A Gift Guide built for New Yorkers
Support your favorite NY-based small businesses with our guide + at all the coolest markets, bake sales & art fairs this weekend
This week we’re sharing our coolstuff Gift Guide(!!!), highlighting markets and bake sales to shop small this weekend, featuring food & bev pop-ups and introducing you to our cool new friend: Lily Sullivan.
Laziza
Chef Jilbert El-Zmetr just opened a new spot in Bed-Stuy, Laziza, which looks absolutely FUN. The disco-ball filled space serves cocktails alongside charcoal-grilled mezze inspired by the chef's cherished flavors from Lebanon, Turkey, and the broader Middle East. One of our favorite parts? The soundtrack to your evening will be vinyl from Jilbert’s personal collection of global funk and soul. Open from 5:30p-12a every day but Mondays with late night hours until 2a on Fridays and Saturdays!
Approved by Fritz
We were flattered to be asked by Approved by Fritz, a small NY-based dog accessories brand to be a part of their Dogs & Interiors series! Check out our little interview about how we’ve been settling into life in our Brooklyn apartment with Margot, and while you’re there click around and shop the cutest dog beds for the puppy-lover in your life!
20th Annual Small Works Show at 440 Gallery
Park Slope’s 440 Gallery is hosting its 20th Annual Small Works show – something that proves the best pieces in a collection can sometimes be the smallest. The only rule for works being exhibited is that all art measures less than 12” in any dimension. The show will be on through December 20th – stop by and take a look at all of the fantastic pieces submitted by local artists and juried by Pam Wong – the curator and writer of great substack, Art Hag NYC!
Meet Lily, one of our favorite Brooklyn-based “multi-hyphenates.” While that term can get thrown around, Lily really has done it all – she’s a writer with a fantastic newsletter, Love and Other Rugs, and has work in Vogue and Domino; she spent a few years as head of brand for sexual wellness brand Maude, and has a true talent for bringing cool people together for events and book tours. We caught up with Lily to hear how the common thread through her work all begins with storytelling.
How did your career as a writer begin?
I’ve always been a storyteller, but I’ll admit that I didn’t call myself a writer until I started Love and Other Rugs. I started this newsletter as a way to build writing muscle in the hopes of building something even bigger. I’ve interned in the magazine world since high school and ran a magazine in college, editorial is in my DNA. I went to college and studied graphic design, as a way to understand the visual side of storytelling—the full picture. This has been an immense help as I’ve moved from magazines to start-ups to building brands and partnerships. The ultimate goal is to write books about my life—grief, dating, daughterhood.
Tell us about your newsletter, Love and Other Rugs! What's your theory behind the comparison of searching for romance and searching for home furnishings?
In New York, there is a constant shuffle of apartments and dating—when you really boil it down we are looking for things that fit into our lives. As I was conceptualizing Love and Other Rugs, I kept getting inbounds from friends on where they should take new love interests on dates or where they should buy vintage rugs. I wanted to create a hub for it all, which is both exactly what it is and not at all—it's now a hybrid of personal essay and cultural guide.
What’s your favorite part about the New York creative community?
How connected we all are—it's rare to find someone who you aren’t degrees of separation away from. New York is one big small town. I really take pride in the community I’ve fostered and how much everyone shows up.
How do you choose what area of home design you'll discuss in each newsletter?
It is all based on personal anecdotes, so it's a bit based on what is happening (or not happening) in my dating life. I also am constantly out in the world shopping, so I’m inspired by what I’m seeing in my day to day.
Do you have a favorite article you've ever written (in or outside of Love and Other Rugs)?
Definitely my Vogue piece that came out this summer—it's most reflective of the projects I want to be working on—specifically a book about my mother and her belongings. In the piece I talk about dry-cleaning a majority of her wardrobe (for $350 in the midwest where I’m from) and how it lives on in the city on me and my friends.
Follow Along:
– Love and Other Rugs@lilyksullivan
One of our absolute favorite things about the year coming to an end is being able to put together our annual gift guide – something we are always super proud to share. This year we’ve got 35 GREAT New York-based gift recs for all the people in your life: the home cook, the eco-conscious friend, the dog lover, the bevvy aficionado, the indie fashion head, and MANY MANY more. Upgrade your subscription to paid to access this list that’s full of both pretty things AND experience-focused gifts, that comes from our hearts and without commissions or affiliate links!
P.S. Upgrade to paid to make sure you aren’t missing out on the rest of this newsletter including our 2024 coolstuff.nyc Gift Guide, shopping markets and art fairs, the coolest food and bev pop-ups &&& more!