Breakfast Club #45

W/C March 3rd. Breakfast is served in PDX, Boulder, Barcelona, MIA, Hamptons, Wmsburg, CDMX, SF, DTBK, Manhattan, DC, Cincy, Seattle, Melbourne, Brighton & SOMa

Mar 03, 2025

hi all.

We’re back: Boulder debuts tomorrow. Barcelona, Brighton, Seattle, Denver all return. And our regulars keep on truckin’.

Pulling this update every Monday is a task I enjoy more than I should - since it’s basically a hunt-and-peck, hide and seeky exercise in cut/paste editing between Substack and Linkedin and WhatsApp - because it’s fascinating getting acquainted with all the BC goings on from the previous week - and the BC community more broadly.

Case in point: Theo Eramus’s post encouraging his audience to “Support the king of the East Village and LES, the brilliant Nick Bodor,” linking Nick’s post (below)

Text within this block will maintain its original spacing when published

"Baker Falls (pop. 192) our new CAFE-BAR-VENUE in NYC has been gaining traction and people seem to love it (if I do say so myself)! But it's still a youngin' and needs some nurturing. We had an unexpected Air Conditioning issue and could use one more investor to come in and give us some breathing room. This came together quick and was a very fast & loose deal...that's just how we roll. 
Thanks to the partners that believed sight unseen before we opened that we could pull it off in a tough town. 

Now we are open, let's meet up and grab a coffee or a drink and see if we can find a great investor who sees the Baker Falls vision and wants to be a part of it... spread the word and support indie businesses whenever you can... reach out to me on the side and let's get the conversation going. If you read this far, NO SALES CALLS please!

Photo of our new pals in @nightspins this passed Friday night."

It’s a really nice gesture on Theo’s part - and hopefully a productive one for Nick, who’s a BC OG and a veteran contributor to NYC’s cultural landscape.

It’s also an illustration of the Breakfast Club effect; as far as I can tell, it was an accident of seated proximity at Le Crocodile that introduced Nick to Theo (in town from Cincy) in the first place.

Makes me happy to think that these loose connections over coffee and conversation have become strong bonds. Looking forward to see more to come. And in the meantime, if you know anyone looking to dip a toe into the live music / NYC bar scene - send ‘em to Nick and tell them to say Breakfast Club sent them.

Ben

`The Breakfast Club Esprit de Corps:`

* Everyone’s invited - especially you.
* Feel free to share, bring friends, colleagues, family, anyone.
* No agenda, no required buy-in, no need to RSVP. And no pitches.
* Everyone pays their own way.
* Everyone is welcome to subscribe.

Join the Linkedin group here: https://www.linkedin.com/groups/14449223/

Breakfast Club Editions Around the World (cities added regularly):

Weekly:
Portland, OR [Tuesday]
Mexico City [Wednesday]
Williamsburg Brooklyn [Wednesday]
Miami [Wednesday]
The Hamptons [Wednesday]
San Francisco [Wednesday]
Downtown Brooklyn [Thursdays]
Manhattan [Thursdays]
SOMa, NJ [Fridays]

Bi-Weekly:
Washington, DC [Thursdays] 
Melbourne [Fridays, alternating between Fitzroy and Victoria] 
Amsterdam [Fridays, alternating between locations East and West)

Monthly: 
Barcelona[First Wednesdays]
London[First Thursday]
LA (West):[Third Fridays]
Berlin
Ibiza
Vienna
Paris
Milan
Lugano
Philadelphia
Boston
Portland, Maine
Burlington, VT
Panama City
Seattle
Denver 
Brighton 
Boulder

Breakfast Club This Week:

Boulder, PDX, MIA, Hamptons, Wmsburg, CDMX, SF, DTBK, Manhattan, DC, Cincy, Melbourne, Brighton & SOMa

Tuesday, March 4th

Boulder

Co-Hosted by Joy Shure
8a @ Skratch Labs

Portland, OR

Co-hosted by Nina Sers
9a @ Proud Mary

Wednesday, March 5th

Barcelona (Mobile World Congress Special)

Co-Hosted by Kevin Maguire and Nicole Ingra
9:30a @ Egg Lab

Miami

Co-Hosted by Jeff Carvalho and Jesse Kirshbaum
8:30a @ Novella Cafe Social

Brooklyn (Williamsburg)

Hosted by me and a gang of regulars
8:30a @ Le Crocodile at The Wythe Hotel

The Hamptons

Co-hosted by Mike Kilcoyne
8:30a @ Tutto Cafe

Mexico City

Co-Hosted by Steve Bryant
8:30am @ Mendl

San Francisco

Co-Hosted by Eve Lewis and Chris M. Gillespie
8:30am @ Terreene in the 1 Hotel

Thursday,March 6th

Downtown Brooklyn

Co-Hosted by Kat Popiel, Marina Garcia-Vasquez and Lynn Juang
8:30am @ Ace Hotel Brooklyn (Lobby)

Manhattan

Co-Hosted by Heidi Hartwig
9am @ Eva’s Kitchen on Grand

Cincinnati

Co-Hosted by Theo Erasmus and Emmit Jones
8:30am @ Mom and Em Coffee

Seattle

Co-Hosted by Mike Burlin and David Rosenberg
8am @ Oddfellows [RSVP here: https://lu.ma/nvn8o5ms]

Friday, March 7th

Melbourne

Co-Hosted by Celeste Blewitt and Josh Gardiner
9a @ StandardX Fitzroy

Brighton

Co-Hosted by Amy Daroukakis and Malex Salamanques Amiel
9am @ FIKA Beach @ Sealanes

New Jersey (SOMa)

Co-Hosted by James Friedman and Evie Bear
9:15a @ Arties

Upcoming Breakfast Club Events

3.10: Denver

3.11: Portland OR

3.12: Miami, Hamptons, Williamsburg, CDMX, SF

3.13: Downtown Brooklyn, Manhattan

3.14: SOMa (New Jersey), Amsterdam

3.20: Boston

3.21: Los Angeles (West Side)

4.3: Portland, ME

Breakfast Club Event Recaps [Last Week]:

[dPDX, MIA, Hamptons, Wmsburg, SF, DTBK, Manhattan, DC

Breakfast Club Portland Report 2.26.25

Per Nina’s Post: This week we had a high percentage of New Yorkers at the table. We chatted about Heterochromia, Portland's love of stadium seating especially in creative agencies (and now even the airport), the endless mutual connections that we all have, the growing global network of Breakfast Club and I caught up on everything I missed last week.

So happy to have Jason Thome join us from NYC this week along with Jessica Brandes Kingrey Padraic O'Meara Joseph Soutullo Justin Davis Roland Gauthier. I'll work on getting a better photo next week 😅

Join us any Tuesday at 9am at Proud Mary
Everyone is welcome.
No agenda
No need to RSVP

For other locations check out: https://lnkd.in/gQ9K3hRQ

Breakfast Club Hamptons Report 2.27.25

Breakfast Club Classic (Williamsburg) Report 2.27.25

Per my Post: Breakfast Club 2.26.25 Report: At my end we talked about working in the 500 block of Broadway, Water Street Associates and the FiDi takeover, 4x BC hosts at one table, long weekends upstate, expensive farmers markets, the price of eggs and egg arbitrage, the warming weather, sitting in the sunshine, gel manicures, joining the 49ers club, Stockholm as an urban idyll, feeling like a hobbit in Copenhagen, Glenn O’Brien affectations, embracing new permissions, Maxwell’s Urban Hang Suite cruise to Jamaica, sunglasses at all time, "The Friend Ship," body cavity search, taking SPAM (rip) home, DJ Harvey mixing without headphones, starting a coffee business (in this economy?!), taking the streetwear approach to flavor curation, becoming a destination, assembling an avengers squad, traveling to Hong Kong, banyan trees, the vibe being ‘fine’, the people with means leaving, great art galleries, reporting just the fragments, intergenerational mahjong socializing, major labels, old buddies from The FADER, accidental dim sum, the next Wong Kar Wai movie, being a single person in NYC, spending $100 on an Uber to Momofuku and home instead of buying Bitcoin in 2010, the inevitability of kids with lice, foot and mouth, moving to Mexico City, doing the same thing but for different audiences, the best omelette in NYC and lots more.

The crew was James Outlaw, Stuart Roberts, Sundi Brewer-Griffin, Rob Hubbert, James Friedman, Kat Popiel, Heidi Hartwig, Ian Edgar, Alexis Reiner, Julie Stein, Paul Greenberg, Nick Kassebaum, Nick Bodor, Leann Abad, Zachary Mallard, Eric Korsh, Claire Anderson, Sami Abdou, Kalil Greenberg, Zane Posen, Marc Weissman and me.

We do this every Wednesday starting 8:30a at Le Crocodile Restaurant, and everyone's invited, especially you.

Info for all Breakfast Club events goes out every Monday via https://lnkd.in/ejhXQ4q4.

Or you can join the global LinkedIn community here: https://lnkd.in/eHAWrG6n

Breakfast Club SF Report 2.27.25

Per Chris’s post: I'm a week late but last week we discussed ....

Navel-gazing conference talks of great import with zero call to action. Famous activists now just coasting. Guyana and people-sized fish. The Jaguar's Gaze. Exxon's imperialist playbook. Justifying the hire. Interviewing f*ckery. Santa Barbara. Geneva. The oddity of awarding people in absentia. Impossible Meat(tm) chemicals. Nevada City Film Festival. Metalabel. Renaissance. Moving to Austin. Judgment is so final. It's purpose, and the power of letting it go.

With the indomitable Heavenly Johnson, Jasmine Takanikos, Arno Hesse, Uzodinma M., and Eve Lewis.

It happens every week at the 1 Hotel at Embarcadero:

1. Everyone’s invited—especially you.
2. There’s no agenda, cost, prep, pitching, nor RSVPs.
3. We do it because it’s fun. Any networking benefit is incidental.

Breakfast Club Downtown Brooklyn Report 2.28.25

We talked about - diversifying studio practices to compete with established agencies, aging parents, meetings with NASA, living on the 35th floor, the many definitions of a mid-life crisis, the dark sides of the social media scroll, if Craigslist got re-branded, unusual co-habiting scenarios, the transition to death doula from operations/HR, Breakfast Club as an acquisition stream for new customers (you’re welcome Nom Nom!), dreaming of new lives overseas and the trades offs that come with, the many stages of perimenopause, nostalgic for the Avant Garde Diaries days, moving to Canada, the desire to go to more supper clubs, systemizing the production process for clients, the beauty of collaborating with other independent consultants and more.

Today's breakfast was co-hosted by Jeeyoon Rhee, our crew today included Kenzo Minami Lily Wan Lisa Maria Hardgrove Sarah Rubinstein Jemilla Michael Michael Felber Greg Donnelly Eva Schmiedleitner Nina Lora Melisa Osorio Jordan Leschinsky Maggie Spicer Joy Martinez Matt Cohen Michael Barth Nicole Nejati Sahn Kim-Kuo Nanse Kawashima Alexandra (Aly) Lee Ian Tong

Join myself Lynn Juang & Marina Garcia-Vasquez every Thursday at 8:30am in the lobby inside of the Ace Hotel / Atelier Ace. Everyones invited, no ice breakers or agenda. A forever thank you to Ben Dietz for sparking this community.

All the info lives at https://lnkd.in/eyvtRq7Z and you can join the LinkedIn group here: https://lnkd.in/eHAWrG6n

Breakfast Club Manhattan Report 2.28.25

Per Heidi’s post: Another incredible Breakfast Club! From skydiving stories to the best bathhouse in NYC, insider transit scoops from our NY1 reporter, deep dives into vintage luxury archives, and the benefits of taking sea-moss—the convos were lively with this crew of talented New Yorkers.
Hope to see you next Thursday—All are welcome, especially you! With Heidi Hartwig Katie Andrews Bridget Russo Carlos Chiossone Lucie Kim Tim Griffin Aydan Sarikaya Brooke Goldberg, Jonathan Schenk Jodi Rosenblum Alex Corporan Samantha Liebman Jonathan P. L. Spooner Ashley J. Granata Ray Mendez Erik Rivera
@karina Baculima Zachary Mallard Krussia, SDJ, Maddie..

Breakfast Club Washington DC Report 2.28.25

Per Michael’s post: DC Breakfast Club FTW!
☀️
We talked about faux dive bars, left-handedness, the need for dinner parties, finding the creative heart of a city, NYC expats, algorithms impacting art, the Go-Go Museum, how to hide in plain sight and escaping into a cocoon of sci-fi.
🥐
The group today was Latoya Peterson Mark Pollard, Strategy Friend Rebecca Davis Michael Hastings-Black Ted Steyer, M.M.C.Dr. Leigh George Julienne DeVita & Quinnton Harris
☕
We do this bi-weekly.
It's every other Thursday in Adams Morgan at 8:30 am.
Next one is March 13th.
Everyone pays their own way, there's no agenda or RSVP necessary.
Everyone's invited, especially you!
🫖