Welcome to Deep Dish, a weekly roundup of food and entertainment news.
Can you smell it in the air? As of Monday, we’ve officially entered autumn. Prepare your pumpkin spice, break out your light jackets, and get ready to be invited to go apple picking by your most orchard-coded friends. And why not kick off your fall by enjoying the last few days of Sit at the Bar September, the latest and greatest TikTok trend meant to help you meet new people the old-fashioned way. Ah, finding love at the bar—feels like the early aughts again.
Also this week, your smart refrigerator may come with a new unwanted feature—advertisements. A new Netflix series based on the sordid history of The Spotted Pig. (Jude Law plays Jake Friedken, ostensibly based off of Ken Friedman). And finally, the world’s first ever martini expo was just as boozy as you’d expect.
It’s no secret that Gen-Z is disillusioned by the dating landscape right now, and all of the transactional swiping that mediates it. Naturally, as they’ve begun to scrap the apps, a new “trend” has emerged in its wake: sitting at a bar to meet potential new flames. Sit at the Bar September, coined by 86-year-old real estate agent and TikTok influencer Laurie Cooper, encourages young singles to go old-school and head to a local watering hole solo to meet people the analog way. It’s slightly funny (to me) to call it a trend and attach a finite month to it, but it seems all in all like a net positive for Gen-Z and all the bars that stand to benefit from their patronage. —Li Goldstein, associate newsletter editor
Elsewhere on the internet
Samsung confirmed this week that, yes, it will begin rolling out a pilot program in which smart refrigerators will display ads. The update will go into effect for some of the company’s Family Hub models, which are equipped with large screens and features like an AI program that helps you figure out what to cook based on the contents of your fridge.
Although you may not want a fridge-as-mini-billboard in your kitchen, the move isn’t a huge surprise considering the way advertising has evolved in recent years. You might have noticed ads on your Kindle or when you pause a show on Amazon Prime. Wherever you look, sooner or later, the commercials are coming for you, honey. —Sam Stone, staff writer
A new Netflix drama topping watch lists is set against the ever enthralling backdrop of a hot New York restaurant. Jude Law plays Jake Friedken, the owner of fictional buzzy downtown haunt, The Black Rabbit. The show borrows influence from bygone West Village institution, The Spotted Pig, owned by real-life restaurateur Ken Friedman; the parallels are made all the more explicit and chilling by its portrayals of chauvinism and sexual misconduct. The Spotted Pig shuttered in 2020 following accusations of sexual assault and harassment levied toward both Friedman and high-profile visitors to the restaurant, such as Mario Batali. For all of its applaudable deep research, the show is at once painstakingly specific in its references and somewhat generic in its beats. And, though I’ve seen only the first episode, tepid reviews suggest that sexual harassment is but one plot point in a tangled writing web of family drama, gambling debts, and bloodshed. Still, I’m intrigued enough to give the rest of the show a fair go—and I’ll be curious if the early reviews stand. —L.G.
Over the weekend, cocktail-heads and bar industry veterans alike gathered in Brooklyn’s Industry City for the first ever Martini Expo. Produced by drinks writer Robert Simonson, the all-day event brought in cocktail masters from across the globe, as well as hundreds of martini-loving attendees. They spent the afternoon and evening trying not to look goofy doing caviar bumps and sipping mini-tinis from more than 30 vendor booths. One unnamed Bon Appétit reporter got the inside look at how it all went down (and, yes, he may have been just slightly overserved) before going home to a big pasta dinner and a fitful night of sleep. —S.S.