Side Dish, the Ballerina Boy Edition 🩰
In this week’s newsletter, we’re talking Noma’s meltdown, sliced milk, trailgating, the Northeast Kingdom, ham on a plane, party girls, bat mitzvahs, dusty pink, TikTok radio and lots more.
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Side Dish is usually for our paid subscribers, but we’re sharing with all of you today in the hopes you’ll consider upgrading. It’s only $5 a month, way less than that Protein Espresso Martini.
Hello and welcome to Side Dish, a weekly round-up of industry news, hot goss and things you might have missed. We read all the things so you don’t have to.
Now, let’s get to it...
Welp, René Redzepi certainly had a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day.
Rhonda, why? You will never stop laughing at this unfiltered visit to Olive Garden.
The New York Times asks if Gymkhana will be lucky in Las Vegas. Shakes Magic 8 ball: too soon to tell.
SommGPT. Maybe we don’t let Ai pick our wine...
Speaking of, do we need oyster somms? Shuck off.
Girls are tired too. The Atlantic checks out the rise of female-coded energy drinks.
If you’ve ever thought, “I just wish I could get a slice of milk,” this is your lucky day.
Dubai Pistachio Chocolate flavored soju might be the last nail in the coffin here.
Snaxshot’s Expo West recap is everything you need to know.
The band’s back together. George Clooney and Rande Gerber toast to those Casamigos days with Crazy Mountain, a new non-alc beer brand.
But, it seems more celebs are cashing in on their sober arc.
Dream job alert: Hidden Valley Ranch is looking for “Ranch-bassadors” to head overseas and document the journey.
Dirty soda has come for our Twizzlers.
Eater has gone full Boomer with the damn dogs in restaurants!
The Dubai chewy cookie is saving lives in South Korea.
Snack attack – why restaurants are leaning into snack time.
Buffalo Wild Wings’ Protein Espresso Martini was not on our 2026 bingo card. Yet, here we are.
You did it! Congratulations! World’s best cup of coffee! Great job everybody!
What is Lugermeister? We’re glad you asked.
You had us at, “A new amaro inspired by mummification.”
Smoothie of the Week: When I wake up, in my own pink world..I head to Erewhon and wave to my homegirls.
TSA lines are giving “3-hour wait, zero vibes” thanks to the government shutdown.
In Alaska you don’t tailgate, you trailgate.
New Yorkers want all you Love Story LARPers to beat it.
If a trip to Barcelona is on your summer bingo card, get ready to pay up as the tourist tax doubles.
Attn squad, if you’re 13–30, Vail just soft-launched a ski pass price cut. It’s giving slope-side stimulus.
Southwest said only the fancy seats get cleaned. The rest of y’all? Raw‑dogging the Airbus.
Office space, but make it fashion. You can now stay in Karl Lagerfeld’s former Paris office.
Year of the horse? These hotels said, “Hold my beer.”
Northeast Kingdom in Vermont is one part ‘bucolic paradise’ mixed with ‘everyone here has a Substack and strong opinions about cheese.’
For anyone wondering if you can bring a ham on the plane, Honey Baked has gotchu.
Condé Nast Traveler is up at bat with the biggest reason to travel in 2026.
For the first time in 10 years, Death Valley said, “I can buy myself flowers...”
A haiku for Timothée Chalamet: Opera? Ballet? “No one cares,” says Timothée. Doja says shut up.
Nothing has ever felt more on brand for Travis Kelce.
The Oscars are this weekend and if you have way too much free time, Town & Country has all the books that inspired the Oscar-nominated films.
Paris it girls were serving inspo during fashion week with the c*nty bob. It says, “I’m short, I’m blunt and I DGAF.”
Has the everything shower gotten a little too extra?
The fairy tale is over for “With Love, Meghan.”
Relish in 4 days of flavor! It’s a really big dill. You pickling up what we’re putting down here?
More LARPing meets Little Mermaid as people around the world are diving into this new trend.
Greek life is colonizing the Ivy League in real time.
‘Heartthrob marketing’ is capitalizing on the power of the Toy Boy and we are HERE👏FOR👏IT👏!
Ok, so apparently we all need to get a little dirty.
Silver fox took on a whole new meaning with the chrome hair trend dominating runways for fall.
Who needs Peeps when you can have Louis Vuitton chicks?
Taco Bell’s Live Más LIVE was one part spectacle, one part Broadway show and the whole night is streaming on Peacock. Is TacoCon next?
Filed under things we didn’t know we needed: Baja Blast Under Eye Patches.
Perfection, out. Party girls, in!
You so wish you were invited to these bat mitzvahs.
These runners are peak toxic grind vibes. But there’s butter, so we’ll allow it.
Porch hangs are IN for 2026. Let’s bring back the afternoon visit.
Charlie XCX called it. Y2K nostalgia is peaking out right now as Von Dutch makes a comeback.
From The City to the courts, Whitney Port is a tennis girl now.
Kitten heels just got real as Schiaparelli unveils “The Sphynx,” an un-fur-gettable take on slingbacks featuring snarling cat heads.
Celebs like A$AP Rocky and Harry Styles are on pointe with this shoe style.
On that note, dusty pink is also making the rounds in men’s fashion.
“Mountain people” finally had their day in the sun at the Louis Vuitton women’s Fall show while Miu Miu had grass and twigs.
“You don’t understand. This is an Alaïa!”
We called this last summer, but Glamour confirms: Are books the new status symbol?
Prada’s 5th Avenue store said, “Scaffolding..but make it fashion.”
Zara Home x Colin King will have your house looking photo ready in no time.
You and me...belong together. From Hyrox to book clubs, IRL experiences are taking the place of digital connection.
New emojis just dropped and… who asked for the nonchalant sasquatch?
TikTok taking it analog..sort of…with the launch of TikTok Radio.
Brands like ELF, SKIMS, Puma and Spotify are launching their own in-house content studios to produce in-house social, their own social TV shows and more.
How to get influencers and talent managers to read your pitch emails!
Behind the scenes content is becoming more valuable.
Well, @helloapple.
This restaurant had a 9-yr-old shoot their kids menu.
Starbucks tapped into the Love Story/JFK obession.
TODAY’s Craig Melvin is inviting celebs to his basement for a drink. It’s not as creepy as it sounds.
Netflix is expanding ad targeting by partnering with Amazon and Yahoo. It’s fine, everything’s fine.
Retail and grocery brands are leading early ChatGPT ad adoption, with over 100 brand promotions appearing in the platform’s first few weeks of ads.
Instagram, LinkedIn and Threads engagement declined in 2025, while Facebook, Pinterest and TikTok rates increased slightly and X posts saw significantly more engagement.
ChatGPT lost 1.5m users amid Pentago deal.
Don’t worry – you all mog in our book.