Monocle Weekend
Edition: Sunday

This week we tuck in to some Catalan classics at a new opening in Barcelona before heading along the Mediterranean coastline to the Peloponnese where a Greek-Dutch chef is spending the sunny months sipping ouzo. Plus: the bucolic Provençal guesthouse where playing pétanque with a glass of rosé is the order of the day and the experimental winery flourishing in Washington state. Leading the charge is Tyler Brûlé, with a little bit of tech talk...

Good morning. Is all well in your corner of the world? How’s winter in Wellington? Waiting for longer, sunnier days in Melbourne? What about the Monocle crowd in the Med? All good on Antiparos (our casual correspondents report that the Beach House, now under management of The Rooster, is doing a fine job) and on the terraces of Cadiz? Here in Zürich, summer seems to be holding after two months of almost non-stop rain but there’s an air of grumpiness because Switzerland’s biggest city will not be hosting the 2025 edition of Eurovision. I know, right? What on earth is the country’s state broadcaster thinking? The race is now between Geneva and Basel to see which of the two can do the better job of looking after thousands of artists, their entourages and fans from around the world. It’s a silly decision but is very much in line with the spirit of inclusion that too often prevails over pragmatism and good old common sense these days.

Now let’s get this Sunday under way by rewinding the tape to this time last week, when much of what was being reported out of the US was a call from both Democrats and Republicans to dial down the divisive rhetoric, come together as a nation, seek unity and put aside differences. Some politicians suggested that there should be a shift in language, that not only the tone should be softened but perhaps a few less hysterical descriptors could go far in lowering the temperature. Go back 24 hours and I thought the same, as many of the world’s airports suspended operations and our screens clogged with images of queuing passengers as a technical reboot put a halt to holiday travel in the northern hemisphere. While I don’t fully buy that this was an innocent software update that went pear-shaped (if you were an intelligence agency skilled in the art of ass-covering, would you admit that your guard was down and this was an attack you weren’t prepared for?), it also wasn’t quite as it was portrayed on the tickers and home pages of many news outlets either. Just as we don’t need to hear inflammatory language from jumped-up Democrats and Republicans, we also don’t need headlines about “blue screens of death”, “horror scenes at airports”, “stricken passengers” and “appalling scenes at terminals”. No doubt, many people didn’t make it to their cousin’s wedding on time yesterday or ferry connections from Genoa on Friday but we need to put a few words in the drawer for a while and bring them out at the appropriate hour. To be clear, a blank departure screen at a US or Australian airport isn’t death or a horror scene. If planes had been falling from the sky yesterday, such words might have been employed but this was not the case. In the ugly race to own clicks and scroll time, much of the English-language media has found itself in a place where everything is toxic and horrific and, as a result, everyone is in a constant state of devastation and outrage. Enough, please. How about more moderate terms such as “ill-timed”, “unfortunate” and “less-than-ideal” to explain technology glitches, mundane daily accidents and myriad other things that are part of something called being alive.

Here’s a final thought on digital implosions. What happened on Friday was mild, with perhaps too much emphasis placed on spoilt plans rather than what happens when people no longer have access to their funds and global payment systems freeze. It’s for this reason that I always like to have a couple hundred francs and euros in my wallet for moments when terminals don’t work. On a recent Eurostar journey from Paris to London, the card readers froze up in the dining car. When the train manager announced that it was going to be cash only for the next two hours, you would have thought that most passengers were about to face appalling scenes of hunger on a death train. This moment was a tiny snapshot of what happens when society no longer has a back-up plan and our dependence on a fragile network of servers, clouds, cables and sticky tape unravels. The Swiss federal government still advises you to keep a supply of cash at home (CHF1,000 is the average) for occasions that go far beyond software updates that go to shit. They also advise you to have nine litres of water per person and ample amounts of pasta, rice, muesli, batteries, chocolate (of course), coffee (Nespresso capsules optional), UHT milk, hard cheese and dried meats. The list is a rather long one and has given our household a little project for the weekend. Is it time to buy a safe and fill it with a few blocks of crisp CHF100 notes? Most definitely.

Barcelona’s Casa Costa is a reminder of when the city’s beachfront was a fishermen’s neighbourhood (writes Stella Roos). The two-storey property has been run by the family of Francis Manresa for five generations and, when his aunt decided to call it quits two years ago, the restaurateur, along with friends Nacho Sarrió and Álvaro Casacuberta, took over. The trio restored the building’s original 1940s name, renovated the building in the sunny spirit of Catalan modernism and reopened as an all-day restaurant serving fried calamari, Iberian ham and crisp patatas bravas.

“We wanted to give people the opportunity to have a sobremesa,” says Sarrió, referring to the Spanish habit of lingering at the table after a meal. “We have had guests who come for lunch and stay until dinner.” Absent from the menu, however, is paella. “It’s a Barceloneta cliché that all the tourists ask for this dish,” says Sarrió. “We’re trying to make a statement by excluding it.” No complaints from us. Anyone who nabs an upstairs table with a sea view is unlikely to be left wanting.
casacostabarceloneta.com

Greek-Dutch chef Angelo Kremmydas is the former chef de cuisine at London’s Nopi (writes Claudia Jacob). He relocated to Amsterdam in 2017 and opened Gitane last year, a resto-bar designed by Dutch firm Studio Modijefsky. His next project is Massalia, a casual French-Greek concept that opens in August in Amsterdam-Oost. Here, Kremmydas tells us about his Sunday lunch spot, Greek salads from his hometown and his penchant for wine from the Jura.

Where will we find you this weekend?
I will probably be having some midnight Chinese food after service at Taste of Culture with the crew.

Ideal start to a Sunday? Gentle start or a jolt?
My three-year-old joins us in bed for a slow start to the day.

What’s for breakfast?
Sourdough toasties or banana pancakes.

Lunch in or out?
Oysters at Café Parlotte.

Walk the dog or downward dog?
I’ll hit the gym. I go for conditioning twice a week.

A Sunday soundtrack?
“Sitting on the Dock of the Bay” is the only soundtrack I need.

Sunday culture must?
Watching Ajax, my favourite football team.

Where are you spending the summer?
Back in my hometown, Tolo, in the Peloponnese. There are tons of fresh fish there, as well as tasty vegetables, Greek salads, ouzo and sun.

What’s on the menu?
Most likely a steak on the barbecue, a salad with lots of feta and a glass of wine from the Jura.

Sunday evening routine?
I end up falling asleep next to my son at 19.30.

Will you lay out an outfit for Monday?
With the Dutch weather, you can’t plan ahead.

Beach or urban waterfront?
Beach. I was born and raised in a seaside village and would fall asleep listening to the waves, so it’s in my blood.

Monocle has been celebrating the summer season with a selection of seasonal sandwiches to enjoy alfresco. Sabich is a traditional Sephardic breakfast sandwich made from pita or laffa bread stuffed with fried aubergines, hard-boiled egg, parsley and plenty of tahini. Monocle’s Japanese recipe writer whips up her own take on the prized pita.

Serves 2

Ingredients

For an amba-style sauce
1 tbsp olive oil
1 garlic clove, finely grated
100g ripe mango, diced
¼ tsp sumac
Juice of a lime
1 tsp wholegrain mustard
½ lime, roughly chopped
1½ tbsps water
A large pinch of salt

For the tahini
2½ tbsps tahini
1 tbsp fresh lemon juice
½ tsp sea salt
1 tbsp water

For the salad
6 cherry tomatoes, diced
1 small cucumber, diced
10g flat leaf parsley
2 tsps olive oil
1 tsp lemon juice
2 large pinches of sumac
3 tbsps olive oil
2 medium eggs
2 spoonfuls of hummus
1 aubergine, sliced into 1cm-thick rounds
2 pita breads
Green chilli pickles to serve

Method

1
Preheat the oven to 200C.

2
Put the amba-style sauce ingredients into a food processor and blitz until smooth.

3
Mix the tahini-sauce ingredients together until smooth.

4
Toss the salad ingredients in a bowl and set aside.

5
Mix 3 tbsps of olive oil, the aubergine slices, salt and pepper in a bowl. Arrange on a tray and bake for 10 minutes on each side.

6
Boil the eggs for 7 minutes. Then peel and cut in half.

7
Spoon the salad, hummus, aubergines and eggs into a warm pita and drizzle over the tahini and amba sauce.

For more ways to get your fill of daily bread, pick up a copy of Monocle’s bumperJuly/August issue, which is available on all good newsstands now.

Dusty Jenkins left his career as a film archivist in New York to return to Washington state, where he practises a philosophy of continuous experimentation through wine-making (writes Gregory Scruggs). Every year he produces one wine that he has never made before under his label, Sage Rat. Jenkins’s range comprises everything from skin-contact pinot grigio, pét-nat nebbiolo rosé and a Tuscan-inspired blend of cabernet franc and sangiovese.

The amenable microclimate and long hours of daylight in Yakima Valley make it possible to experiment with different grape varieties, though few wineries in the area have attempted to push the boundaries. It’s why Jenkins has now challenged himself to create the state’s first barrel-fermented vermentino. He named his winery after the region’s sagebrush vegetation, an aromatic shrub that dominates the terrain. “It’s a quasi-desert environment with oases of rivers running across the landscape,” says Jenkins. “We have dry patches but, through the magic of irrigation, we’re able to have such abundance.”
sageratwine.com

To stay at La Grande Maison des Campaux – a bucolic country inn just 25 minutes west of Saint Tropez – is to feel as though you’re a member of the family that has owned the estate since 1934 (writes Annick Weber). “It’s a true maison de famille, filled with happy memories,” says Joyce Naveau, the third-generation owner and the first to open the holiday house to guests. “We tried to preserve the sense of wonder and wellbeing that we had when we spent our summers here as children.” To do this, Naveau assigned each member of her family a different task. Her mother, Laurance – an interior designer by trade and the founder of Saint Tropez-based homeware shop Taman Antik – took care of decorating the seven guestrooms, which she decked out with typically Provençal goods such as tomette tiles, linen bed sheets, ceramic light fixtures and wicker baskets.

Jean-Marc, Laurance’s cousin and a passionate cook, is in charge of keeping guests fed with Middle Eastern and Asian-inspired fare prepared with locally sourced ingredients. The sprawling 170-hectare site is also home to Domaine des Campaux, the family’s winery, which produces AOC Côtes de Provence rosés. Days at La Grande Maison des Campaux are best spent lounging in the garden, foraging for fruit or playing rounds of pétanque with an apéro in hand. Come early evening, you can even join Naveau’s grandmother on her daily walk to find out more about the history of the maison.
lagrandemaisondescampaux.fr

Belgian brother-and-sister duo Raf and Kim Maes were inspired by the elegant waters of the Côte d’Azur when they concocted Le Rub’s SPF collection in Milan, just in time for summer.

Packaged in sleek aluminium tubes, the photographer and make-up artist have combined their expertise to create an effective formula that you’ll want to pack in your bag for long, languid days spent on the beach. It’s a reminder that a little dose of sunshine can go a long way.

For more on Monocle’s balmy Mediterranean getaways and the products coming with us, pick up a copy of oursunny summer newspaper, which is available on all good newsstands now. Have a super Sunday.