maiden voyage

Thanks to everybody who’s reached out to express excitement, means a lot—I know some of you are still skeptical, having been bothering me about this pet project for… many years. Catching up with a friend last night, we talked a bit about our personal struggles with the same thing that’s been keeping me from switching the site off of private: the desire and pressure for perfection. So I’m going to try not to overthink, and to remind myself that putting anything out there, especially creatively, is more fulfilling than not. Even if it’s more for myself and nobody actually looks at it, and knowing that it’s extremely likely the form and shape will change.

folktale brut + fferrone design coupes

details below, thanks to Sean Beck for excellent wine procurement (as always ✨)

One thing that is likely not to change is my love of celebrating (I’ll celebrate pretty much anything). This should become rapidly apparent, along with my love of sparkling wine. So yesterday after publicly publishing this site, along with my professional site, we celebrated with what sounds like one of the last bottles of Folktale Brut we’re going to be able to get our hands on. It’s a personal favorite: crisp, light, green-apple-y, and excellently-priced for the quality. It also has a gorgeous label, something I'm a big fan of despite the flak some of y'all give me for it… We’ve had more bottles than I’d care to count courtesy of friend and somm Sean Beck (facebook, instagram), who is currently operating independently under the moniker Sean Pours Magic and who you should definitely bother for events/wine deliveries/cocktails.

The glassware is some of my favorite—it’s actually borosilicate (perfect since I have the tendency to knock things over), and is made by Felicia Ferrone. This particular coupe is from her May line, which I want all of, though we also have a few other smaller glasses we use for whisky/agave spirits and have loved all of them so far. I have actually knocked these over multiple times and they’re still in perfect shape, too, unlike my nonsensically long-stemmed glass stemware.

This is a decent segue to my approach to being (insufferably?) bougie. I’ve been trying to think of a way to catalog my personal preferences for use in the maps, so definitely open to suggestions, but for the time being I’ll keep some background here.

background & ethos

The things I like are usually on the more expensive side. I understand a lot of what I may link here is not attainable for most people, and that I have lived and continued to live with immense privilege. Most of what makes the things I like expensive is the quality and sustainability of materials and that I intentionally prefer things from small businesses (especially those owned by women/bipoc/lgbtq+). I’m also trying to focus on buying less in general: I can’t be alone in having fallen into the pit of trying to sate my occasional dissatisfaction with life with retail therapy, and it’s a hard habit to break sometimes. It’s been a lot easier, though, to focus on maybe buying one special piece instead of a cart full of random crap from a larger retailer. A lot of what will be shown on the site has been accumulated over a decade+.

Also, while I have very particular tastes, I do like to try new things. I’m going to try to go at this with a non-negative approach (eg not shitting on things like super-sweet wine and cocktails, which I don’t personally enjoy, but somebody who does may take personally), but there will be some observational bias in what’s shared here just because I may not be exposed to much of a particular subset of things/places/activities by virtue of not enjoying them myself. I’m very much “let people enjoy what they like”, if you’re not hurting or marginalizing anybody. Shit, when I first started drinking in college, I refused anything other than Smirnoff ice; I'm in no place to judge anybody's tastes.

So all that being said, the goal with part of this is to share more broadly what a lot of friends ask me for regularly: something singular that would make a good gift, or a place to go to celebrate something special. Things or places that can be selected for specific people given their preferences, with mindfulness around some of the aspects of shopping and going out that are harder to figure out without some concerted effort.

I do still love making recommendations based on people’s particular interests, though, so if you are looking for a something (especially as I try to build this up), seriously don’t hesitate to reach out. I could probably talk to a wall—honestly I probably did as a kid—and enjoy getting to know people online as much as in real life, and get a lot of personal fulfillment out of being helpful.