that is not the case.”

Others see it differently from Linder. “Knowing the two Stahls…that’s just so not them,” said Schrader, the historian and tour organizer. “They’re so down to earth.” Rochelle Maize, an agent with Nourmand & Associates who said she handled possibly the first showing of the residence to a client last year, said, “I think they’re definitely sellers, and I think they’re looking at passing the baton.” She added, “They don’t need a publicity stunt for that property.”

However, Linder and Maize agree that the spectacular house has a few issues. First, it’s in a very high fire hazard severity zone, which impacts insurance costs and is front of mind for buyers after the January 2025 wildfires. Second, both said it was on the small side for today’s buyers. Third, Linder said any attempts to keep the home open to the public in some way might dim interest. “Most people who own homes, they don’t want to even be told what color [they can] paint the exterior,” he said. However, historic status can have benefits; under California’s Mills Act, tax relief is available for restoring and preserving significant private properties.

Linder pointed to other Koenig-designed dwellings that in the past couple of years had more modest pricing. The architect’s Case Study House No. 21, the Bailey House, is perhaps the Stahl House’s closest analogue and located nearby. It sold for $3.26 million in 2019. Linder sold Koenig’s Schwartz House in Santa Monica for $4 million in 2021, and then for $3.49 in 2024. Linder sold another Koenig home, in the Pacific Palisades, for $3.74 million in 2022. Yet another by Koenig, the LaFetra Beach House in Malibu, sold for $8.75 million in 2018, down from an initial asking price of nearly $18.5 million and after almost six years on the market. It was listed again in 2021 for $20 million and is still on the market, now at $14.9 million.

Other celebrated mid-century architects’ dwellings have recently sold for below-asking: Lautner’s Garcia House in the Hollywood Hills, Richard Neutra’s Lovell Health House in Los Feliz, and Neutra’s Kaufmann House in Palm Springs, which ended up at almost half the initial asking price.

A January report by Compass said ultra-luxury sales in Greater Los Angeles increased in 2025, but it indicated that was largely for new construction. Well-priced properties are selling instantly and generating bidding wars, but over-priced trophy ones are languishing on the market for months and years, according to Linder. Twelve million dollars for the Stahl House is a more realistic number, and it’s unclear if the family would accept that, he said. The newsletter Mid-Century Mondays put it this way when discussing the property in December: “How do you value something that probably belongs in a museum, or a structure that could itself be a museum?”

Architectural historians say the transformation of Case Study Houses into luxury real estate is ironic. “They were meant to be really strong, well-designed middle class houses, and now they sell for millions of dollars,” Hess said. Smith, the former curator, said she hopes people will still get to visit, as they did under the Stahl family. “They’ve done a real service to the field by having the house be open to people,” she said.

Dispatch /// When the New York Review of Architecture last fall decided to do a Los Angeles issue, the cover art paid homage to Julius Shulman’s Stahl House photo. Instead of two women inside the house were the publication’s rat mascot and another creature.

NYRA celebrated its 50th issue with a party last Thursday night at Van Alen Institute in Brooklyn’s Gowanus neighborhood. The setting was appropriate for an architecture publication, since few areas have transformed over the past decade as much as that one. Subscriptions are up to 4,200, publisher Nicolas Kemper told the at-capacity crowd.

The issue features the publication’s first-ever full insert, a New York City architecture guide. “This is the first time we’ve done something like this and had so many guest contributors,” editorial fellow Kim Hew-Low told Zephyr. “It really started as a bare-bones publication, so it’s grown a lot since then.”

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“I wanted to pay homage to my Instagram and tie in all the restaurants and bars and places that me and my now-husband have visited throughout the years,” said Ngai, who posts as @sisterhoodofthetravelingfork. “Our guests, some of those people had gone to those restaurants with us.”

People are hanging onto postcards that more and more restaurants and bars are giving out. These collectors are finding creative ways to use them, such as pasting them into journals or assembling them as framed collages. Some might even mail them out.

Ngai, whose favorites include those from Thai Diner and Bar Primi, considers the postcards “a tangible way to hold on to the memories of whatever restaurant or bar or wherever the postcard is from.” She’s heard of people who go to restaurants for the postcards without even dining. “People almost see it as a competition of, ‘Oh, how many can I collect to keep in my home?’” she said.

No restaurant appears to claim credit for launching the trend. The publication Taste pointed to restaurateur Keith McNally as a possible originator. New York City restaurants of all sizes and cuisines are taking part. Sometimes they incorporate imagery they use elsewhere, like The Odeon, whose postcard features the artwork of a man reading the newspaper that appears throughout the eatery’s branding.

Others, like Bar Primi, commission new work. Graphic designer David Genco created four visuals of people with pasta noodles instead of heads, or “pasta heads,” as he put it, for Bar Primi in 2014. Chef Andrew Carmellini wanted to differentiate this spot from his other establishments, according to Genco. “The idea was to do something that was wacky and not too serious,” Genco said, “trying to make something a bit absurd, a bit surreal.” He added, “I just saw it as a nice vehicle to tell a little bit of story while you get your check.” Couples who went on first dates there have contacted him for the image files so that they could make posters, he said.

Another fan favorite is the postcard from Thai Diner. Chef and co-owner Ann Redding said her sister May designed the postcards that the restaurant has used since it opened in 2020. “May wanted it to feel representative of the vibe at Thai Diner, so we were going for fun and tasty,” Redding said by email. “I think the postcards are a nice takeaway for guests to help remember their experience, and if, hopefully, a positive one, then that’s a plus for us.”

The trend seems to be less common in Los Angeles, but one restaurant doing it there is Casaléna in Woodland Hills. Chloe Makhani, a partner at the 250-seat coastal Mediterranean establishment, said they have a handful of postcards on rotation throughout the year and around 20 special editions during the holiday season. Casaléna’s servers tell customers they can fill out the postcards and leave them at the table for mailing, and Makhani said they mail out hundreds each week.

“Now everyone’s just texting and talking, but I know my friends, when they receive a handwritten card or postcard, it’s always so special,” Makhani said. “Obviously it’s an added expense for us, but it’s such a playful, fun item…. The cost is an afterthought for us, which no restaurateur would ever say about any other department.”

Alexandra Kelly, a New York City portrait photographer, has been using postcards and other restaurant freebies to make collages for herself and friends. “I grew up as someone who scrapbooked all the time,” she said, “so it’s now my adult version.”

She likes to keep supplies handy. “Even if I’ve gone to a restaurant a million times and gotten the same postcard, I still always grab some on my way out, so I’ve built a little bit of a stock,” she said. “It represents a time and a place and a memory, and I think that’s what makes them, out of all of the things that you can get at restaurants, so special.”

Another collector is Courtney Rademacher, who has been amassing restaurant postcards since moving to New York. “They’re just a fun memento or souvenir of a fun dinner that you had with a friend,” she said. “Whenever I see that postcard, I think of the memory and the time that we had together.”

She began hanging them on her fridge, and when she ran out of space, she collaged and framed them above her bed. She estimates she has 30 to 40 postcards spread across two frames, with favorites from American Bar, Paros, and The Polo Bar. “This is actually probably some of the most expensive art that I have,” she said, “because of how much all of the dinners cost.”

Dispatch /// Echo Park hotspot Canyon Coffee opened an outpost in Brooklyn’s Prospect Heights in March. (This followed the arrival of Maru in Williamsburg last fall.) The new location mostly resembles its Los Angeles counterpart, with a counter, and seating around the wall and also outdoors. The menu also mirrors that of its West Coast sibling, which means espresso tonics are becoming easier to find in New York. One difference is in the pastry menus, which reflect local tastes and traditions; Brooklyn’s offers rugelach, knishes, and bialys, while Echo Park’s has donuts.

This past Saturday afternoon, two hours before closing, the line had around 20 people and snaked around the corner. That was shorter than it had been when the spot first opened. It took around 10 minutes to order and another 10 minutes for a matcha tonic to arrive. An hour before closing, there was no line at all.

Unlike the creatives on Echo Park Ave., the crowd here had strollers and tote bags from The Strand and Brooklinen. Only the employee taking orders seemed right out of LA, sporting a camo hat from East Hollywood ceramics studio Danny D’s Mud Shop and the customary patchwork tattoos.

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Across the Sunset Strip, the reception area of Chateau Marmont also has a case containing books. And in New York City, Sardi’s, the caricature-filled Theater District haunt that will soon temporarily close as its ownership changes, has a books display. While plenty of establishments have books in their lobbies, places like these have elevated collections behind glass. Hospitality leaders seem to think of books as a design choice that signals what visitors can expect throughout the properties.

Sunset Tower’s display is the work of Nick Harvill, who started his career in New York City decades ago under legendary rare-books seller Jane Stubbs. Harvill began consigning to the hotel in the 2010s, as Gabé Doppelt took over as Tower Bar maître d’ and hotelier Jeff Klein renovated the property. Doppelt had been a longtime client of Harvill’s and “thought it would be great to bring out-of-print books,” Harvill said. (A former Condé Nast editor, Doppelt has since left the hotel for the exclusive San Vicente Bungalows.)

The process is easy, Harvill said. He curates the books, brings them in, and consigns them to the hotel. Then he handles restocking and changing the theme every few months. A sign in the display case on Sunset Tower Hotel stationery has read, “Culturally starved? Etiquette deficient? Socially awkward? Bored rigid? Read a book!”

A frequent subject is Hollywood, which according to Harvill sells well. “It speaks to the hotel, like Old Hollywood glamour,” he said. One such haul included Hedda and Louella, a dual biography by George Eells of the early-Hollywood gossip columnists, and a first edition of The Brown Derby Cookbook, from the iconic Wilshire Boulevard restaurant, both listed at $600.

A Presidents’ Day theme included Oleg Cassini’s memoir about dressing Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, A Thousand Days of Magic, for $475. To coincide with FX’s Feud: Capote Vs. The Swans, Harvill was selling a first edition of In Cold Blood for $750. A James Bond theme included a set of the Ian Fleming books for $1,750. A summertime theme centered around Slim Aarons’ A Wonderful Time: An Intimate Portrait of the Good Life, which features the photographer’s iconic “Poolside Gossip” shot, available for $675.

Sales have fluctuated over the years, according to Harvill. He said he typically sources books from other booksellers and that he’s drawn to titles that are out-of-print but feel current. “A lot of books, they just die. They’re just not of interest to the 21st-century reader,” he said. “I look for the ones that still have some sort of relevance and that people probably would never happen to [find] on their own.”

At Chateau Marmont, a smaller display recently included memoirs by fashion designer Brunello Cucinelli and actor, director, and literary scion Griffin Dunne; music producer Mark Ronson’s Night People; and former Chateau Marmont owner Raymond Sarlot’s Life at the Marmont. There also was Oyster Isles by Bobby Groves, head of oysters at Chiltern Firehouse, Chateau Marmont’s sister property in London that is temporarily closed. A representative for Chateau Marmont declined an interview request.

Kelly Chervin, founder and executive director of Lit Club NYC, which hosts books clubs and reading events that routinely sell out, said the hospitality industry seems to be realizing that reading is a “premium experience” that goes with “beautiful design and beautiful aesthetics.”

“Given the rise of AI and how fast culture is moving, reading and critical thinking and evaluation and analysis have new cachet,” she said. “Society is realizing the luxury of slowness and the luxury of having the time to get lost in a book.”

At Sardi’s, which is set to go dark starting in June for several months, the collection in a wood-paneled glass case on a staircase landing is said to go back five or six decades, with books occasionally swapped out. The authors are customers and friends, and the display is for promotion; the books are not for sale.

A Sardi’s representative declined an interview request. A representative for the Shubert Organization, which is the restaurant’s longtime landlord and new owner, declined to comment but pointed to a New York Times article saying the company plans to refurbish the dining room but not significantly change the décor.

On display at Sardi’s recently were actor Richard Seff’s Take A Giant Step and Supporting Player; Razzle Dazzle by theater critic Michael Riedel; Broadway 2020 The Ghost Light Year by photographer Matt Petosa; The Intelligent Conversationalist by Imogen Lloyd Webber (daughter of Andrew Lloyd Webber); Chita: A Memoir by actress Chita Rivera; and the play Pied À Terre by John Anastasi.

Some of those books were gifts of the authors. Petosa, the photographer, said he gave the restaurant a copy without knowing about the book display. He works the stage door at the Winter Garden Theatre, which is owned by the Shubert Organization. “I had access to all their theaters during COVID,” Petosa said by email.

Anastasi, whose Pied À Terre is currently playing off-Broadway, said by email that he has gone to the eatery “probably a thousand times” since first visiting in 1971 so his high school sweetheart (now his wife) could see Lucille Ball’s caricature. He has had all of his opening night parties at the restaurant, and two of his daughters worked coat check there, he said. He gifted a copy of the play to Sean Ricketts, the former general manager and grandson of past owner Vincent Sardi Jr., and was pleased to see it make the display case. Anastasi said, “While I never got the caricature, I did get that, and I’m very honored to have my play sitting there.”

Bonus /// The upcoming Sardi’s hiatus follows the closing of another Theater District mainstay, Barbetta, after a century. But there are other places to go. “Over the years, there have been many different theater restaurants,” said Robert Viagas, author of Right This Way: A History of the Audience, and the founding editor of Playbill.com. Here, Broadway insiders share with Zephyr Letter their favorite pre- and post-curtain destinations.

Robert Viagas, founding editor of Playbill.com: “Westway Diner. A lot of actors, actors who are not the big stars, they’re just regular people in the chorus and things, they’ll go to Westway Diner because they know that they can get good food, cheap, and the waiters always get you out in time for half-hour call.”

Jay Michaels, producer and theater communications professional: “Let’s go back to the beginning. Let’s go to Joe Allen. It’s right over there on ‘cabaret row,’ and it’s a gorgeous venue, and it’s historic.”

Jim Kierstead, producer of Dog Day Afternoon, Hadestown, The Fear of 13, and Othello: “A lot of people are going to Sir Henry’s, and they’re going to The Dickens…. They’re nice and casual, but they’re also a lot of fun, and they’re a little bit more upscale than just going to a regular bar. And the other one is Bond 45, of course. Everybody loves Bond 45.”

Christine Toy Johnson, Broadway actor, playwright, and Tony Awards nominator: “Bond 45…. It feels like the feeling that Sardi’s gives you, the old times when we would get dressed up to go to the theater and it was a really special event and there was just so much excitement.… I have had many meetings there because it feels like there’s something ceremonial about it, in celebrating what Times Square can be.”

Max Wolf Friedlich, Job playwright: “The Royal Halal cart [near] 45th and Sixth Avenue.”

The Ruscha print was in a time-limited edition, sometimes referred to as a timed edition. In these print runs, a work is available to an unlimited number of people within a specific buying window, so time rather than number determines the final edition size. The form remains off the radar of many art world professionals, according to interviews, even as companies emerge in this space and collaborate with blue chip artists and top institutions.

The London- and Amsterdam-based company Avant Arte is a leader in this space and released the Ruscha print, titled Actual Size. Another company, London’s HENI Editions, has done time-limited drops with artists like Damien Hirst. Some individual artists have done their own independent time-limited releases, including Mark Maggiori, whose depictions of the American West are currently in Buck Mason stores coast to coast.

Art market experts generally consider buying original prints a smart approach for new collectors and those on a budget. These works differ from posters because, typically, an artist or their estate authorizes the release in a limited run. Original prints are often signed and numbered. Older forms of printmaking date back thousands of years, and types today include screenprints, lithographs, and etchings.

Time-limited edition prints make art collecting even more accessible, Mazdak Sanii, an Avant Arte founder and its chief executive officer, said during a recent interview at New York City’s Hotel Chelsea. “It’s priced such that it’s an amazing opportunity for people to acquire a work by an artist that they love, rather than trying to invest on the basis that it’s going to go up in value,” he said. Still, he added, there is “no doubt that the work will hold value.”

Sanii, 38, initially worked in banking. But, he said, “I always knew I wanted to do something that was engaged with contemporary culture.” So he joined Boiler Room, the London-based online music broadcaster that took off during the pandemic as people streamed DJ sets. He eventually became its chief operating officer.

From there, he joined Christian Luiten and Curtis Penning, who launched Avant Arte in 2015. Sanii joined as a founder and became CEO in 2018. “One of the things that we just heard again and again from the community was they have the taste and the inclination and the means to collect, but they didn’t know where to start,” he said. “Print editions felt like a good place to start.”

Some galleries and auction houses can seem inaccessible, and Avant Arte wanted to change that. It focused on digital campaigns and connecting artists with potential collectors. (Luiten described it early on as “kind of the Tinder for art.”) It now has nearly 3 million Instagram followers. A 2025 report by the company said that about a third of its “members” surveyed were in their 40s and about a quarter were in their 30s. The company has its own fine art printing facility, which Sanii said is the largest of its kind in the world. The facility is called Make-Ready and is located in the Tottenham area of London.

Eventually, Avant Arte added time-limited editions to the way it sold prints. The first one was a fundraiser for an artist with medical debt, and they ended up raising $1.2 million in 24 hours, according to Sanii. The company has continued using this model largely for fundraisers. Proceeds from the Ruscha edition benefited LACMA, which on Sunday opened its highly anticipated new galleries. A Robert Longo edition last April supported the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art in Denmark.

As with sneaker drops, there are concerns about resellers. Avant Arte tries to minimize this by requiring for most editions that collectors agree not to resell the work for two years. They must sign this agreement when placing an order. But after that, it’s fair game. Indeed, a handful of the Ruscha prints are currently available for between $1,052 and $3,999 on eBay. The Longo print is also on eBay, despite the sale having been less than a year ago.

Some in the art world are skeptical of the time-limited approach. Multiple New York City gallery higher-ups declined to speak on the topic. One said by email that time-limited edition prints are “not my thing. I would stay far away.”

But the skeptics might not be able to ignore the trend for much longer. Vogue’s business vertical said last year that “Avant Arte is considered one of the art market’s most influential platforms bringing the next generation into the art world.” And established art world names like Ruscha and LACMA have gotten on board.

Sanii considers the time-limited format a way to democratize art. “This felt like there was still scarcity, because when the window closed, no one could buy the works,” he said. “But it felt like everyone had an equal opportunity to collect.”

Dispatch /// Print collectors gathered at the Park Avenue Armory on the Upper East Side earlier this month for the annual fair of the International Fine Print Dealers Association, or IFPDA. There were around 80 exhibitors, against the backdrop of the 19th-century home of what was the 7th Regiment of the New York Militia. According to IFPDA’s leadership, fair attendance was 21,000 this year, up from 8,000 in 2018.

Some eye-catching standouts included a mini Rembrandt etching from 1631, Self Portrait in a Slant Fur Cap: Bust, which sold for an undisclosed five figures at the booth of David Tunick Inc.; four Bato drawings by César A. Martínez at Ruiz-Healy Art that were going for $2,750 each (though four of them looked great displayed together); and Ed Ruscha’s Vanish screenprint for $31,000 at Gilden’s Art Gallery from London.

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