15. RIP to the person I was when I loved McDonald's
McDonald's said 'we're back' and I said 'I've moved on.
Today’s letter includes: Kid Cudi says “groomcore” rights, the trad wife aesthetic gets debunked (again), and yes, the Coldplay CEO thing is here—but only because Gritty got involved. We also checked the sodium levels in your cacio e pepe (spoiler: it’s unhinged), plus where to buy $500 shoes for half off and which art exhibits might get you out of the house.
It's too bad I don’t eat at McDonald’s anymore.
I was somewhat devastated when McDonald’s stopped serving their Chipotle Snack Wrap in 2016. The last time I tried to order one is seared into my memory. It was at that particularly cursed location right under the JMZ in South Williamsburg (only out-cursed by the LES location that’s open 24 hours with a security guard who stops drunk people from falling asleep there).
I asked for my snack wrap and the woman replied: “We don’t have that anymore.”
“Here or everywhere?”
“Everywhere.”
“Oh no I LOVE Chipotle Snack Wraps this is devastating!!!”
And with utter disinterest and a face so unmoving it could have been filled with 900 units of botox, she replied, “OK?”
I love New York.
Anyways, the snack wrap is so back and the stock market is loving it. In response to the nationwide reintroduction last week, McDonald's stock surged 2% to a three-week high, easily beating the broader market. Goldman Sachs marked the occasion by upgrading the stock from "neutral" to "buy."
Too bad I won't be visiting to relive my snack wrap days anytime soon. I think I've just aged-out of McDonald's, you know? On one of my favorite podcasts to fall asleep to, indie filmmaker Caveh Zahedi talks about how he worked at McDonald's once. He claims they would drop food on an extremely dirty floor and were instructed to still use it, which is why he can never eat there. But he also is a self-proclaimed former sex-addict and known storyteller, so TBD on how reliable that is.
Whether or not Caveh is to be believed, I find that it's not hard to avoid the golden arches these days: 1. because I’m a vegetarian now LOL and 2. because we have Raising Cane's for when I’m feeling naughty.
Kid Cudi proves grooms deserve outfit changes too. While brides get all the costume change glory, Kid Cudi just served a masterclass in groom fashion evolution at his French Riviera wedding to Lola Abecassis Sartore (head designer at ERL and former Louis Vuitton designer under Virgil Abloh). Some are even saying the groom's fashion outshined the bride's. The Grammy winner worked directly with Saint Laurent's Anthony Vaccarello to create three distinct looks: a "mouselike pleated white shirt" for the welcome dinner, a double-breasted black suit for the ceremony, and a crystal-embroidered mousseline top for the after-party.
The couple met at Abloh's first Louis Vuitton show in 2018 where "our eyes met in the chaos, and there was a silent spark," Lola told Vogue. They honored their late friend with a bounce castle at the wedding because apparently nothing says tribute like inflatable architecture. The bride's custom dress used 60 meters of six different vintage-inspired laces.
It's my duty to mention the Coldplay CEO affair thing. Look, I didn't want to talk about it because everyone is talking about it, but can I really call myself an observer of culture if I don't mention it? Besides being extremely funny, it is also absolutely a new level of cruel and unusual punishment to have your affair outing be reenacted at a Phillies's game by their mascot. The CEO has resigned, there's an apology statement that has been circulating but it is apparently not real. Also a brand created a fake daughter of the said CEO and used it to try to sell their product. Kinda scary. PSA he has 2 sons, 0 daughters.
Trad wives ie. capitalism dressed up in a nap dress. It's hard not to be interested in trad wives and it's hard to look away, even when you know the negative effect it's having on the ideological leanings of young women. I read Amy O'Dell's excellent interview with the author of a new book called Everyone Is Lying to You on my flight to San Francisco.
Some of my favorite excerpts:
On one of Nara Smith's recipes: “I made the Cinnamon Toast Crunch-from-scratch recipe the other day. It took me four hours, and it was disgusting.”
On trad wives as wealth porn: "They never talk about the fact that generational wealth helps run a hobby farm. Farming is expensive. It is filthy. But they're not showing any of that. Ballerina Farm never talks about how she has generational wealth from being a JetBlue heiress."
On the lie that it's leisurely: "They're a hundred percent leaning in, and they're hustling because making content is a lot of work. The ethos is, 'You too could just be running around in a field with your 12 children wearing the soft, unstructured dress and no bra and baking sourdough and growing your heirloom tomatoes and not working' — when putting that out on the internet is so much work. Many of these women are now the breadwinners in their families."
On how the sausage is really made: "They're doing all of these photo shoots and video shoots in a single day. They're switching outfits and changing their kids clothes 19 times. Many rent houses to shoot in. None of it is their real life. But I don't think we're thinking about it as media that is created for capitalist consumption."
Your fancy dinner out is basically a sodium bomb. New York Mag just did the work we've all been avoiding and sent popular dishes from well-known NYC restaurants to a lab for testing. The results? A single meal at Via Carota (green salad, cacio e pepe, and fried rabbit) clocks in at 1,900 milligrams of sodium — that's more than an entire day's worth according to FDA guidelines.
To put this in perspective: a serving of Fritos has 170 milligrams of sodium. Your $130 prime rib dinner has literally ten times more salt than junk food.
Chef Harold Moore from Cafe Commerce explains the psychology behind Maximum Flavor culture: "Costs are going up, portions are getting smaller, everyone's distracted and taking pictures, so the way you get people's attention is to amp everything up." Translation: restaurants are essentially drugging us with sodium to make sure those first two bites are Instagram-worthy.
One doctor quoted in the piece literally said: "Don't ever eat a potato. They shouldn't be allowed in restaurants." Look - it’s not going to stop me from eating out, but knowledge is power I guess.
Happening around town: Le Cirque des Rêves at Findlay Galleries (through August 6th) and 150 Years at Art Students League (through August 16th) on display in NYC. Alpino, the Northern Italian spot in Detroit that took the old Lady of the House space, is having a summer wine social on August 7th (~$70 for tastes of 30 wines and Alpine-inspired cheese & charcuterie platters).
Online: Camper is having a friends and family sale with 50% off their S/S 2025 selection and free shipping. The Oak + Fort liquidation sale ends soon. I already made my purchases - it's probably a bit picked over but the stuff that is there is even cheaper than before.
Don’t forget to give this letter a heart or re-stack if you enjoyed! It will motivate me to sit down and write next week :)
Love Island is finally over and people are relieved. Feel bad for their casting directors, ok!
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