Welcome to the T List, a newsletter from the editors of T Magazine. Each week, we share things we’re eating, wearing, listening to or coveting now. Sign up here to find us in your inbox every Wednesday, along with monthly travel and beauty guides, and the latest stories from our print issues. And you can always reach us at tmagazine@nytimes.com. IN SEASON In Northern California, Chefs Turn to a Prickly Plant That’s Worth the Effort
For Annabelle Lenderink, one of the farmers behind Star Route in temperate Bolinas, Calif., nettle season is unavoidable. “Every time we work up a piece of ground, they come,” says Lenderink, who supplies the stinging leaves to nearby restaurants. At Chez Panisse in Berkeley, the chef Amy Dencler favors the Star Route greens for their tenderness, blending them into a silky soup with onion and green garlic, or a verdant risotto finished with steamed clams and English peas. The plant can grow up to six and a half feet tall if left unfettered, much to the dismay of hikers. Nettles get their sting from tiny, hollow hairs, each cradling a dose of acetylcholine, formic acid, serotonin and histamine at its base. But work around their bite, and you’re left with a “deeply herbal and slightly nutty flavor,” says chef Melissa Perello, who often purées the plant. (Smashing or cooking the leaves breaks down the spiky hairs.) Last week, she layered a sautéed mixture of the greens, punctuated by spring onion, into Danishes for a bake sale at her restaurant Octavia in San Francisco. At nearby Cotogna, the chef Michael Tusk tops pizza with a pesto made from nettle leaves, green garlic, pine nuts and Parmesan, which he spoons atop melted cheese and crispy ramps. His source is Fresh Run Farms, just across the bridge, in Marin. After supper, diners can sip nettle tea: The leaf has a mild, almost mint-like flavor when boiled. The chefs agree that cooking with them is a labor of love. “I hate using plastics, but I double up on gloves so the pricklies can’t reach my hands,” says Kim Alter, the chef of Nightbird in San Francisco. She then folds the “peppery, grassy” purée into milk bread dough, which she brushes with smoked butter and garlic glaze. The hassle is worth it, she says. “Nettles spark the beginning of spring for me — I’m tired of winter.” STAY HERE On a Danish Island, a 19th-Century Mansion Becomes a Hotel
When they were growing up on the Danish island of Falster, Christa and Kim Rahbek (who first met at the age of 16 playing badminton, then eventually married in 2008), were fascinated by a 19th-century mansion perched on an embankment above the small harbor of Hesnaes. “It was like a fairy-tale castle,” says Kim, who with his brother Jens and brother-in-law Thor Andersen founded a chain of Japanese restaurants called Sticks’n’Sushi. Two years ago, the couple bought the villa from its most recent owner, a doctor who was a regular customer of Hesnaes Havn, the bakery and cafe that the Rahbeks opened in 2021. Now, it’s an 11-room hotel called Villa Hesnaes. The interiors, a collaboration between Christa and the color-loving Danish designer Nadia Olive Schnack, are minimalist, though each space is painted in a jewel tone or covered in patterned wallpaper. Windows look out on the surrounding gardens, apple orchards or the sea. The hotel is managed by the couple’s daughter, and her chef husband oversees the kitchen. Breakfast and use of the spa are included in the room rate, and the restaurant (which serves French bistro-inspired food like an onion tart accompanied by a chicken sauce suprême) is only for guests. “If you stay here, you should feel that the whole house is yours,” says Christa. From $170 a night, villahesnaes.com. TRY THIS Lip Oils That Nourish and Brighten
As the days get hotter, lipsticks and balms become more likely to smudge and melt, while gloss can feel too sticky. A new wave of lip oils, on the other hand, offer a lighter layer of hydration while still providing a sun-kissed sheen. Typology’s Lip Oil T40 features ingredients like squalane, jojoba oil and vitamin E, which soften and restore skin; it comes in five shades, including the red-tinted Black Cherry and newly released Glazed Chestnut, which adds a subtle shimmer. On days when you can’t commit to a color, Anastacia Aesthetics’ untinted Lip Drip is a soothing, antioxidant-rich option. Byoma’s Liptide PH Lip Oil reacts to the skin’s pH levels to coat lips in a custom color, as does Dolce & Gabbana’s Oil Lip Plumper, which increases circulation with mint extract. Choose from a glossy or milky finish with Tower 28’s ShineOn Lip Oil Jelly, available in shades ranging from spicy semi-sheer red to neutral almond brown. Dior’s Addict Lip Glow Oil features anti-inflammatory cherry oil and comes in an array of warm tones. SEE THIS A Pair of New York Exhibitions Revisit Peter Hujar’s Photographs and Friends
It’s been 40 years since the exhibition “Peter Hujar: Recent Photographs” was presented at Gracie Mansion Gallery in New York’s East Village. That show, the last solo exhibition of the New Jersey-born artist’s work before he died of AIDS-related complications in November 1987, featured 70 photographs taken between 1965 and 1986 that ranged in subject matter from slaughterhouse-bound cows to crumbling structures across New Jersey and portraits of noted figures like the fashion editor Diana Vreeland and the artist Greer Lankton, as well as anonymous sitters including a group of mental outpatients. Now, the seminal show will be remounted at Ortuzar Projects in New York following a run at San Francisco’s Fraenkel Gallery, which ended this past fall. The TriBeCa-based Ortuzar will concurrently present “How Beautiful This Living Thing Is,” a show curated by the author and editor Andrew Durbin that assembles artwork by some Hujar contemporaries. It includes a sculptural installation by the artist (and Hujar’s onetime lover) Paul Thek, as well as photographs by the artists Susan Brockman and Sheyla Baykal. Durbin hopes the show will give visitors a fuller context for Hujar’s life and work, and bring attention to some of his lesser-known friends and collaborators. “Some of the artists here are rarely exhibited these days,” he says. “I hope people leave the exhibition with some names written down and plans to do their own research, because this isn’t even the tip of the iceberg.” “The Gracie Mansion Show” and “How Beautiful This Living This Is” will be on view at Ortuzar Projects, New York, from April 22 through May 30, ortuzar.com. COVET THIS Modernist Croatian Furniture, Newly in Production
The Croatian architect Vjenceslav Richter was a member of Zagreb’s avant-garde EXAT 51 group, which promoted abstraction and art as tools of social transformation in the 1950s. He designed pavilions for international fairs, including the Yugoslav Pavilion at the Expo 58 fair in Brussels, and the Reliefmeters series, interactive sculptures that he developed in the 1960s. His work has been exhibited internationally, including at the Guggenheim and later the Museum of Modern Art in New York, yet many of his designs were never widely produced. This spring, the Croatian design manufacturer Prostoria will change that with Revisiting Richter, a collection debuting at Salone del Mobile in Milan before a U.S. presentation at the design fair NeoCon in Chicago. Seating is a focus, including an oval-seated metal and wood chair originally created for Zagreb’s Art Pavilion, one with an X-shaped base designed for a restaurant at Expo 58, and a low, minimalist style from a 1950s hotel in Istria, on Croatia’s Adriatic coast. From $1,200, prostoria.com. STAY HERE Thatched-Roof Vacation Villas in Comporta, Portugal
Comporta, the peninsula of sand dunes and rice fields 90 minutes south of Lisbon, is sometimes referred to as the Hamptons of Portugal thanks to its natural beauty and the creative set who spend their summers there. Among those who have flocked to Comporta and its neighboring village Melides since the ’90s are the fashion designer Christian Louboutin, the architect Philippe Starck and the interior designer Jacques Grange, whose most recent project is the Atlantic Club, a 24-villa complex of residences and vacation rentals that opened this week. Grange was inspired by his friend the designer Vera Iachia, who pioneered “Comporta style,” referring to architecture influenced by local materials and traditional fishermen’s huts. Though the Atlantic Club’s structures are far bigger, they’re all one story, with a mix of whitewashed and thatched facades. Grange, who partnered with the designer Rebecca de Ravenel on the interiors, wanted to channel “all the calming shades of the rice fields and dunes, the sky and the ocean,” he says. The surrounding 35 acres of land, which border the Sado Estuary Nature reserve, were planted with indigenous grasses and lavender, as well as pomegranate and fig trees, by the American landscape architect Madison Cox. For those who want even more outdoor immersion, the dunes of Carvalhal beach are a short walk away. From $15,000 a week, atlanticclubcomporta.com. FROM T’S INSTAGRAM Adrien Brody and Tessa Thompson Act, and Sparks Fly
Tessa Thompson and Adrien Brody will make their Broadway debuts this week in “The Fear of 13,” a 2024 play written by Lindsey Ferrentino and adapted from David Sington’s 2015 documentary of the same name. The story is about Nick Yarris, a Philadelphia man who spent 22 years on death row, and Jacki Schaffer, the writer and prison volunteer who fell in love with him and helped plead his exoneration case. Last month, while the stage production, which is being directed by David Cromer, was still in previews, the actors brought a scene to T’s office, turning two cubicles into the prison visitation room where their characters’ flirtation bloomed. Click here to read the full story and follow us on Instagram.
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