Welcome to Deep Dish, a weekly roundup of food and entertainment news. Last time we discussed caviar’s long fall from grace.
There’s a lot to love about Chipotle—well a lot less than there used to be, but still a lot to love. As intrepid reporter (and my Deep Dish collaborator) Li Goldstein wrote in 2023, Chipotle simply hits different now. The prices skyrocketed, and, after several food safety scares, the ingredients are prepared ahead of time in centralized locations. As Li wrote in her piece, “Chipotle may have gotten safer, but it almost certainly didn’t get tastier.”
But if Chipotle’s burritos have become less of a hot commodity, its furniture, oddly, has done the opposite. Chair-heads are sourcing used Chipotle chairs for their homes—the natural wood and iron look is pretty inoffensive, to be fair. Also this week: The Wall Street Journal has some more unhinged budget advice for us, We’re saying goodbye to Dimes Square, and Test Kitchen editors discuss how to cook with your partner without hating them.
Chipotle’s Chairs Are So Hot Right Now
If you’re like me, you don’t walk into a Chipotle ready to observe your surroundings—you’re on autopilot trying to decide which protein you should order and how much eye contact you should make with the person making your burrito. You’re probably not thinking critically about, say, the furniture.
But, reader, while we’re debating the merits of barbacoa versus carnitas, we may have missed out on something of a decor marvel: the wood-and-iron chairs used in Chipotle locations that are gaining a rabid fandom on the resale market. One vintage seller is offering a set of five of these modern, angular chairs for a cool thousand dollars. Who knows? If Chipotle stops producing them, these chairs might appreciate to become a solid investment. — Sam Stone, staff writer
Dimes Square is Dead (Again) (No, For Real This Time) (Really)
Dearly beloved we are gathered here today to mourn the death—not of a person, no—but of a niche microneighborhood in New York’s Lower East Side once populated by quote unquote intellectuals, artists, young conservatives, and, yes, some pretty great restaurants and bakeries. In warm weather the area was almost transportive—the street closed to traffic, sharp-jawlined looksmaxxxers and baggy pants-ed hypebeasts would mingle, sipping cocktails from Le Dive or Clandestino.
But now it seems, due to some permitting misfortunes, the open streets dream of Dimes Square is dead. Or has it been dead for some time? It’s hard to say—critics have at times said Dimes Square is dead, it’s coming back, it’s dead again, and, as former BA staffer Serena Dai wrote, we really don’t need to care this much about it anyway. Is this really, finally, actually the end for Dimes Square? Girl, I have no idea. I’m just hoping this means there will be less of a line at Elbow Bread. — SS
AITA for Micromanaging My Partner’s Cooking?
Many—myself included—have said that cooking is one of the purest love languages there is, particularly come Valentine’s Day. But it’s a fragile love language; if conducted without care, a couple’s cooking sesh can spawn more resentment than adoration. In a candid Slack conversation moderated by food director Chris Morocco, Bon Appétit Test Kitchen editors chatted this week about the very topic—how they delegate tasks between them and their partners to minimize bickering, how they’ve practiced grace and patience, and how kids might add yet another layer of complexity to the dynamic. It’s a hilarious read. A favorite quote of mine from Test Kitchen editor Rebecca Firkser: “I immediately become such a jerk the moment I see him trying to chop an onion.” —Li Goldstein, associate newsletter editor
No Chicken for You!
Who knew buying rotisserie chicken and juice was “splurging?” The Wall Street Journal, which decimated its Off Duty lifestyle team a few weeks ago, is now onto shaming Gen Zers, firing off this rebuke on X to those who dare eat chicken and drink juice: “Gen Zers are swimming in student debt and may never own homes but are splurging on gut-healthy juices and rotisserie chickens.”
