Find Your Beach (Or Patio or Backyard)

Solo time, spritzes, and salads

May 27, 2025

I’m writing to you from 30,000 feet on my way to Austin for work—thank you for all the recs. I’ll share where I ate next week. I know I’m getting tacos as soon as I land.

In New York, we did not get beach weather this weekend but it was still a nice stretch of resting, hanging with friends, and couch (and play) time with Este. I wrote last week about embracing a different summer than I was expecting and part of that means sitting with fewer plans and more alone time. It also means spending lots of time on the train and the bus because MTA holiday schedules are always a challenge. Especially during holidays, it’s weird to be alone as the default and sometimes very hard, especially since I wasn’t planning on living alone. But here we are. We can only deal with what we have in front of us. And there is so much to be grateful for.

Before we get into food, I need to remind all my NYC readers that the Mayoral Primary is coming up very soon (June 24th, early voting starts June 14th). It’s a ranked choice ballot and you can rank up to five candidates. The number one rule is not to rank Andrew Cuomo. Even if you rank him low, that could help him win, which we do not want.

Eden

wrote a comprehensive guide to the candidates and this quiz will help you find your candidates based on your top issues. I’ll be ranking Zohran Mamadani, Brad Lander, and Jessica Ramos as my top three and am still researching the last two spots.

Now, let’s dive in!

Something to cook:

After a few days of travel, I headed to the grocery store and made myself veggie tacos with mushrooms and black beans. I got lucky with a ripe avocado and brought leftovers to the office for lunch (char the tortillas in advance and assemble there with a wedge of lime to perk things up). Also, as I charred my tortillas, I confirmed my new smoke alarm does work. I know my parents are relieved.

I made a very girl dinner meal of salad, mac and cheese and a veggie burger. I like to keep Dr. Praeger’s veggie burgers in the freezer (the California is my favorite) and need to make a batch of homemade ones soon.

Lukas Volger

just shared a summer veggie burger roundup and I’m excited for his halloumi burger recipe.

Leah and I cooked dinner one night and we made this halloumi, white beans, and tomato recipe that claimed it would take 25 minutes. It turns out her oven was not working, so it took us much longer but we eventually found a workaround (her cute and fancy toaster oven has a broiler function). The resulting dinner was delicious. We added spinach and served with crusty bread, would make again.

Isa and I pivoted our backyard hang to an indoor one since it was cloudy and drizzling, but we kept the outdoor energy with the menu. We made this recipe for a caprese inspired salad with olives and calabrian chilis and it turned out very well. Such a fun twist on a classic combo and it’s also great earlier in the summer when the tomatoes are good but not star worthy quite yet. We ate with a simple pesto pasta with arugula and romano cheese. Noah brought home Magnolia Bakery Banana pudding for dessert.

A key part of cooking with a friend on a weekend is snacking and drinking and gossiping while you do so

Something to order:

Teal was in town for work and got to meet Este! We got dinner at Good Thanks and I had their curry mussels, which are always delicious.

Oset and I tried the new JR & Son, which is in the vein of Bernies, Cozy Royale and other Brooklyn spots that are new but look old and have elevated versions of bar and red sauce food. JR & Son is a restored supper club with lots of booths and bar seating. Our favorite items were the caesar salad, the onion rings (I usually think onion rings are so hard to eat, cause they’re huge and the batter falls off but these were excellent), the bread service (olive focaccia, yum), and the rainbow cookie cake. Would return for sure and I want to try more pastas.

Will need to have these onion rings again very soon

My parents got to meet their grand cat (she loved playing with them) and before that, we got dinner and natural wine at Birds of a Feather. It was so nice to catch up with them over sesame noodles, seared cucumbers, dumplings, chinese broccoli, and veggie fried rice.

I went to a very hard Saturday pilates class and met up with Tilden and her dog, Kiri, after for brunch at Nems. We split miso scrambled eggs and a watermelon salad and then strolled around.

Since it was not beach weather, I did the next best thing and found several Brooklyn backyards to hang out in. I got spritzes with Julianne, Ian, Alli, and Sunny at Tuffet (always get the pretzel to share).

It’s always a good idea to get a pretzel for the table

Then Tilden and I got handmade pici pasta and green salad at Macosa Trattoria. They have a cute patio and the pasta came with a bowl of freshly grated cheese, ideal. Get the tiramisu to complete the vacation vibe. We met up with Julianne and the crew and ended the night at Cozy Royale.

Something to read:

Happy to see Dani’s House of Pizza in Kew Gardens in this best pizza list. I was raised on their sweet sauce.

I watched Overcompensating in three days and oh my goodness, if you went to college in the early 2010s, it is a must (and also triggering). So much acapella, so much toxic frat energy, such great performances.

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