Welcome to the T List, a newsletter from the editors of T Magazine. Each week, we share things we’re eating, wearing, listening to or coveting now. Sign up here to find us in your inbox every Wednesday. And you can always reach us at [email protected].
eat This
A Parisian Wine Bar With Great Bites and Tunes
Bambino, a buzzy restaurant on Rue Saint-Sébastien in Paris’s 11th arrondissement, was inspired by Tokyo’s jazz kissa cafes, with their expansive record collections and impressive sound systems, and by Romano in Tel Aviv, which has an open kitchen and oversize bar at which you can eat without ever having to sit down. The restaurateur Fabien Lombardi was determined to create a similarly casual and festive atmosphere with what is his seventh space. “I’d been living in Paris for over 10 years but realized I was still missing a place where I felt I could go all the time,” he says. The result is indeed welcoming, with a “la fête,” or a party vibe, that builds over the course of each night: The main countertop faces a large, wooden midcentury sound system set amid Lombardi’s personal collection of vinyl records — mostly hip-hop, soul, funk and jazz — which are spun on loop behind the bar. The remainder of the room is optimally set up for dinner and dancing, as high-top tables encourage patrons to fuel up on sophisticated bites paired with draft beer, cocktails or natural wine. And while food service ends at 11 p.m., dancing continues until 2 a.m. bambinoparis.com
A resistance to the designation “pandemic paintings” is understandable, but the London-based Glaswegian artist Gabriella Boyd gets why the series of 15 works she’s created over the last two years might be taken as such: The tight, layered oil compositions depict ambiguous figures — “on either side of comfort or discomfort,” as she puts it — in domestic spaces, and who are often seen caring for each other in configurations that could make them lovers, family members or nurse and patient. The canvases convey “much compassion and warmth, but there’s also so much claustrophobia,” says Boyd, whose first solo exhibition in the United States, “Signal,” opens Thursday at Friends Indeed Gallery in San Francisco’s Chinatown. Hand-held hair dryers in several works read as guns as much as instruments of upkeep, for instance. Elsewhere, swarms of red dots suggest both infection and decoration. “How can you not see germs and disease after what we’ve experienced?” asks the artist. Later this year, the Grimm Gallery will bring Boyd’s work to New York, first for a group show of new British paintings this summer, and then for a solo exhibition in November. “Signal” is on view through May 13, friendsindeed.art.
wear This
Pajamas Printed With Memories of Summer Travels
In need of a pick-me-up and unable to tap into the ideas typically engendered by their travels because of pandemic restrictions, Molly Goddard and Joel Jeffery, the founders of the London-based pajama brand Desmond & Dempsey, sent an email to their customers in early 2021 inviting them to share their most cherished summer memories for a new Summer Stories collection. They were delighted with the ensuing deluge, which included vivid descriptions of rowdy nights in New York City, summer festivals in Tokyo, tennis matches in Palm Springs and more. The resulting sleepwear, which debuts this month, features details from some of the submissions in print form — there’s a tropical floral reminiscent of tablecloths at a Mexican restaurant, and there are pool scenes that echo vintage Palm Springs advertisements, as well as a solid cerulean blue modeled on the Jardin Majorelle in Marrakesh. For the Summer Dusk pattern, which evokes that languid time of day in Savannah, Ga., the print designer Ana Santos spray-painted over real Spanish moss, letting the negative space dictate the ethereal, cloudlike motif. Each is transporting in its own way, though no doubt the linen and cotton sets will be worn on trips this summer, as all-new memories are being created. From $48, desmondanddempsey.com.
visit this
A Charleston, S.C., Hotel to Call Home for a Bit
To date, Charleston, S.C.,’s hotel scene has largely consisted of a mix of grande dame properties and boutiques that are as quaint as you’d expect from a southern city of cobblestone alleys and pastel facades. The Pinch, from the team behind Method Co., offers something different: 25 apartment-style units spread across three restored Victorian buildings in the heart of the city’s historic downtown. The entrance is tucked away down a stone lane lit with copper gas lanterns, and just past it is a lobby of wide-plank floors and open doors facing a courtyard that feels like the solarium of an eclectic country house. The apartments are also homey, and temper Charleston’s old-fashioned charm with a dose of modern comfort: The walls are hung with David Salle lithographs, as well as vintage photography, psychedelic prints and original paintings by artists including Kelsey Brookes and Fausto Rossi; also, each one contains a full-size kitchen with a farmhouse sink and unfinished brass hardware by the English company deVOL. Those who prefer to leave the cooking to professionals will soon be able to wander to the Quinte, an on-site oyster bar named for the billiards hall once housed in the same space, or to a restaurant serving French-inflected Lowcountry cuisine, both set to open this summer. Not a bad place to stay for a couple of days — or longer. Rooms from $595, thepinch.com.
Though she worked at high-end accessories houses for over a decade, the Los Angeles-based designer Shelley Sanders confesses that she found the fine jewelry space “intimidating and, frankly, a bit too precious.” So in 2017, she and her husband, Teddy Sanders, launched the Last Line, a direct-to-consumer company of cheerful, Instagram-friendly bijoux — such as statement-making heart pendants and earrings dangling with hand-carved garnet cherries — at a more affordable price point. “Our thoughts are often, ‘Why not shake it up?’” says Sanders, and that same disruptive sensibility has led to the pair’s sophomore foray into the interiors category. Arriving in time for warm-weather entertaining, their brand’s new tabletop accents are as practical as they are playful: Think embossed, candy-colored glasses, Talavera ceramic egg cups with matching butter dishes and gold-rimmed porcelain plates decorated with zodiac symbols — a bold motif borrowed from the jewelry line. And hand-woven roses, magic mushrooms and smiley faces appear on embroidered linen napkins and place mats — no two of them alike. “My hope is that they make everyday life a little more fun,” Sanders says of the pieces, adding, “even if that means enjoying a slice of store-bought cake just because.” Pieces starting at $165, thisisthelast.com.
From T’s Instagram