One of the best vacations we have had in a long time
Only at Nemacolin can you zip-line 3000 feet in the air and then shoot a shotgun all before dinner
Experience real life magic
As a resident of one of the greatest cities in the world, I’m always searching for the best possible places to go out to eat. It’s hard not to be a foodie in Manhattan, and trying out the upper east side’s newest spot, The Old Stove Pub, left nothing to be desired!
The Old Stove pub has a very popular location in the Hamptons, and just opened its doors in Manhattan a few days ago. The spot is known for its great charm, stellar steaks, fresh salads, and is owned by Southampton local Joseph DeCristofaro. Located in a prime spot on on East 59th street and first avenue, the pub has a beautiful interior with a lovely atmosphere. We checked it out on Tuesday, and it did not disappoint. They played wonderful music and the staff was incredibly friendly!
We were provided with delicious warm bread to start, and my friend and I both decided on the steak as our main course. The dish was so wonderfully seasoned and incredibly flavorful, it was truly the best steak i’ve had in the city thus far- a statement not to be made lightly! It was served with a crisp flavorful salad, the perfect addition to the meal, and a side of crispy fries. Each component of the meal complimented each other so well, creating a brilliant dining experience. The steak was cooked to perfection and full of delicious spices, it was everything you’d hope for a meal to be. For desert we enjoyed Baclava and a delicious strawberry tart, both were the ideal way to end such a delicious meal.
Overall, we absolutely loved the atmosphere and food at the Old Stove Pub, and we highly reccoemnd heading over there and trying it out for yourself! Make a reservation, check out the menu, or hear all about it here!
On Wednesday May 4th, I entered the beautiful home of best-selling author and actress Jill Kargman on Manhattan’s Upper East Side. Upon entry, I was greeted warmly with a glass of chardonnay from Beringer Vineyards and enjoyed energetic conversation with with the hosts. Beringer Senior Winemaker Ryan Rech gave me a brief overview regarding their Napa and Knights Valley AVAs as well as what I was to expect for this evening. I was in for a treat; an intimate 10 guest dinner party inspired by the exquisite collection of wines from Beringer themselves.
As the first guest to arrive, I enjoyed chatting one on one with Jill, who’s energy lit up her already airy and charming great room. Guests continued to trickle in as we all coalesced on Jill’s couch, where Ryan began detailing the history of Beringer and describing the glass of White Meritage we currently had in our hands. The theme of the evening was “Wild and Refined”, inspired by the wild and refined expressions and flavor profiles of wines from Beringer. We began the evening with a ‘refined’ Napa Valley Chardonnay and freshly prepared salad, followed up with a ‘wilder’ pairing of Cabernet Sauvignon and Beef Tenderloin. My favorite pairing of the evening happened to be the dessert, intermingling a sweet and refreshing Semillon-Sauvignon Blanc with a trio of mini tarts. Along the way, Ryan discussed tasting notes as each course was served, sharing anecdotes about the winemaking process and vineyards, and answering questions about each bottle. As a truly wonderful evening came to a close, Beringer sent each guest off with two complimentary bottles as a parting gift. The magnificent evening organized by Jill and Ryan was truly a Wild and Refined night to remember.
Beringer Vineyards is an industry leader in the Napa Valley as well as the lesser known Knights Valley region of California. Below please find a brief description of the wines sampled this evening:
Beringer Vineyards 2019 White Meritage
Beringer Vineyards 2020 Private Reserve Napa Valley Chardonnay
Beringer Vineyards 2019 Knights Valley Cabernet Sauvignon Reserve
Beringer Vineyards 2018 Private Reserve Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon
Beringer Vineyards 2019 Napa Valley Botrytised Semillon-Sauvignon Blanc
These can be purchased directly from their website:
Photography by:
Will Ragozzino /
for Beringer Vineyards
“Intense, captivating, and funny. Writer Gluck has a devious imagination and a sense of humor that makes real life a feast on stage” – The Chicago Critic
“A remarkable debut play that turns on a major revelation which affects all family members and turns the comedy into a biting life-and-death drama” – BWW
“A drama that is likely to hit home with audiences”– Boca Raton Tribune
Like the now-celebrated opera composer Giuseppe Verdi, chef Massimo Bottura was, for some time, the most misunderstood man in Italy. Verdi’s first operas were met with verbal jeers and remarks of negativity. Bottura’s interpretation of signature Italian dishes earned him expressions of concern at best and warrants for his excommunication at worst. For the both of them, it took some time for the reception to turn in their favor.
To this end, to enjoy the lavish successes of both men in one night was a true pleasure. Taking place in one of the nicest rooms at one of the most revered of the New York City private clubs, guests joined The Mayor of Parma, Federico Pizzarotti, The Scientific Director of Teatro Regio, Francesco Izzo, and Teatro Regio di Parma‘s General Director, Anna Maria Meo at the Metropolitan Club for an evening of Italian indulgence- a multimodal sampling of Italian culture, including speeches from the leadership, a lavish meal by the world’s finest chef, a top soprano’s performance, a silent auction, and an explanation of this season’s festival lineup.
About that: in line with the principle of immersion, the program for the 22nd season (September 22 through October 16th) offers the opportunity of, “seeing Verdi in the land of Verdi; to live where he lived; performed in theaters where he worked (with the sound as he knew it), and having the food and wine he knew grown in his own terroir”.
In 2022, the performances include three staged operas La Forza del Destino, Il Trovatore, and Simon Boccanegra, each based on a contemporary Spanish play that Verdi admired. These seminal works were brought to his attention through the talented actress, mistress, and then wife of Verdi, Margherita Barezzi, who spoke fluent Spanish.
As a tantalizing demonstration of what is to come in Parma later this year, soprano Eleonora Buratto performed Verdi’s tragic aria, Morrò, ma prima in grazia from Un Ballo in Maschera followed by Un bel di from Puccini’s Madam Butterfly. Burrato may be particularly familiar with this piece as its found in the role she just finished performing at The Met Opera. This performance was a very intense moment for the entire room. I was standing by a giant window, just by chance, surveying the crowd. It was a small miracle for Buratto to hold the room; even the curtains and chandeliers seemed to be listening.
NEW YORK, NY – APRIL 28: Atmosphere at Intl Friends Of Festival Verdi Spring Gala at Private Venue on April 28, 2022 in New York. (Photo by Sylvain Gaboury/PMC)
Now, the meal. It is exceedingly rare for a chef to even reveal himself at these types of marathon meals. It is wholly Italian to care about the food. It is only Massimo Bottura who can make the meal seem so overwhelmingly emotional. The French maintain that 70% of your enjoyment of something is how it looks. Some reasonable portion can be applied to how it was described.
Bottura, as an orator, uses every inch of cultural leverage he has to sell you on whatever it is. His formation of story is expert. That is, exhaustive explanations with many words you’d never use to describe food, from deeply abstract to immediately apparent, infused with timing that is refreshing to the American ear. Courses included “Beautiful, Psychedelic Spin Painted Veal”, which was a tribute to Damien Hirst and a deconstructed “Crunchy Part of the Lasagna,” a tribute to the chef’s mother. It could be disregarded as marketing. But on my way to the bathroom, I found Bottura and his brow wilted in worry, peeking around from behind the entrance to the kitchen. I asked if all was alright. “The risotto just went out.”
NEW YORK, NY – APRIL 28: Fabrizio Dimachele, Barbara Tober and Massimo Bottura attend Intl Friends Of Festival Verdi Spring Gala at Private Venue on April 28, 2022 in New York. (Photo by Sylvain Gaboury/PMC) *** Local Caption *** Fabrizio Dimachele;Barbara Tober;Massimo Bottura
The evening’s guest of honor was conductor Ricardo Frizza who has been thrilling audiences with The Met’s Lucia di Lammermoor. Other guests included author Bill Buford and wine writer Jessica Green, chef Francois Payard, critic and documentarian Ruth Reichl, patron Barbara Tober, and chef Laurent Tourondel.
Find more information, accommodation, tickets for the Festival Verdi here. Learn more about the International Friends of the Festival Verdi here.
McConnell’s Fine Ice Creams of Santa Barbara, California, is back again with another innovative flavor combination, Avaline Rosé and Boysenberry Milk Jam. This time, the boutique ice cream brand has partnered with Avaline, a luxury clean wine brand, to bring your favorite frozen treat to you – but with a rosé twist.
Who doesn’t love rosé? Some say it’s an acquired taste. McConnell’s is known for making its own flavors from scratch, using only the finest local, sustainable, and organic ingredients. It’s no wonder that they would choose to create a daring flavor balance such as this.
Avaline Rosé is a clean, vegan-friendly wine by Cameron Diaz and Katherine Power, offering a light, fresh mouthfeel with flavors of melon and zest to bring the wine’s signature light pink hues to life. This fruit-forward French wine is crafted with organic grapes and is free of unnecessary inclusions like sugars, colors, and concentrates.
Michael Palmer, CEO of McConnell’s, had this to say about the latest flavor collab,
“At McConnell’s, we have always embraced an ethos of sustainability, transparency, and using only the finest whole ingredients in our ice creams, so we are thrilled to collaborate with Avaline, a company that embodies these same values. Made with Avaline’s clean, natural rosé blended into a delicious preserve, our newest velvety, decadent flavor, Avaline Rosé and Boysenberry Milk Jam, is one of our best yet.”
Sounds yummy! Lucky for me, we were invited to have a first look at this delectable, one-of-a-kind ice cream. I was thrilled to have the chance to do my own little taste test. Here are my thoughts on this exclusive flavor:
“The blend of the tart, sweet, and creamy created a divine flavor trio that makes this pint a truly refreshing, must-try summertime treat.”
As of May 6, 2022, this exclusive ice cream flavor collaboration is available for purchase online by the pint (nationwide shipping) and also at any McConnell’s scoop shops along the West Coast (Los Angeles, Santa Barbara, and San Luis Obispo). Keep in mind, this is a limited edition collaboration, and this delightful flavor is expected to sell out quickly – so if you want to experience the undeniable deliciousness, act fast! Pints are available for $12 online and $11.50 in scoop shops.
On this Mother’s Day in the US, we recognize and celebrate the working mother: those women who transform their lives for their children, while still contributing to the work force. Of this group of hardworking individuals, female entrepreneurs face unique challenges in the workplace, sometimes dealing with fundamental issues that men may never encounter.
To this end, for the past 15 years Cartier has championed women entrepreneurs through their Women’s Initiative, an all-encompassing international entrepreneurship program that aims to drive change by empowering women impact entrepreneurs. The program is open to women-run and women-owned businesses from any country and sector that aim to have a strong and sustainable social or environmental impact. We joined Cartier in celebrating the 15th anniversary of the program earlier this year along with a celebration for International Women’s Day in Dubai.
Now, we share highlights from an interview with Wingee Sampaio, the director of the Cartier Women’s Initiative, who spoke on the evolution of the program, the unique challenges female entrepreneurs experience, and the triumphs she’s witnessed. Quotes were edited for clarity and brevity.
Female entrepreneurs encounter unique challenges in business
There are specific kinds of challenges. I think the most well known one is around funding. Women have a challenging time raising capital because there’s less women on the other side [as investors], so there some biases. Often it comes from the type of questions that they receive. So something, for example, when a male investor meets a fellow male, they’ll be like, ‘Oh, what is your business potential? What is the growth, etcetera?’ Very focused on growth.
But when it’s a woman, the questions are, ‘What are the risks that you see? how are you addressing all these risks?’ Then at the end they’re like, ‘Wow, she’s full of risk and I’m not so sure.’ It’s a good investment, but, this is the nature. Growth-orientated versus risk-adverse type of questions for women entrepreneurs.
But it’s not much of it, I would say is necessarily intentional. It may just be a bit of an unconscious bias amongst investors. And of course now with the research being published, there’s greater awareness around this challenge.
This is one of the reason why our program exists. We are specifically focused on impact entrepreneurs because we believe business is an important force for good. And we’re specifically focused on the woman doing this work because despite the fact that they’re creating businesses that the world needs, they’re facing more barriers than normal to solve for these challenges.
Female Entrepreneurs feel pressured to shift their personality to satisfy perceptions of entrepreneurs
We posed a question about the behaviors that Wingee has encountered in her coaching and mentorship experience, having worked with hundreds of women through her career and the Initiative.
The most common thing I see is a little bit holding back in personality. Sometimes they feel like they have to sound a certain way in order for them to be heard and that there is a certain way to pitch. So sometimes they deviate from what their true expression is. We want women impact entrepreneurs to hold true to what their purpose is. They’re building a business around that and they want the business to resonate with investors.
So in terms of coaching, it’s more about this: how do you self-reflect and be more self-aware? How do you be more comfortable actually with what you are working on. For the woman impact entrepreneur, we try to create a sense of belonging and a sense of community so that they can feel like other fellows in our program.
Affirmations can offer validation and a gentle challenge
When asked about what lessons Wingee has learned from leading the Cartier Women’s Initiative, she had this to say:
I’m actually on a very similar boat as many of our women entrepreneurs in the sense that we are all women change makers. We see something in the world that we would like to do something about and we are trying our best to create that change. Holding onto the purpose, being a firm and confident that what you’re doing is needed is a constant challenges.
The pandemic has disproportionally impacted women and minorities. That said, if ever there was a moment to witness the resilience of a woman leader, the current times have really reinforced the importance of our work.
For me, I try to have an affirmation of why I do what I do. Reminding myself of my north star so that you can do your best work. I intentionally make time for that.
The Cartier Women’s Initiative has evolved from a single event to an ongoing story of award, fellowship, community, and thought leadership
The program’s awarding of grants has been steady, but now the Initiative works closely with the entrepreneurs and expert third parties to synthesize the economics of the entrepreneurial work, allowing for closer and more accurate alignment from the perspective of story, business stage, and market potential, ultimately setting these entrepreneurs up for success.
We’ve been around for 15 years which is a tremendous testament in terms of commitment by Cartier. For the first 10 years we were more of an award; a single event. It was an event to recognize and these incredible women entrepreneurs.
But fortunately, five years ago, we had the commitment of Cyrille to really grow this program and to do more work in this space. I felt that it was time to get the pieces in this place, so we grew from an award to the current four pillars of our work: award, fellowship, community, and thought leadership. So the next step was to figure out how to measure the impact of each of those so that we could continuously reflect and improve on that work.
In the beginning years, there was a Laureate and then there was the runner-up, and only the Laureate received the financial grant. When Cyrille joined, he changed it so there would be a financial grant, even for the second and third place. This was great because all of these women are doing incredible work. So then we had $100,000 grant for the Laureate, $30,000 grant for the two runner-ups.
Then in the last three years, we have been evolving our selection process, and now we engage with an impact investment firm that does the due diligence for us around each of the entrepreneurs. Our knowledge and our work with entrepreneurs is much closer than it has ever been. So as a result of that, we do know more in detail, the differences between their businesses. We wanted to increase our commitment to the space, and this is why for us we again changed the grants to $100,000. $60,000 and $30,000, and that’s how we will be going forward.
The Cartier Women’s Initiative differentiates between coaching and mentorship
Wingee proudly shares the difference between coaching and mentorship, and expresses that finding the perfect personality and skills match between the mentor or coach and mentee is critical for success.
For us, when we are talking about coaching, it is about executive leadership and it’s about fully expressing your intentionality. It’s much more of a leadership and mindset training, and we call that coaching. Coaching involves actually helping entrepreneurs reflect on how they could be more of what I’m trying to do myself. Almost holding you accountable.
Mentoring is actually professional experience. For example, say I lack expertise in medical device product development, or I lack expertise in growing my business from five people to 100 people. Mentoring is more of a transfer of professional experience; someone who has been there and done that and what you are trying to do from a practical sense.
One of my biggest challenges with initiative is actually finding the right supply of the contribution with the right demand from the fellow. We have been very fortunate to have such a large selection of people who are interested in mentoring and entrepreneurs who have a lot of need. It’s a game of matching.
You can learn more about the work of the Cartier Women’s Initiative here, and get the full details about this year’s Impact Award winners, nine former fellows who continue to succeed, here.
It was a case of the little engine that could.