Breakfast Clubbing #35
W/c 9th December. We are ON in Burlington, PDX, Milan, Wmsburg, CDMX, Hamptons, Hudson, Miami, San Francisco, London, Cincy, DTBK, Vegas, Portland & Jersey and LA (West).
Hi all,
As the year winds down the frequency of Breakfast Clubbing (the phenomenon, not this newsletter) will wind down a bit - Manhattan has already taken the month off, Downtown Brooklyn will follow suit after this Thursday, and a few others have already seen their last breakfast for 2024. If you’ve managed to make it out (to one or to many) - my sincere thanks.
To be clear though: we aren’t done. Even this late week sees breakfasts all over the world, including another “Pop Up” in London, a return to Portland Maine, the incomparable Milano, upstate idyll Hudson and Burlington (this morning) among them.
And of course the place I am asked most about: Los Angeles. Good news, then, at least for those with access to Venice. Per Kristin’s Post:
“LA Westside Breakfast Club's final 2024 meetup this Friday @ Rose Cafe.Celebrating community as this beloved neighborhood spot prepares to close its doors forever (but don't worry, our breakfast meet ups will continue). Join Scott Donaton, Anita Schillhorn van Veen, Ben Dietz (in spirit) and me for one last memorable morning of connection and nostalgia. 🥐☕️9am, Friday 12.13 @ Rose Cafe in Venice
I’m stoked to see BC becoming a part of Venice lore, sorry as I am to see the Rose go before I can get back out there. If you can make it, it’ll be a good one.
And for everybody else, a ton of Breakfast this week. But first….
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 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 Events This Week:
Tuesday, December 10th
Portland, OR
Co-hosted by Scott Crane and Nina Sers
9a @ Proud Mary
Wednesday, December 11th
Milan
Co-Hosted by Charla Caponi, Moritz Gaudlitz, Giorgio Bartoli and Alessandro Carnicella.
9:30a @ Brand Partners Group , Foro Buonaparte 22
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
Hudson
Co-hosted by Peter Spear and Mark DePace
8:30a @ Kitty’s Hudson
Mexico City
Co-Hosted by Steve Bryant
8am @ Lardo
San Francisco
Co-Hosted by Eve Lewis and Chris M. Gillespie
8:30am @ Terreene in the 1 Hotel
Thursday, December 12th
London
Co-hosted by Amy Daroukakis
9:30am @ The Cafe at Foyles Charing Cross Road
Downtown Brooklyn
Co-hosted by Kat Popiel, Lynn Juang, & Jeff Weiner,
8:30am @ As You Are (Ace Hotel, downtown Brooklyn)
Cincinnati
Co-Hosted by Theo Erasmus and Emmit Jones
8:30am @ Mom and Em Coffee
Las Vegas
Co-Hosted by Steph Balzer
8a @PublicUs
Friday, December 13th
Portland, Maine
New Jersey (SOMa)
Co-Hosted by Evie Bear and James Friedman
9:15a
Los Angeles (West)
Co-Hosted by Scott Donaton, Anita Schillhorn van Veen and Kirsten Ludwig
9am @ Rose Cafe in Venice
Upcoming Breakfast Club Events
* Dec 17th: Portland, OR*Dec 18th: Hamptons, Williamsburg, Miami, Mexico City, San Francisco*Dec 19th: Cincinnati, Las VegasBreakfast Club Events Last Week
Breakfast Club Paris Report 3rd December, 2024
Per Karla’s note: The fifth edition of the Paris chapter of Ben Dietz's BREAKFAST CLUB was a cozy gathering at the recently opened hashtag#CultCafé.
Over energizing matchas and Turkish eggs, we engaged in fun discussions with creative professionals from the worlds of type design, marketing strategy, film, music, and art.
The BC crew kicked things off by exploring how design thinking can improve the way we address and resolve everyday challenges. This naturally evolved into a conversation about how fashion, music, and art in a specific moment can serve as reflections of a period in time, acting as cultural and societal thermometers.
We also shared about how different cultures use unique tools to solve problems and create opportunities. For instance, in typeface design, the tools used often shape not only the letters themselves but also the messages they convey, revealing the creative interplay between form and function.
Later, we all agreed in the importance of intuition and improvisation as valuable assets in both creative fields and management.
Towards the end, we shared a good laugh about the challenges of presenting multi-faceted profiles in a compelling way during recruitment—especially when creatives are often professional "slashers" (juggling multiple roles and skills).
We also highlighted the richness of exposing oneself to multiple life experiences to get to a satisfactory career path and to facilitate a professional field leap. Also, the idea of being geographically ambiguous as a source of creative inspiration was another point that resonated deeply with the group.
It was an effervescent discussion : Kaempfen Elie, Maria Jarzyna, Josephine Turno, Lisa Ono, and Karla Rodriguez C.
Co-hosted by Lisa Ono and myself, I want to extend a big thank-you to everyone who reached out but couldn’t make it. We’ll keep this going! 💖
Looking forward to many more enriching conversations and connections!
Season 2025 dates: TBD Stay tuned! ☕
Breakfast Club PDX Report – 12.03.2024
Per Scott’s Post: This week we welcomed newcomers (Michael L. Orenstein and Molly Bullinger), some friends we’ve been missing (Julie Scherr, Vivek Bellore, Mark Mulder) and steady regulars (Lizy Gershenzon, shannon holt). Great crew. My brain got a workout at my end of the table:
• Remember how hip Buddhism was in the 90’s and 00’s? Vivek had so many great stories here. We learned about some little known political moves that happened in part thanks to Beastie Boys and Richard Gere. But what about the monk entourage? Who were those guys? And seriously, how good were those Free Tibet shows?
• Somehow that made me think of the book “How The Swans Came to The Lake” and the surprising ties between Buddhism in America and the Catholic monk Thomas Merton, which led into talk of painfully long silent meditation retreats and how much we love a solid Trappist ale.
• We talked about the new Ken Burns documentary on Leonardo da Vinci (Mark loved it) and how it stacks up to the new stop-motion feature The Inventor. I just watched the latter with my 7-year old (he gave it five kid stars) and now have my PBS homework for the week. But we explored how LdV was clearly neurodivergent and all the ways it manifested, and how he leaned into the quirks.
• That naturally led into the recurring conversation around neurodivergence and systems thinking. We also explored the pitfalls and dark sides of that when it’s not well-managed. Mostly we talked about the benefits.
• Mark shared the new irrigation and seeding techniques he’s been experimenting with, their broad applications for agriculture, and regenerative farming.
• That led us into the embarrassment of riches that is Oregon agriculture, but also how the offerings have evolved with climate change. We also learned about its impact on grape varietals in West Coast vineyards from Vivek’s time in the wine industry.
• Mark also shared his explorations on the many benefits of the humble Alder tree and all he’s doing with those seed experiments as well.
We packed a lot into a little time. What did everyone else talk about?
We do this every Tuesday 9am at Proud Mary on Alberta. My co-host Nina Sers was in Australia this week while many more of us were still in holiday mode, but we’re here in some number every week and hope to see you at the next one! Follow Ben Dietz for the latest on Breakfast Club happenings around the globe. Everyone’s invited, especially you.
Breakfast Club Classic Report – 12.04.2024
As I wrote: At my end we talked Thanksgiving in Philly, falling one credit short of graduation, "The Unnacountability Machine" by Dan Davies, struggling to finish the book you’re reading, endeavoring a rebrand, preference falsification, the price of eggs, avoiding upsetting billionaires, the age of dropping vowels in brand names being over, reclaiming words, the dog in Downtown Abbey being named Isis, thinking about teenage mutant ninja turtles, being so meticulous it becomes lazy, horseshoe theory, Alex Consani’s win as a reaction to Trump, DEI quotas at the BAFTAs, queen victorias Indian Lover, coffee like crack, Halloween decorations in December, watching 90s movies as a program, ‘normalize normal guys’ John Kracynski as backlash, teenage angst being boring, Phil Hartman and Sinbad at Mall of America, the Barneys at Saks, the Substance, being an Ozempic Influencer, captions ruining comedy, Gen Z being the cynical constituency we need and the business model of Elks Lodges, among lots of other things.
The crew today was me, Ben Jenkins, Nick Bodor, Kennedy Davey, Eric Korsh, Kalil Greenberg, Joshua Rosenthal, Dominic Poynter, Ariel Abramov, Leonardo Olafsson, Zachary Mallard, Paul Greenberg, Julie Stein, Jose Castillo, Zaira Stefani Vallejo, Ben Jackson 💬, Marc Weissman, and Montana Knudsen.
We do this every Wednesday at Le Crocodile Restaurant - and everybody is welcome, so come hang sometime. There's also the Linkedin group (https://lnkd.in/eHAWrG6n) and of course the weekly newsletter on Monday has all the details from Breakfast Clubs around the world. Subscribe here (it's free, too): https://lnkd.in/eZi3f42n.
Breakfast Club Hamptons: 12.4.24
Per Mike’s post: Back. In. Action.Ryan tee'ing us off with a little lighthearted, just chill-vibes question: "How have you sacrificed in life?"
You know. Just chill vibes. Thanks for the host-age, Ryan!
Great crew, including:
Julianna + Ginger, Paula, Michael Friedler, Adam Donald, Andrea Grover, Amity Lucas and Darrell
Breakfast Club Miami Report – 12.04.2024
Breakfast Club San Francisco Report 12.4.24
Per Chris’s post: Breakfast club is a wrap!
Overheard: Peak Egypt. The logistics of time travel. Would you go into the future or past? (h/t Sara) The essentiality of toilet paper. Small is beautiful. Craft approach to business. In a Zombie apocalypse, opting to be upper management. Stonemasonry. Neanderthals. The rock of Gibraltar. The youth not drinking. Anxiety. What will replace phones? Labor organizing. Persistent comparison. Belief in institutions. Creative citizenship. Food should be open-source. Eating by numbers. Slow money. Jungle versus garden. Portugal. Dictatorships. Art out of adversity. Easier volunteering. Designing events for introverts, too.
With Heavenly Johnson Ocean MacAdams Eve Lewis Arno Hesse Marissa Shrum Jacob W.. Thanks for connecting us Ben Dietz. #breakfastclubsf
Breakfast Club London Report, 5.12.24
Per Victoria’s note: “ Following up to say we had a great BC last week. The crew was below and including me of course. 😃
Conversation covered - racing to the end of the year / survive till 25, the freelance economy, the legendary Get Sh*t Done event by Rebecca Rowntree that a good handful of us had attended that week, Zoe Scaman and her plea for us all to build and share work with others, going brandside, life in Amsterdam, life in Berlin, international clients, finding your why, being vulnerable, sharing workspaces and that was just some of what I heard at my side of the table.
[The crew was]: Audrey Hingle, Ramona Daniel, Marie-Theres Riegler, James Walters, Aisha, Abi Malins and Nicola Davies
Breakfast Club DTBK Report 12.5.24
Per Kat’s post: Breakfast Club Downtown Brooklyn was strong this morning! Thanks to Dilys Ng for co-hosting and bringing together such a vibrant crew of photographers and visual leaders:
Marina Garcia-Vasquez Elizabeth Renstrom Tommy Kha Thomas Murphy Berton Ridley Lori Hamilton Seth Hillinger Peter Courtien Rosslyn Ortega Kristina Dittmar 👩🏽💻Jasmine Hope Veridiano Karen Labuca Melissa Mai Lê Hô diana markosian Pia Peterson Haggarty Sara Morosi
We talked New York housing, photography, content gathering across the world, moving states for a job (yay or nay?), Thanksgiving cooking, the RSV vaccine, editorial re-structuring, Xmas parties!! It was just a great time.
Next week will be our last Breakfast Club at Ace Hotel / Atelier Ace at As Your Are for 2024 - the formidable Lynn Juang from Frameworks Consulting will be hosting. JOIN US!
Everyones invited, no ice breakers or agenda.
All the info lives at https://lnkd.in/eyvtRq7Z and you can join the LinkedIn group here: https://lnkd.in/eHAWrG6n
And that’s it for this week. See you at Breakfast. And if not this week, another one soon!
Ben
