Breakfast Clubbing #38
W/C Jan 13: BC is ON in PDX, Barcelona, CDMX, Hudson, Wmsburg, Hamptons, SF, Vienna, DTBK, Manhattan, Cincy, Denver, London, SOMa and LA (West). Soon come: Milan, Philly, Portland Maine and Amsterdam!
Hi all,
Big week so I won’t dawdle, except to say that the Breakfast Club community (now over 1600 on this newsletter alone) gets bigger and more interesting (to me and hopefully to you) every day. That has everything to do with your enthusiasm, encouragement and generosity. I’d like to keep that going - so if you have a moment to pass this along to somebody smart who’d benefit from it, please do. Here’s a button.
Thanks everyone - especially those who are hosting. See you at breakfast!
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 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:
Melbourne [alternating between Fitzroy and Victoria] Monthly:
Barcelona[First Wednesdays]
London[First Thursday]
LA (West):[Second Fridays]
Vienna
Milan
Lugano
Philadelphia
Portland, Maine
Burlington, VTBreakfast Club This Week:
Tuesday, Jan 14th
Portland, OR
Co-hosted by Nina Sers
9a @ Proud Mary
Wednesday, Jan 15th
Barcelona
Co-hosted by Kevin Maguire and Nicole Ingra
9:30am @ Egg Lab
Hudson
Co-Hosted by Peter Spear and Mark DePace
8:30a @ Kitty’s Hudson
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
8am @ Lalo
San Francisco
Co-Hosted by Eve Lewis and Chris M. Gillespie
8:30am @ Terreene in the 1 Hotel
Thursday, Jan 16th
Vienna
Co-Hosted by Carla Moss and Laura M. Pana
9am @ Cafe Francais (Votivkirche)
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
Denver
Co-Hosted by Kate Gagnon and Ben Samples
8:30am @ Populus Hotel (Lounge Space Upstairs)
Friday, January 17th
London [Special Friday Pop Up]
Co-Hosted by Victoria Gates-Fleming and Piers Fawkes
9a @ The Cafe at Foyles, 107 Charing Cross Road
New Jersey (SOMa)
Co-Hosted by James Friedman and Evie Bear
9:15a @ Arties
Los Angeles (Westside)
Co-Hosted by Scott Donaton, Anita Schillhorn van Veen and Kirsten Ludwig
9a @ Zinque, Venice
Upcoming Breakfast Club Events
1.21: Portland, OR1.22: Milan, Philly, Miami, Hamptons, Williamsburg, CDMX, SF 1.23: Manhattan, DTBK1.24: SOMa (New Jersey)1.30: Amsterdam, Portland, Maine2.10: Burlington, VT Breakfast Club Event Recaps [Last Week]
Breakfast Club Lugano Report 9.1.24:
Per Elettra’s Post: This morning, the first-ever 𝐁𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐤𝐟𝐚𝐬𝐭 𝐂𝐥𝐮𝐛 𝐋𝐮𝐠𝐚𝐧𝐨 unfolded with a vibrant gathering, co-hosted by the always cool Camilla F., at the welcoming AMALO on Lungolago—thank you for your hospitality and the delicious spread of centrifughe, muffins, and cappuccini!
We covered an eclectic mix of topics:
🌍 Artificial intelligence and its ever-expanding role
💰 Investments in gold bars and financial strategies
🧠 Insights from psychology and research
📚 Education's evolving landscape
✈️ Travel tales, including a spotlight on Vietnam
👗 The shifting paradigms in the fashion industry
💪 The 4B Korean feminist movement's impact
🐾 A shared love for dogs
🏡 Life and building a business in Switzerland
🌏 The growing internationalization of Lugano vs. Milano
🇨🇭 The process of acquiring Swiss citizenship
...and so much more in between!
Special thanks to those who joined us from Milan and Brianza, making the morning all the more engaging and dynamic. And an extra shoutout to Ben Dietz who started it all back in NYC, Charla Noel Caponi who runs it like a bad ass in Milan and Elizabeth De Filippo-Jones who introduced me to all of this magic.
Watch this space for the next gathering, and remember: everyone's invited, especially you.
See you soon! ☕
Camilla F. Gea Finocchiaro Aprile Jacopo D'Ambrosio Sonja Knecht Francesca Boggio Mesnil Alexandra d'AGATA-BOTTA Leonardo Conte Margherita Caccavale Daniela Di Luca Andrew Starcher Cecilia Tsai Alessandro Cereda George L. Sarah Baccenetti Jolie Zocchi
Breakfast Club Williamsburg Report 1.8.24
Per my post: At my table we talked the rebound of experiential, growing economic growing up in the beauty industry, digital vs analog agencies, freelancing in 2025, medical transport companies, portrait photographers, getting commercial work to balance editorial pursuits, becoming a poet, forgetting your phone for the day, amazing Missoni sweaters, vintage shopping in Rome, NYE recaps, The Substance, Diplo on acid, whether Striptease is a good movie, renovations at the Ace DTBK, rainbows on coffee cups, graffiti paintings, New York in the 80s, taking January off, working in non-profits, archival Jewish food, living in Stuy town, Sally Rooney’s "Intermezzo," the growth of BC on LinkedIn, why there are so many Australians in Williamsburg, Mayor Bloomberg running the city like a business, retail week events, the New York tech meetup group, putting googely eyes on everything and lots more.
The gang today was me, Amanda Dell, Chaz Mee, Wen-Jay Ying, Brian Braiker, Victoria LaVilla, Seth Hillinger, Piers Fawkes, Theo Erasmus, Zane Posen, Marc Weissman, Eric Korsh, Bridget Russo, Paul Greenberg, Charles Bane III, Heidi Hartwig, Zachary Mallard, Zaira Stefani Vallejo, Ariel Abramov, Leonardo Olafsson, Randy Paul, Nick Bodor, Vicki Reed, Trish O'Callaghan, Krish Raja, Catalina Kulczar and Craig Bromberg. First day back, so I forgot to get the group picture. ugh. Sorry, all.
Breakfast Club SF Report: 1.8.24
Per Chris’s post: Overheard yesterday: What's your relationship to New Years? Death of resolutions. Empty gyms. 75hard. 40hard. 75soft sounds right. Moving to SF. Desire mapping and—no relation—Happy Endings at The Makeout Room in the Mission on Tuesdays. Career-defining moments. Anthropology. Content mills. Mommy bloggers and the mysterious case of suspiciously long pregnancy. Sandler sales. Ogilvy and direct response. Drag queens as an invitation to be yourself. The Foreign Service. Dallas. Howard University. Using AI for critical career critiques. Using Notebook LM to narrate your trajectory. Were webinars always so pitchy? AI boyfriends and girlfriends. Mainly girlfriends. AI therapy as prevention. Children on planes. Growing into a parental-level forgiveness.
With Uzodinma, Ocean, Heavenly, Holly, Magali, Joe, Stephanie, and Eve.
Join the next one and open your aperture. The rules are simple:
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.
Every Wednesday at the 1 Hotels in SF at 8:30am.
Breakfast Club Manhattan Report 1.9.24
Per Heidi’s post: Breakfast Club: Manhattan Edition is back in action! All are welcome—especially YOU! See you next Thursday 9am on Grand street at Eva's Kitchen! this am with Eva McCloskey Lucie Kim Mizuo Peck Charles Bane III Wen-Jay Ying Alex Corporan Elijah Torn Matt Lenski Heidi Hartwig @allisonrutberg
Breakfast Club Las Vegas Report 1.9.24
Per Steph’s post: Vegas Breakfast Club | CES Edition was a highlight of the week ... so wonderful to meet up! The California fires were a big topic of conversation and heartbreak (and also sleepless nights and the reason some folks couldn't make it after all.) We also chatted about Japanese denim and how it's worth every dollar, analog brands on socials, authenticity, influencer gamers, fashion influencing, generational differences in networking, all things AI, sleeping with crystals under our pillows, "in and out" lists, what it's like to live in Vegas, and more. It was the best. 💕
So happy to have join us Sydney Mendoza, Ray Bernadas, Julie Crisman, Katya Kotlyar, Tiffany Kumar, Sidon Farris, Charlotte Williams, Scott Donaton, Kim Mackenzie, and my incredible co-organizers representing LA Breakfast Clubs, Anita Schillhorn van Veen, Isaac Bess and Michael J. Miraflor. Thank you for making this happen. Thinking of you all.
Shout-out to Ben Dietz as founder of Breakfast Club Industries! If you're not already subscribed, the BCI newsletter has highlights from breakfasts happening all over the world. I'll drop a link in the comments. 🍳
Denver 1/16 (Kate Gagnon and Ben Samples)
London 1/17 (Victoria and Piers)
LA West 1/17
London 2/6 (first Thursday)
Melbourns 2/7
That’s Andrew Starcher in the Lugano photo! He was (still is?) a dean at my school (FUS) in Lugano! Small world!