#18: High-end Design
First things first, I'm beyond thrilled to report that the first Robust event was a rousing success! Last night I hosted four brilliant female food business founders for an open discussion about the early stages of turning a dream into reality, and launching a business from their home kitchens. Shoutout to those of you new subscribers who participated- thank you for supporting the kickoff of the FoodxDesign series. Scheduled for April 5, the next event is all about getting out of the kitchen and taking those bold steps into the wild by setting out your stall at a food market. The event invite will be posted soon, come hang out over on Facebook for updates, and maybe, hopefully, a few snaps of last night's festivities.
Moving on then! It's good to be back, and I've been really feeling the groove of being in my preferred mode of hunting and gathering the best finger-on-the-pulse reads on intriguing topics and trends in the world of pop food culture. Not to mention my unwavering passion for using GIFs to express my innermost self. (Sidenote RE: using GIFs to 'feel our feelings,' spend a few thought-provoking minutes watching this POV on the idea of 'digital blackface.' )
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Whether you're talking about skincare or self-care or clean eating or bro-tein, at its core, the conversation around wellness is fundamentally a conversation about conscious–and yeah, definitely conspicuous–consumption. So it's no surprise that newly legalized weed has been co-opted for a wholesale brand makeover, keenly tuned to attract the high-vibing, hyper-conscious, and supreme buying power of the (you guessed it) millennial female:
The new consumer (or the old consumer, reimagined) is not zonked in a La-Z-Boy watching “Wayne’s World” with a bag of chips. She is making a vision board for the startup she’s launching, lightly high on a strain promising to connect her to her intuition without stimulating binge-eating. "California Makes Marijuana a Wellness Industry." The New Yorker: January 31, 2018
The irony of writing this from my home base of Amsterdam is not lost on me. Beloved and beleaguered capital of weed tourism, cannabis culture is certainly part of the city's fabric, albeit an incredibly limited and generally uncharming one. To my nose, it's always had a whiff of the grimness that comes with stag parties and strung out trustafarians. In other words, a stoner-bro vibe.
Of course, in the name of good journalism, I took it upon myself to do a bit of local research to see if I could find an alternative, and came across a 'coffee shop' that's been owned and run by a mother-daughter team since 1983. Café Tertulia is a sunny and cheerful location in my own neighborhood of the Jordaan, bordering the famous Nine Streets and situated in a plum canal-side spot in the picturesque Grachtengordel- the Golden Ring, as the central radius of canals is known.
While much, much more inviting than the dank cafés of the Red Light District or Harlemmerstraat, the crystals and homemade brownies lacked the curated sophistication of the branded cannabis renaissance that's been blazing across the States.
And as the force of this trend takes hold and eeks its way abroad, perhaps it's high time for me to relaunch my 'Wake and Bake' brand of treats with a new business model...
Just sayin'.
(Yes, I too was amazed that wakeandbakeamsterdam.nl was an available domain.)