Monocle Weekend
Edition: Sunday

Ready to roll? We start by welcoming an exciting new voice to Monocle Radio before settling in at beautiful new Palazzo Luce in Puglia. We also visit a revamped classic for seafood in Stockholm and rustle up a zingy starter of grilled summer vegetables and whipped feta. Plus: meet the entrepreneur who went to Austria and stayed to start a hotel. But first, Tyler Brûlé starts us off with a clean sweep of city spaces.

Keen listeners to Monocle Radio this week might have noticed a new but familiar voice broadcasting from Studio 1 at Midori House on The Monocle Daily. Nina dos Santos brings to the show a wealth of experience from her time as a network news anchor, business editor and international correspondent at CNN. She has also reported for Sky News, NBC News and Bloomberg Television, and her work has been published in The Wall Street Journal and multiple other European newspapers and magazines.

“I love Monocle Radio’s ability to bring insight and perspective to the day’s stories from a very broad, international point of view,” says Dos Santos. “I first joined the station’s shows as a guest. It’s a joy to be sitting in the presenter’s chair now, leading thought-provoking discussions with such knowledgeable people.”

You can hear Dos Santos – and our other award-winning editors and presenters – across our live news schedule. Tune in to Monocle Radio now to be part of the smartest global conversation.

After six years of renovations, Sturehof, founded in 1887, has reopened at its original address on Stureplan 2 in central Stockholm, albeit a few metres away from its previous location (writes Jonna Dagliden Hunt). The restaurant, which is spread out over two floors, now seats 400 guests with a further 150 covers to come when the “old” part reopens in 2026. The space remains faithful to the classic interior that architect Jonas Bohlin envisioned in 1995, with careful updates by Stockholm practice Dinelljohansson. Expect white tablecloths, oak panelling, terrazzo floors, a brass-and-glass ceiling and black leather seating. There’s a library-style dining room upstairs where books not only add to the atmosphere but are also available to buy. Downstairs, there’s a snug 16-cover bar.

Seafood is still the restaurant’s speciality; when Monocle visits, we sample radishes grown in the kitchen’s farm at Ulriksdal in northern Stockholm, served with sour cream and crayfish from Smögen on the west coast. Classics such as turbot with butter sauce or fresh Baltic herring caught by Sturehof’s own fishing boat on the Roslagen archipelago are never far away. Occasionally, game hunted by the founder, PG Nilsson (whose restaurant group is an investor in Monocle), appears on chef Michael Larsson’s always-pleasing menu. The site might have been spruced up but Sturehof’s recipe for success hasn’t changed.
sturehof.com

Berlin-based Barbara Elwardt went from skiing in the Austrian Alps to founding a modernist hotel in the village of Bad Gastein. The Comodo, which opened earlier this year in a former health clinic, is bringing new visitors to the old spa town. Here, she shares her favourite natural wine, marvels at marmalade and takes us through the best Berlin bakeries.

Where will we find you this weekend?
In Bad Gastein in our new hotel, The Comodo. I’m meeting my family there.

What is your ideal start to a Sunday, gentle or a jolt?
I don’t like to sleep in for too long. Depending on where I am, I start by taking my bike to one of the superb bakeries around us in Berlin.

Downward dog or walk the dog?
No yoga but I do like rowing – not that I do that on Sundays!

What’s for breakfast?
Good bread and eggs. And an Americano, please.

A pantry essential?
Orange marmalade and cream cheese (not necessarily together).

What’s on the Sunday menu?
Depends on the season.

Who will join you for lunch?
My husband and my two children.

A glass of something you recommend?
Heinrich Graue Freyheit – currently my favourite natural wine.

A Sunday evening routine?
Field hockey is a must when I’m in Berlin. I love the training and my team.

Your soundtrack of choice?
“Agitations tropicales” by L'Impératrice.

News or no news?
No news on a Sunday. That can wait until Monday morning.

Will you lay out your outfit for Monday?
I always decide in the morning by checking my calendar and the weather.

Our Japanese recipe writer’s simple starter is fresh and delicious. We’ve suggested a few vegetables to get you started but you can also use aubergines, padrón peppers and cherry tomatoes. Some grilled flatbread wouldn’t go amiss either.

Serves 2-4 as a starter

Ingredients

100g feta cheese
2 tbsps Greek yoghurt
½ small garlic clove
3 tbsps olive oil
10 toasted pistachios, roughly chopped
½ tbsp toasted sesame seeds
Large pinch of chilli flakes (Aleppo pepper works well)

1 red pepper, roughly chopped
1 yellow pepper, roughly chopped
1 courgette, roughly chopped

Method

1
Turn on your grill to the highest setting.

2
Mix the sliced vegetables and 2 tbsps olive oil together and arrange on the grill. Season with salt and pepper. Grill for 10-12 minutes on each side (you can also use a griddle pan).

3
Put the feta cheese, Greek yoghurt and garlic in a blender and blend until very smooth.

4
Place the whipped feta mixture in a shallow bowl and keep in the fridge until needed.

5
Just before serving, drizzle the whipped feta with 1 tbsp of olive oil and sprinkle with the chopped pistachios, toasted sesame seeds and chilli flakes. Serve with the grilled vegetables. ayanishimura.com

“I wasn’t looking to buy a palazzo,” says Anna Maria Enselmi, founder of Palazzo Luce in the city of Lecce in Puglia (writes Laura Rysman). “Someone brought me to see this place and I fell in love.” Enselmi decided to transform this 14th-century palace of an aristocratic family into a hotel and a space to house her collection of art and design. Alongside Nina Yashar, the design-world taste-maker behind Milan’s Nilufar Gallery, Enselmi enlisted the help of gallerists Lia Rumma and Rossella Colombari, and a network of Italian talents including Storage Milano, Giuliano Andrea Dell’Uva Architetti and Martino Gamper to decorate the space. Gamper contributed various custom pieces and worked on the hotel’s bar, finished with fragments of green and white linoleum. Guests will spot furnishings from Carlo Mollino, Franco Albini, Luigi Caccia Dominioni, Osvaldo Borsani and Ettore Sottsass, as well as photos by Marina Abramovic and Vanessa Beecroft. There’s also a vast rug by Joseph Kosuth covering the music room.

Enselmi’s love of all things Gio Ponti is evident in the hotel’s headboards, shelves, yellow floor tiles, Superleggera chairs and pink-and-green porcelain toilets with matching bathroom fixtures. Eyeing a lacquered wooden table by Ponti, she says, “I hope that no one ever puts a hot cup on here. But I think guests will respect the specialness of the place.”

Her concern is understandable. Palazzo Luce is not like other hotels that are made to withstand the wear and tear of strangers. It’s a temple to Enselmi’s passions that she entrusts, rather than rents, to visitors. Enselmi, who is of Pugliese descent and lives in Milan, explains that it was her “philosophy to maintain as much of what remained here as possible”: fishbone cotto floors, majolica tiles, carved wooden doors painted with dainty flowers and other remnants of the building’s 700 years of life. “I wanted a space for contemporary art and design but with a soul and a past – a place specific to Puglia that could never exist in New York or London.” What better place to rest for the night?
palazzolucelecce.com

For our full Puglia roadtrip, pick up a copy of our July/August issue of Monocle.

In this summer series celebrating Monocle’s Quality of Life-themed issue, which is out now, we profile businesses that are helping to bind their communities together. Here we visit a welcoming boutique supermarket that has kept Torontonians stocked up with high-quality food and drink for almost 70 years.

When Monocle visits Toronto’s busy Summerhill Market, the late-morning rush has just begun (writes Tomos Lewis). Established in 1954 by grocer Frank McMullen, the family-owned group of boutique supermarkets has earned a reputation for quality produce. Now run by the founder’s grandchildren, Brad and Christy McMullen, who have opened four additional shops in similarly upscale districts, the business continues to thrive.

“The service and quality of the food are phenomenal here,” says customer Gail Zee, as she makes her way to the checkout past shelves heaped with fresh loaves of bread. These, along with the grocery’s popular range of meals, cakes, desserts, biscuits and condiments, are prepared daily at Summerhill Market’s own commissary. The brand’s reputation is anchored to both the quality of its produce and the intimacy of the service that it offers – characteristics that are more difficult to maintain at national, big-box supermarket chains. “I like the way it’s small and easy to get around, and I know where everything is,” says another shopper, Barbara Lacey. “The prices are higher but you get good produce so it’s worth it.”
summerhillmarket.com

As part of our series celebrating our out-now July /August issue of Monocle we’re sharing some suggestions on what makes a city tick, swing and sing (writes Josh Fehnert). Of course we’re interested in safer streets, good healthcare and education but what about some spaces for fun, letting nature take hold and making room for pedestrians. Here are some thoughts on upgrading urban life in Monocle’s for-now-imagined perfect city.

Make space to revel
Cities aren’t quite silent yet but quieter electric cars, tighter construction rules and snitty neighbours have conspired to make them more sombre than ever before. This lull in the urban din has, in turn, made residents even less tolerant of bars or clubs with the temerity to ply a later trade. That’s a bad road. In our ideal city, there are still spaces for ateliers where people clatter and make things – and we’re encouraging a buoyant, boisterous night-time economy. That means leaving spaces for people to clink glasses outside, having rooftops to party on and protecting businesses that moved in before the moaning neighbours. Staying up until sunrise occasionally is a pleasure of city life. If you’re so against that, you might prefer it in a village.

Give way
Compromise is a two-way street and Monocle’s perfect city embraces many ways to travel. Yes, there are leafy streets with ample and well-kept pavements for pedestrians but also lanes for cycling and space for cars (to drive and park in) and buses too. Crucially there’s an onus on getting along. That starts with cycling proficiency at a young age. Motorists – imagine this – give way willingly. Buses and trams only really take the main roads, and the city has an unhurried air. The order is kept by steeper fines for speeders and badly behaved cyclists, plus traffic lights that change slowly, enabling dodderers and families to cross safely. We’re taking some cues from Tokyo’s Tomigaya. Oh, and people here are engaged, aware and able to tear their gaze away from their phones long enough to identify a ball bouncing near a road or a light turning amber.

Let it grow
Parks are vital but how about letting verges, roundabouts and the fringes of railway lines grow thick with nature too? Our city doesn’t preen or manicure every inch of nature and knows that such a policy is better for biodiversity than “green walls” that need endless watering before they curl, brown and die (here’s looking at you Perth). Won’t ivy or a few well-adapted wildflowers do? We’ve also looked to see where we can bring nature into existing structures, from bird bricks, in which our feathered friends can nest, to community allotments with cabins where it’s agreeable to while away a sunny day (the Danes do this enviably).

For more of Monocle’s perfect city, buy the July/August issue and enjoy the full report, our annual Quality of Life Survey and plenty of summery suggestions.