The Blessings of Coconut Cake ❤︎
Plus, books, movies, art and our Park City writing retreat.
Dear Writers,
So much news (Eric Adams, Danielle Sassoon, Hagan Scotten, Israel, Gaza, Ukraine) but what I really want to discuss is the pleasure of coconut cake.
Last week, I ran into a woman in my building, a literary agent who sometimes gives me books by her clients. We were standing in line in the package room and I had my head buried in my phone. I barely heard her when she asked what I was reading. Finally, I looked up and said I was reading a story from the Free Press about antisemitism in Massachusetts public schools. Then I realized she was really asking what I was reading for pleasure. So I said: Claire Lombardo’s novel, Same As It Ever Was and Anne Berest’s The Postcard, both excellent. In that moment, I decided I want to write more explicitly about pleasure.
And so…coconut cake! Last week, my friend Terri took me to dinner at Eulalie in Tribeca. (We were still celebrating my birthday.) Eulalie was one of the NYT’s favorite 14 new restaurants of 2024 but I had never heard of it. Terri promised I would love it and urged me to call and listen to their charming, outgoing message. (You can’t book reservations online at Eulalie; you have to leave an old-school, 20th century voice message.) Tina Vaughn, one of the owners, calls you back. The restaurant is small (36 seats), serene and old-world South, in a welcoming, modern way: Pale green walls, glowing sconces, flattering lighting, candles, and tables set far apart from each other. The menu is handwritten and prix fixe, the wait staff chatty and confident. The feeling is one of stepping into someone’s dining room; under no circumstances will you be rudely rushed out. We started with terrine, cucumber salad and divine sourdough bread and house-made butter. My friend ordered the lamb, I had the fish (both delicious) and in between, we were served an amazing chestnut soup amuse-bouche. But it was the coconut cake that I want to tell you about. Chocolate is my Kryptonite but I’d heard this coconut cake was extraordinary and oh boy, was it. The luscious combination of Italian meringue and coconut pastry cream dissolves onto your tongue in one exquisite embrace. Eulalie shares the recipe here. You can bake the cake yourself, go to Eulalie for dinner and order a slice, or if you’re feeling ambitious, do both. Two women in my book group are also coconut cake lovers, so we’re planning to go to Eulalie in April and bake the cake one Saturday afternoon in July. The world is so hard and challenging now. It is a relief to find ways to make it sweeter.
Eulalie
239 West Broadway
646-476-2380
Tuesday to Saturday, 5:45 p.m.
The Brutalist: Okay, a four-hour movie even with a 15-minute intermission is sort of brutal, but Adrian Brody as László Tóth and Felicity Jones as his wife Erzsébet are fantastic as a Hungarian architect/heroin addict and beautiful, wheelchair-bound journalist who have survived the brutalities of the Holocaust and are trying to make their way in Doylestown, Pennsylvania. (Brody’s character was in Buchenwald, Jones’ character in Dachau.) Guy Pearce plays the ingratiating, creepy entrepreneur who helps and hinders them. The story is about remaining nonnegotiable about the lengths you’re willing to go to make your art, even if it means working for antisemites, racists and rapists. The epilogue is deeply satisfying and shocking.
The Last Showgirl: Pamela Anderson is earnest and Jamie Lee Curtis is fabulous as fading and former Las Vegas showgirls coming to grips with life after the show. The bittersweet movie is about the questionable choices they’ve made, separately and together. To the movie’s credit, neither character seems to regret a thing.
Caroline Coon & Francesca DiMattio, Snapdragons, Interesting double exhibit by British painter Caroline Coon and American sculptor/ceramicist Francesca DiMattio. Coon’s paintings are gorgeous, provocative, and precise; DiMattio’s sculptures are colorful, domestic and delightful. (Stephen Friedman Gallery, 54 Franklin Street.)
Sweet Lab is heading to Park City, Utah this summer for a 4-day creative retreat in June with journalist/photographer Amy Eskind. Spots are filling up quickly! We’re so ready for writing and hiking in sweet mountain air. Aren’t you? Join us!
This retreat is for you if:
You’re looking to meet a community of writers who understand your zeal for writing.
You want to give yourself a deadline and have an editor give you constructive feedback on how to finish and publish your work (Laura has helped writers get published in the Yale Review, The New York Times, Brevity, Eat, Darling, Eat, Ellipsis Zine, The Forward, Herstry, Huffington Post, Kveller, Pennsylvania Gazette, Pithead Chapel, Split Lip, X—R-A-Y Literary Magazine, Random House, She Writes Press, etc. 🤭)
You need accountability and motivation.
You’re eager to do something new and fun this year, away from the hustle and grind.
You want immediate feedback on 40 pages of work (12-14 point type, double-spaced).
With twelve hours of writing workshops, one 2-hour mobile photography class, one half-hour private editorial conference, many open mics, lots of sunbathing, stargazing, hikes, and great meals, we ✨guarantee✨ you’re going to return from the retreat revitalized. Check out all our writers who have been published here then:
This is the year of the snake—a time for renewal, transformation, and spiritual growth. It's also associated with wisdom, intuition, and charm. Isn’t it time your wise, intuitive self benefitted from a creative writing retreat?
