They Thought They Could Reinvent The Way We Buy Appliances. They Were Wrong.

Also, America's first pop-up restaurant. A classic closes. And a seasonal treat that won't last long.

In 2016, when Architectural Digest called to ask if I’d write about a new kitchenware store that was aiming to “reinvent the entire retail shopping experience,” I was skeptical. But the store’s ads featured a number of high profile people (among them the 94-year old fashionista Iris Apfel, chef Geoffrey Zakarian and Padma Lakshmi), and I figured if it was good enough for them I should give it a try. Then the editor casually mentioned that the store had a La Cornue stove I could play around with. I was hooked; what kitchen-obsessed person isn’t intrigued by the idea of a $100,000 stove? Would it make me a better cook?

Maybe the timing was wrong. Perhaps the retail shopping experience did not need reinventing. Last year Pirch filed for bankruptcy.

I’m glad I went while I had the chance.

I first encountered the Patout family of New Iberia when Paul Prudhomme called me in California to say, “I want you to come out to Lafayette and judge a hot food contest.” Having fallen madly in love with spicy Louisiana food, I was thrilled. This was my chance to burn my throat and visit Cajun country.

Paul picked me up at the airport and drove me and the other judges to Lafayette in a van equipped with a bar: many dirty martinis were consumed. Which was a good thing because we arrived in Lafayette to discover that the contest had nothing to do with spicy food. It was hot food as in classic French haute cuisine: expecting gumbo and jambalaya we got gigot d’agneaux and poulet en demi-deuil..

But it was a small price to pay. We were in the heart of Cajun country, driving through the bayou where every gas station sold homemade boudin while blasting the music of Clifton Chenier and Queen Ida .

I was not alone in my passion for that food; when Prudhomme took his entire staff to San Francisco for a month in 1983 people stood in line all night to snag a seat at his table. It was probably the first pop-up restaurant. Paul later took the restaurant to New York (he took over the soon to open Bud’s). So it was no surprise when Mitch Patout showed up in Los Angeles a couple years later.

Incidentally, Michael Franks’ prediction was correct; Patout’s restaurant opened in Los Angeles in 1986.

I love dried apricots. And I especially love the dried apricots from Apricot King.

Here’s the thing. Most dried apricots sold in America come from Turkey, and they’re insipid specimens that have neither the sweetness nor the tartness that make dried apricots so spectacular.

The Gonzales family have been growing Blenheim apricots in the Santa Clara Valley since 1946. I love all their products, but my favorites are what they call Slippits. They harvest the biggest, fattest apricots and dry them in the sun for four days until the pits can be gently slipped out. Slippits have just become available again - and they always sell out quickly.

I’m going to miss the great onion rings at Porterhouse, which will close its doors after Labor Day.

Steakhouses seem to be opening all over New York, but this one is really special. Chef Michael Lomonaco is one of the nicest people in the business, the food has been remarkably reliable and the staff is superb. With its fantastic views of Central Park this has been, for the past twenty years, one of the best places in the city to celebrate an occasion.

A lot of us are very sad to see it go.