“Beautifully groomed hands and painted nails are associated with powerful women, not those who work for a low hourly wage. “Over the (relatively short) course of my career, I’ve found that my level of agency at work and grooming habits have moved in harmony,” wrote Haley Mlotek in an ode to gel manicures earlier this year. In 2012, The Wall Street Journal documented the dubious trend of professional women having meetings at the nail salon. And last year, the consulting giant McKinsey used free manicures to recruit female MBA students at Stanford, with some observers commenting that getting manicures had become the female equivalent of playing 12 holes of golf at an exclusive country club. Unlike other services that help some women find professional freedom, such as paying another (probably poorer) woman to care for her kids or clean her home, manicures are a way of outsourcing labor that women previously did for themselves in a way that seems relaxing and fun. There are no “nail wars” in which women are potentially judged for their decision to paint at home or go to salon. Paying for a manicure was not, until last week, a political choice.”
What Getting Your Nails Done Really Means - NYmag.com (via annfriedman)
3Ann Friedman
pricehike: “Meet, Semilla, Eater’s newest four star restaurant, as declared by Ryan Sutton (that’s me). What’s significant about Pamela Yung and Jose Ramirez-Ruiz’s vegetable-heavy establishment is its price; $75 for about 10-courses, which is less...

pricehike:

Meet, Semilla, Eater’s newest four star restaurant, as declared by Ryan Sutton (that’s me). What’s significant about Pamela Yung and Jose Ramirez-Ruiz’s vegetable-heavy establishment is its price; $75 for about 10-courses, which is less than what you’ll pay for a strip steak ($61) and a salad ($15) at Minetta Tavern. Think about that. (Photo: Daniel Krieger/Eater).

Semilla is only my second FOUR STAR star review since joining Eater a year ago; the other one was for Atera. Check it out.

3THE PRICE HIKE
Mario Carbone runs restaurants. But he calls his Major Food Group a storytelling company, a statement that makes sense when you visit Santina, a culinary establishment where every inch of space is dedicated to convincing patrons they’re dining in a...

Mario Carbone runs restaurants. But he calls his Major Food Group a storytelling company, a statement that makes sense when you visit Santina, a culinary establishment where every inch of space is dedicated to convincing patrons they’re dining in a fictional Italian coastal province circa 1962. 

That statement also makes sense when you consider that Major Food is famous for rethinking cuisines that aren’t typically rethought (like old-school Italian-American fare), and for subverting standard culinary narratives, using better ingredients to transform traditionally cheap dishes, like clams casino, into spendier luxuries. But while the Mediterranean fare is very good at Santina, it’s not a significant departure from the cuisine of other seaside Italian venues. The food is tasty and affordable, but the ideas and stories behind it just aren’t as head-turning as they should be. Still, I award TWO STARS for Eater! 

Click through for the full review. (Photo: Daniel Krieger/Eater)

“[When reviewing a cookbook], how much are we actually allowed to pay attention to a book’s design, photography, layout? A lot: We do judge a theater performance by the decor and the comfort of the seats, just as we judge a restaurant by paying heed to its room, its ethos, to the server who brings us our food and the dishes that that food is served on. Not one of these things trumps the play – or, in the cookbook’s case, the recipes – but they contribute to how we take in what’s in front of us. The food is king, but there must be a harmonious, supportive court: The voice must feel right, the design fluid and sensical, the message clear.”
Food52’s Kenzi Wilbur, meditating on the nature of cookbook, theater, and restaurant criticism (but mostly cookbook criticism). Brilliant read.
humansofnewyork: “ “After I finish my shift at the bakery, I start my shift at Starbucks. I work 95 hours per week at three different jobs. One of my sons graduated from Yale, and I have two more children in college. And when they finish, I want to...

humansofnewyork:

“After I finish my shift at the bakery, I start my shift at Starbucks. I work 95 hours per week at three different jobs. One of my sons graduated from Yale, and I have two more children in college. And when they finish, I want to go to college too. I want to be a Big Boss. I’m a boss at the bakery right now, but just a little boss. I want to be a Big Boss.”

THE FOOD SERVICE INDUSTRY.

3Humans of New York
Atelier Crenn, one of San Francisco’s most critically acclaimed restaurants, has joined the battle against the ridiculous American practice of tipping. Diners will now pay a 20 percent “guest experience” fee so Crenn can better compensate its...

Atelier Crenn, one of San Francisco’s most critically acclaimed restaurants, has joined the battle against the ridiculous American practice of tipping. Diners will now pay a 20 percent “guest experience” fee so Crenn can better compensate its employees, especially back-of-the-house staffers like cooks who’ll see their wages go up substantially! Atelier Crenn is most definitely a GOOD DEAL and a STRONG BUY. (Photo: Patricia Chang/Eater).