Words cannot express how much I love The Charted Cheese Wheel from Popchart Labs. This illustrated collection of 66 cheeses is broken down by animal and texture. In addition to just being wonderful to look at, it's a great idea-generator for future wine and cheese parties. I'm getting mad cravings for Pont-l'Évêque and Pecorino Sardo just glancing at the chart.
The brilliant designers over at Popchart Labs never stop coming up with infographic prints I want to buy. Thinking this Cocktail Chart of Film & Literature would also look nice in the office or living room.
Last Sunday my friend Veronica organized a tour at Industry City Distillery on the western edge of Sunset Park. The area reminded me of both Red Hook and Gowanus, with big warehouse spaces turned into production/artists spaces, and right on the water. Definitely a place I wouldn’t mind spending a Sunday afternoon, especially when vodka-tasting is involved.
Industry City Distillery is unusual in that they use beet sugar to make vodka, which unlike grain and starch, produces no solid waste. Their product launched in April and is already getting a lot of notice in the NY area. (Check out the map of where to buy their vodka, in addition to online.) We toured their facility, which held their fermentation and distillation equipment and the metal shop where they built all their production equipment by hand. They even have a letterpress machine (!) for printing all their labels.
While working with my publisher on the jacket of my upcoming cookbook, I spent a lot of time browsing in bookstores for inspiration. There are many cookbooks that do well with a single closeup photo of a dish on the cover, but I wanted something that stood out graphically. I'm happy to report that we have finally settled on a clean yet fun design, which I can reveal soon. In the meantime, here are some cookbook covers that I've found inspiring.
1. The Meatball Shop Cookbook - My publisher (Random House/Ballantine) did this book as well, and I love the vintagey cover. The meat grinder illustration is from the Meatball Shop menu.
