Monocle Weekend
Edition: Sunday

It’s diary Saturday in the Brûlé household. The sun is out, there is the gentlest breeze and diaries, pencils and erasers are at the ready. First up, the week ahead: Salone del Mobile in Milan from Sunday (tune in to Monocle Radio and these newsletters for the latest from the world’s most important design fair), off to the Delphi Economic Forum for some panels and interviews and then down to Athens for dinners and a couple of nights at the Dolli – a hotel that I’ve been keen to try since it opened. Then it’s back to Zürich for a suitcase swap and on to Lisbon to check on the new apartment and a little pre-Easter moment down in Alentejo at São Lourenço do Barrocal – an undisputed Monocle top-five retreat. After that, things get serious.

Have you bought your ticket for The Chiefs in Jakarta yet? If so, I’ll be seeing you for cocktails on 23 April along with a sizable Monocle contingent, our sharp speakers and plenty of readers from all over the world. While we’re talking Monocle-related events: we also have our spring Portugal-themed market on 10 May in London; our annual Badi Market in Zürich on 23 May; and then on 13 July the 10th-anniversary party for our shop in Merano. For the past few hours we’ve been trying to figure out business trips, family commitments, grand tours, fresh exploration and a few returns to summer classics. This is what I’m thinking on the leisure front for the coming months – in somewhat chronological order.

Stockholm
A long weekend at Ett Hem. Breakfasts in the garden are always a good way to ease into summer, plus long trots around Djurgården and shopping excursions to Nitty Gritty and Svenskt Tenn.

Biarritz
The Basque city has been on my “must-visit” list forever and finally, thanks to an invite from my friend Solène, I have an excuse for an extended long weekend on the Atlantic.

Beirut
Beirut is back. Finally. It has been six years and I cannot wait to check back into the Albergo, dive into the sea at Sporting, visit friends, walk the streets of Hamra and soak up one of my favourite cities in the world.

St Moritz
I’ll do a little early-summer touchdown in advance of an extended trip in August.

Road trip: One
Zürich to Lisbon with stops in Bordeaux, San Sebastián and Sanxenxo.

Road trip: Two
Lisbon to Zürich with stops in Madrid, Cadaqués, Arles, Marseille and Gstaad.

All of this could very well change but it’s deeply satisfying to fill out the spiral-bound planner and start to plug in all the restaurants, beaches, galleries and vineyards to hit along the way. As ever, you can send special requests to the Monocle Concierge if you’re after some sensible summer consultation, and you’ll be happy to hear that a totally new monocle.com is just weeks away from a needed relaunch with travel very much at the core of our new look and line-up. Bon voyage.

Daniel Land opened bakery-cum-restaurant Don’t Tell Dad in northwest London earlier this year (writes Maria Papakleanthous). “London’s pastry scene is unreal but Queen’s Park was an area that still lacked a standout independent bakery,” he says.

Named after what he and his late sister used to say to each other when they were up to no good, the bakery is a personal project. Customers who arrive early enough will find fragrant bergamot-flavoured doughnuts, brown-butter hazelnut croissants and cheddar-and-wild-garlic twirls.

In the evening, Don’t Tell Dad has a bistro-style ambience and offers dishes by ex-Noble Rot chef Luke Frankie, including truffle-and-cheddar beignets, oxtail crumpets and a pork cassoulet. If you have room for dessert, don’t pass on the rhubarb-and-almond tart, served with a dollop of crème fraîche.
donttelldad.co.uk

Sylvain Roucayrol is the executive chef at Tuba Club in the fishing village of Les Goudes, near Marseille (writes Claudia Jacob). The Perpignan-born chef worked at Caché and Amagat in Paris before joining Tuba Club in 2021. Here, he tells us about where he sources his fresh catches, hidden Marseillais restaurants and collecting US vintage clothing in California.

Where will we find you this weekend?
I’ll be with my wife, Delaney, walking around the calanques of Marseille, or on my sailing boat in Les Goudes.

Your ideal start to a Sunday – gentle or a jolt?
Gentle. I’ll be at the market, buying groceries for a nice Sunday lunch. I go to Epicerie l’Ideal or the fish market at Marseille’s vieux port.

What’s for breakfast?
Bagels with smoked fish. Then a glass of fresh fruit juice from my friend Yannis at Station Uvale du Palais.

Your Sunday soundtrack?
My wedding soundtrack, which I made in collaboration with my good friend Axel.

A Sunday culture must?
Chez le Belge is a restaurant in one of Marseille’s many coves. You have to walk for 45 minutes to reach what residents call the “end of the world”.

What’s on the menu?
Herb salad, loup en croute [fish cooked in a crust of salted dough] and steamed mussels in white wine. I’ll make garlicky spinach as a side dish and have a nice bottle of pinot noir, my favourite grape.

Your Sunday-evening routine?
A football game at the Orange Velodrome to watch my club, Olympique de Marseille. Allez l’OM!

Will you lay out an outfit for Monday?
Yes, I collect vintage American clothes from California where my wife is from, so it’s fun to put an outfit together.

The short season of barba di frate (or friar’s beard), an Italian chive-like vegetable, has just begun. Our Swiss chef and recipe writer Ralph Schelling makes the most of the fleeting green in an aglio-e-olio-style linguine dish.

Serves 4

Ingredients
2 cloves of garlic
½ tsp pepperoncini (diced)
3-4 tbsps olive oil
300g squid-ink linguine
2 handfuls of barba di frate (also known as friar’s beard)
Salt
Pepper

Method
1.
Cook the linguine in salted water according to the packet instructions and until it’s al dente.

2.
In the meantime, lightly crush the garlic and sauté in a frying pan with olive oil and the diced pepperoncini over a medium heat.

3.
When the pasta is ready, drain it, reserving approximately 200ml of the cooking water.

4.
Remove the woody stems from the barba di frate and sauté briefly in the garlic and pepperoncini mix. Then add the linguine and the reserved pasta water. Mix briefly over a high heat, stirring constantly so as to form a homogeneous sauce.

5.
Season with salt, ground pepper and a little olive oil, and serve in pasta bowls.
ralphschelling.com

The 25-key Sea Sea Hotel is tucked away on a quiet street in Crescent Head, a sleepy surf town about halfway between Sydney and Byron Bay (writes Naomi Xu Elegant). Opened last November, it’s the newest venture from hotelier George Gorrow, formerly of The Slow in Bali.

Gorrow decided to open Sea Sea after stumbling across what was then a run-down hotel property from the 1980s, featuring cabins that reminded him of Balinese villas. He kept the original structures but expanded the pool and gave the rooms a modern cabin-in-the-woods look with timber walls. He also added sleek furniture, gauzy curtains and contemporary art.

“I grew up on the beach and my dad was a big surfer,” says Gorrow. “This was always one of the spots that we used to pop into on our trips. It’s a cute town with amazing beaches. It still feels pretty untouched.”
seaseahotel.com

For more beachside boltholes and travel reportage, Monocle’s annual travel special, ‘The Escapist’ is on newsstands now.

Finnish drinks brand Perso’s motto – “Real fruits, sour tastes and small batches” – succinctly sums up what it offers (writes Petri Burtsoff). The company makes artisanal sodas using Sicilian lemons and apples from a local orchard in Turku, southwestern Finland. “The key is to extract as much taste as possible from the fruit, instead of adding sugar for sweetness,” co-founder Eeva Torniainen tells The Monocle Minute Weekend Edition.

Perso hopes that people will one day give as much thought to the provenance and flavour profiles of soda as they do with wine. Several top restaurants in Finland have started serving Perso sodas as non-alcoholic food pairings. We’ll drink to that.
persosoda.com

If you’re a fan of engaging stories and print media, you might want to consider a Monocle subscription. Have a super Sunday.