Alla Carta asks for recommendations

Murray Moss and Franklin Getchell are the founders of Moss Bureau, a multi-platform provider of strategic design advisory services and a curated offering of design objects, furniture, and limited edition studio works. Leveraging twenty years in the design industry, Moss Bureau provides a variety of consulting services to collectors, manufacturers, designers, architectural firms, museums and their shops, and design schools, as well as curatorial interior design services for residential, commercial, and museum projects.

AC: What do you like about food? 

MM + FG: Liking food is as much about the context in which you are eating—with whom and where you’re eating, what you’re drinking with the food—as it is about the food itself. It’s impossible to isolate liking one without considering the other.

AC: Which are your favorites places in New York City?

MM + FG: We like:

- I Trulli, 122 East 27th St., New York, NY 10016; It’s owned by our very good friend Nicola Marzovilla, with whom we once had a restaurant, so it’s like going home whenever we stop there. But also because the food is superb and the pasta is still made by Dora, Nicola’s mother. We’ve been going to Nicola’s restaurants for nearly twenty years, so it’s not a habit we’re likely to break.

- Il Gattopardo, 13-15 West 54th St., New York, NY 10019; Because it’s two blocks from our apartment and because they always hold a table for us and because the food is consistently great.

- The Leopard at Des Artistes, 1 West 67th St., New York, NY 10023; By the same owner as Il Gattopardo, this is their gorgeous new place, which they opened in the space where Café Des Artists used to be for so many years. They carefully cleaned all the wonderful murals and the place is much more open and bright now, plus the food is what we love from midtown.

- Mezzo Giorno, 195 Spring St., New York, NY 10012; This is our go-to spot in Soho. It's owned and run by the Ansuini family, the father, Vittorio, along with several sons, and after a while you get to know them all. Great food, and don’t forget the Leo Castelli memorial booth in the back that we always try to get.

- Freshdirect.com; This is the online food delivery service where we get 100% of our food at home. There’s no supermarket convenient to us, and anyway, why would we bother when whatever you want will just come right to the door. We always order the same things so ordering takes two seconds and no thought.

- Toasties, 23 East 51st St., New York, NY 10022; Morning coffee and a chocolate muffin. Okay, maybe sometimes a raisin bagel with cream cheese. Always open when you need them.

- Seamless.com; Another online service, this one is without doubt a genius idea. It allows you to avoid the terrible strain of actually having to speak to someone to order food delivered from a restaurant. You pick your restaurant (out of about a million choices), look at their menu, make your selections, and charge your card. Twenty minutes later it’s in a bag at your door. Nothing even to sign, no one to tip. Everything is handled. It’s just about as painless as it can get. Who knew how much you could hate talking on the phone?

- Gyu-Kaku Japanese BBQ, 805 3rd Ave., New York, NY 10022; When we’re in a DIY kind of mood, we try to get in at this BBQ place, on the second floor of an office building on Third Avenue. It’s authentic Japanese (or seems so to us, at least) and we’re usually the only Westerners there. You cook your own food at a flaming cooker thing in the middle of the table. Excellent beef. Mild hilarity.

- Pret a Manger, 11 West 42nd St., New York, NY 10036; We often walk to work which can take us through Bryant Park. We stop at the Pret on 42^nd street and stock up on coffee and scones, and then sit at a quiet table overlooking the giant, usually immaculate green lawn. It’s the perfect start to the day.

AC: Can you suggest your secret recipe?

MM + FG: Since we don’t now and have never cooked actual food, we have a rather elastic definition of “recipe”. Here’s the recipe for the only thing we know how to cook.

A CUP OF TEA

- Boil water

- Open the little paper packet that contains the teabag

- Place teabag in empty cup

- Pour boiling water into the cup

- Steep for one minute

- Remove teabag

- Add skim milk to taste

- Stir moderately and sip while reading a newspaper.

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Interview by Valentina Barzaghi


Illustrations by Aleksandra Niepsuj

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    Alla Carta Magazine

    Alla Carta approaches food as an incentive to take a bite of diverse cultural phenomena. We are intrigued by the meal's convivial capacity, and have found food to be an essential element for sharing thoughts, opinions and creative ideas.