Fake ZYNs for fruity boys.
Plus a women's sports bar, an Eagle Rock mansion, and the fashion partnership to watch.
Happy Monday, everyone. Last night I went to the Wilde’s pop-up at Canyon, and despite the lack of an onsite kitchen, it delivered. The food was great, the wine was flowing, and the sidewalk energy (and fashion) was superb. Sasha and Malia were there. Sometimes it feels like sidewalk culture doesn’t exist in LA, but last night went a long way in healing old wounds. If you missed it, there’s another one on 7/13 at Cafe 2001 in the Arts District.
I’ll be sharing more pop-ups and events here (and on the Rag’s Instagram stories) as they’re announced. If you hear of get-togethers you think I should feature, DM me.
On a very different note, it was a tough weekend in LA. If you feel inclined, you can donate to the ACLU of Southern California, the Immigrant Legal Resource Center, or the California Immigrant Policy Center, among other worthy organizations. And maybe…don’t light Waymos on fire.
If you’re health-conscious but…a dude, fake ZYNs have entered the chat.
I’ve never really understood the ZYN craze, but many people do — shipments of the nicotine pouches were up 51% last year, and Philip Morris’s non-smoking unit (of which ZYN is the cornerstone) did almost $15bn in sales. We all know guys with the shape of a ZYN can worn into their back pocket, and guys who get a slight bulge under their lip after a few drinks. That said, men in LA are often too soft (or secretly too into counting their macros) for nicotine, so alternatives are emerging.
Wip launched last week with caffeine pouches exactly like ZYN pouches, in a case exactly like a ZYN can. Wip calls their product “a revolutionary oral pouch format,” which feels a bit inaccurate, but I think the derivative nature of the Wip pouches could actually be a major attention grabber here.
Flavored toothpicks are occupying ZYNless mouths across the east side. Maybe I just lack the oral fixation of straight men, but toothpicks are…not satisfying to chew on? Even so, our Anonymous Field Correspondent encountered multiple men chewing mint-flavored toothpicks this week. “It’s just mint…it’s like the guys who wear Carhartt and drive beat-up cars for no reason,” our correspondent reports. Infinite respect to the underpaid marketing genius who convinced consumers to pay for flavored wood.
Gum sales continue to increase. This I do participate in.
🍽️ And now for some table scraps…
The Griffith Park pool will finally be replaced. It’s been an empty eyesore since a pandemic-forced closure in 2020, so this is good news for your Monday.
Hinge is leaving Tinder and Bumble in the dust. If you’re single and on the scene, you know this already.
I toured this mansion in Eagle Rock on Sunday. Frankly, I didn’t think a house in Eagle Rock could be worth $7m, but after seeing it...maybe. The house was built in the 1930s by famed architect Paul R. Williams and recently gut-renovated. There’s a pool, a sports court, a poker lounge, one of the largest kitchen islands I’ve ever seen, and a pantry you could park a car in. I think most of the work is good, but I do think it’s weird that there’s no proper foyer (the front door opens directly into the kitchen). If you buy this house, a) who are you? and b) Venmo me a finder’s fee.
Venture capitalists love Los Angeles. VC firms provided more than $3.1bn in funding to 144 different LA companies in the first quarter. That’s up 15% from last year, even in an uncertain market.
LA’s very first women’s sports bar is opening in Silver Lake. Honestly, I was surprised to discover one doesn’t exist yet — there’s an obvious market for this, especially on the east side. Untamed Spirits, coming soon to a second-floor space on Hyperion, will feature cocktails that draw on the owners’ Vietnamese American heritage, plus Asian-inspired snacks.
Warner Bros. Discovery is splitting. Less than three years after merging WarnerMedia and Discovery, Hollywood’s chief money grubber is breaking the company apart. Zaz will retain control of the streaming and studios business, while his chief cost-cutter Gunnar Wiedenfels will
runmanage costs at the cable business until it inevitably dies.Cole Escola won a Tony, and their Wiederhoeft gown won the red carpet. If you haven’t seen Oh, Mary! yet…you should go. Also, Cole’s ongoing collaboration with Wiederhoeft is to the 2020s what Jennifer Lawrence and Dior was to the 2010s. It’s spectacular, and inventive, and you never quite know what you’re going to get (but you know it’s going to be good).
An aesthetically inclined fried chicken joint comes to the Arts District. Happies Hand Made is the brainchild of Joshua Skenes, formerly of San Francisco’s Saison and Angler. In addition to Sichuan fried chicken, Happies slings beef tallow fries, soft serve, and frozen cocktails. It’s only open Friday through Sunday (for now), so don’t try to go during the week. Also…“handmade” is one word.
Outer Banks’s Jonathan Daviss will star as Snoop Dogg in an upcoming biopic. I’m always a little hesitant when a public figure produces their own biopic, but this sounds fun.
Sunset Junction could be renamed. A City Council motion proposes renaming Silver Lake’s Sunset Junction after retired LA school board official Jackie Goldberg. The new name would be Jackie Goldberg Sunset Junction. This is a nice thought, I guess, but can anyone imagine calling it that?