This week’s dispatch comes courtesy of a contemporary Madrileño menu served in a former garage and a private, neoclassical mansion turned elegant hotel in Paris’s luxurious eighth arrondissement. Plus: a hike in the Italian Dolomites with a Polish furniture designer, a recipe for gourmet Greek lamb meatballs and the sun-dappled photography books which keep the travel yearnings at bay. But here to break the ice, Tyler Brûlé considers the effects of threadbare standards on brand erosion.
Sunday. 8/9/2024
Monocle Weekend
Edition: Sunday
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The Faster Lane / Tyler Brûlé
Dress code red
What’s the plan for this late-summer Sunday? Might you be blocking out a few hours for a wardrobe edit and reset? Have you found that you’re out on the road more than ever before and missing the essential garments that can take you from Jakarta to Sapporo and over to Vancouver all in your carry-on? Is it time to hit the shops and figure out what your new uniform should be for meeting clients, day trips on the Eurostar and board meetings with your family office? If you’re a bit stumped and don’t know where to start, try this on.
It was an early morning Iberia flight from Barajas to Heathrow a few months ago that taught me the best no-fail, always sharp get-up is “modern Madrid banker”. If you’re unfamiliar with this very specific look it mixes a light-grey flannel trouser that’s ever so slightly on the short side, dark-brown loafers, crisp monogrammed white shirt, navy knitted tie and a navy blazer that’s neither too boxy nor too nipped-in. To top it off you’ll also need that timeless, swept-back Iberian haircut, slightly longish and with just enough volume so that even the tiniest banker from Zaragoza somehow appears five centimetres taller. And for the ladies? You too can stay in Spain as Massimo Dutti Studio has definitely amped-up its offering. And if you want to funk things up a notch, Galicia-based Cordera is also on point.
Over the past few weeks I’ve noticed the topic of uniforms, guidelines and staying within them has become a leading topic when I meet clients. At dinner in Zürich a CEO asked me if I could find out how his competitor is able to keep its staff looking elegant and well-groomed while he was fighting a running battle about whether female employees should shave their legs and male staff be allowed to wear jangly earrings. A big bank recently permitted its client advisors to ditch their ties and also to wear white sneakers. Now it’s asking whether this was the right move as that’s not what its clients have come to expect, yet “members of the younger generation need freedom to express themselves in the workplace.” And earlier this week in Toronto a global hospitality group said that it was struggling to define itself as premium as too many staff were telling management that they didn’t need guidance about what to wear and supervisors were too scared to enforce basics around simple hygiene. At every meeting the same questions have hung over the boardroom table: how did we let things get so baggy? How do we tighten up our presentation? And when did we lose our courage to fight for our brand?
It’s at this point that I usually interject and remind the exasperated management that they need to pause, spin the globe and take a good look around. I explain that in many parts of the world the uniform is alive and well – and not just in the offices of Air Koryo in Pyongyang or tractor factories in Belarus. “But how do we get back to where we were 10 years ago?” they ask. “Before the pandemic? To the glory days of simply altering a uniform without needing everything to be elasticated and all footwear vegan?”
In the case of the Canadian hospitality company, I explained that it was going to be a bumpy, winding, black-ice-covered road back to something that resembled its golden years and would require the board finding the courage to jettison some of its rigid inclusivity initiatives in favour of enhanced customer satisfaction and brand preservation. Such advice used to be met with looks of surprise and spasms of wincing but so acute is the problem with brand erosion that it’s clear we’re at a point where something has to give. As we speed along to the start of Q4 and corporate strategies are tweaked, overhauled or ripped up, I get a sense that many companies in the West will be weighing up how they get back to bolstering their customer base and building brand loyalty through superior products and service delivery rather than political gestures and narrow initiatives that cater to the few rather than the majority. The Toronto exec summed it up best: “We’ve come to a point where we’ve lost our best people because they were embarrassed by the lack of structure and colleagues showing up for their shift in slippers. It all happened on our watch.”
Eating out / Tramo, Madrid
Sustainable service
An inconspicuous façade in the Spanish capital’s Prosperidad district welcomes visitors to a remarkable restaurant run by co-founders Felipe Turell and Javier Antequera (writes Liam Aldous). Tramo is based in a 1950s-era former garage. Its open-plan kitchen gives way to a dining hall with a restructured floor that scales upwards via a series of smartly designed tiers that conceal the ceramic ventilation system. Every element has a story to tell. The custom furniture by Catalan designer Andreu Carulla is created from repurposed industrial materials. On the rear wall, an installation of diamond-shaped ceramics mists the dry Madrid air.
Image: Mirta
Image: Mirta
As the skylight’s natural rays fade and evening bookings begin to flow in, staff appoint tables using specially designed solar-charged lamps, creating a gradually expansive spectacle of illumination. The fare is Madrileño at heart: fresh, seasonal and wholesome. Dishes include grilled artichokes served with egg yolk and guajillo chillies, lacón (pork shoulder) croquettes and a succulent flat-iron-pressed sea bass. For dessert, try the sweet goat’s-milk flan.
espaciotramo.com
For more drinking and dining ideas, pick up a copy of Monocle’s Septemberissue, on newsstands now.
Image: Felix Bruggemann
Sunday Roast / Maja Ganszyniec
Chanterelles, Chopin and hiking above the clouds
Maja Ganszyniec is a Warsaw-based furniture designer who has worked with the likes of Ikea and Duka before creating her own furniture brand, Nurt, in 2018 (writes Gabrielle Grangié). Here, she tells us about hiking in the mountains, broad-bean season and a Chopin concert in Warsaw.
Where will we find you this weekend?
Hiking above the clouds in the Italian Dolomites.
Your ideal start to a Sunday? Gentle or a jolt?
A gentle start when I’m in Warsaw. I use the Sunday morning silence to meditate on my
terrace. I try to start early, before the city wakes up.
What’s for breakfast?
Green shakshuka with eggs, homemade hummus, buckwheat bread, goat’s
cheese and vegan butter. Cow’s milk, sugar and gluten are out of my
diet, so I have mastered breakfasts that suit me.
Lunch in or out?
In. It’s the season for broad beans and blueberries.
A Sunday soundtrack?
There are a couple of huge trees outside my windows and the best soundtrack on a
Sunday morning is the birds singing.
Sunday culture must?
There are live Chopin piano concerts in Warsaw’s Royal Lazienki park,
so you can enjoy the virtuosity of the musicians while lying on
the grass and looking up at the blue sky.
What’s on the menu?
All the seasonal produce. Chanterelle mushrooms are here,
blackberries, gooseberries and all sorts of refreshing cold soups.
These are nature’s treasures and they always disappear before you
feel you’ve had your fill.
Sunday evening routine?
I go for a Thai massage – it’s my recent self-care ritual.
Will you lay out an outfit for Monday?
My morning mood decides.
Illustration: Xiha
Recipe / Ralph Schelling
Greek lamb meatballs with garlic and mint
Greek meatballs or keftedes, with their irresistible combination of lamb and mint, have been reinterpreted as minced-meat patties, polpette and köttbullar. “Incidentally, the Torre di Pisa restaurant in Milan serves incredibly good polpette, probably my favourite,” says Swiss chef and Monocle recipe writer Ralph Schelling. Enjoy with some tzatziki on the side.
Serves 4 people
Ingredients
1 onion
2 garlic cloves
1/2 bunch fresh parsley
500g minced beef and lamb mixed together
1 egg
3 tbsps breadcrumbs
3 tbsps red wine vinegar
2 tbsps dried mint
1 tsp salt and ground pepper
Vegetable oil for frying
Method
1
Finely chop the onion, garlic and parsley, combine in a
bowl with the minced meat, egg, mint, breadcrumbs, salt and pepper.
2
Knead the mixture well with your hands and then form
into walnut-sized balls (top tip: shape using a tablespoon).
3
Fry the meatballs in hot oil (180C) turning until golden
brown, then place on kitchen paper.
Image: Tony Hay
Bottoms Up / Celler 9+
Pure Catalonia
When Moisès Virgili i Rovira set up his own winery in 2010 it seemed like a risky move. Spain was still in the midst of deep economic turmoil but the young winemaker decided to throw caution to the wind. He had grown up amid his grandparents’ vineyards in the small Catalan town of La Nou de Gaià before heading to Barcelona to study agri-food engineering and oenology. After gaining experience in Chile, South Africa and various other Spanish wineries, Virgili i Rovira returned to his hometown to launch Celler 9+.
Luckily, his gamble paid off. Today the business is among Catalonia’s most highly regarded producers of natural wine, specialising in the cultivation of native white-grape varieties including Macabeu, Cartoixà, and Moscatel. The grapes are nurtured by the sun, tempered by the sea breeze and rooted in sandy loam soils to create wines that express the terroir of Virgili i Rovira’s native Catalonia.
9mes.cat
Weekend plans? / Hôtel San Régis, Paris
Gilded getaway
Originally the home of French interior designer Edmond Petit, guests have been passing through the doors of Paris’s Hôtel San Régis since 1923 (writes Lucrezia Motta). In the century since, this former hôtel particulier in the city’s well-heeled eighth arrondissement has hosted the likes of Gene Kelly and Romy Schneider. The neoclassical mansion has been managed by the Georges family since the mid-1980s and interiors by luxury designer Pierre-Yves Rochon feature elegant silk fabrics, Italian marble and antique art from the Georges’ collection adorning the 42 bedrooms and suites.
Image: Jessica Préalpato
Image: Jessica Préalpato
Image: Jessica Préalpato
The appropriately named Les Confidences restaurant offers an intimate experience inspired by Japonisme prints that gained popularity in Paris in the 19th century. Guests can enjoy a refined and seasonal menu from chef Michele Fanciullo featuring classics such as French-onion soup and inventive dishes including roasted sea bass with hazelnut butter sauce. For the goûter – afternoon snack – there are decadent creations by pastry chef Jessica Préalpato.
hotel-sanregis.fr
The Stack / Belmond photography
Elegant exposure
The summer holiday season is drawing to a close in the northern hemisphere so what better time to reminisce about our Mediterranean escapes than with snapshots of sun-drenched pool sides and palmy trails (writes Julia Lasica). If Belmond’s new As Seen By series is anything to go by, the golden age of travel photography is back – and with a contemporary twist. Collaborating with Parisian publisher RVB Books and London-based creative director Dani Matthews, the LVMH-owned hospitality brand has released three titles documenting Belmond’s iconic travel stays.
Image: Tony Hay
Clashing stripes and chequered covers enclose photographs from the brand’s hotels around the globe, from the shores of South Africa to the elegant Amalfi Coast. London-based photographer Rosie Marks documents the day-to-day running of Belmond’s Mount Nelson in Cape Town, while Paris-based Letizia Le Fur heads to the Italian seaside for the deep colours of Hotel Caruso. The best gig, though, surely went to Spanish visual artist Coco Capitán who transports readers from Paris to Venice on Belmond’s Simplon-Orient-Express, capturing the passing landscape with cocktails, puzzles and candlelit dinners. The book series comes alongside the brand’s announcement of a photographic residency, buoying intrepid adventurers with the confidence to document as they go.
belmond.com
For more luxury escapism and travel reportage, pick up a copy of the latest issue of Monocle or better still, subscribe today so you never miss an issue. Have a super Sunday.
