Setting the Table: Vol. 13

A closing, an opening, Cinnamon Toast Crunch & why empty tables matter more than the over-saturation of content

Apr 23, 2026

Every Thursday, I'm setting the table for your weekend…a little collection of reads, recipes, fun things, and whatever else caught my eye this week. It's the moment before the chaos when you get to decide what kind of experience you want. NOT a to-do list…just really sweet possibilities.

A hilarious chef that I follow posted a reel this week, trolling content creators and I literally almost spit my coffee out on my walk to my chef gig. Roasting those who think interviewing chefs on a podcast is a new, unique idea…groundbreaking, really.

I died…because maybe I’m doing that very thing with Between Bowls? I get it…I, too, see the hundreds of posts every day on my feed…I’m drowning in it, you’re drowning, we’re all drowning in chef video content. It’s having a moment, for sure. Which is why I almost didn’t publish the latest episode of Between…but then I did…because, you know what? The badass women of Three Top Hospitality just opened their third restaurant in 6 years…Cleo, in the West Village last weekend. And that’s not nothing…especially in today’s dumpster fire of society.

Why did I hesitate? Why have I been sitting on this video after I interviewed them 4 weeks ago? Well…honestly, because I am NOT a glossy production company by any means…and it shows. I totally roll up in these places and spaces with my one camera, a tripod, and a couple lav mics. And I’m humble enough to admit…my production quality is mid…at best.

My first conversation was with the amazing Chef Haley Duren. I used my iPhone, so the lighting was not great. For this next cereal chat with Kip + Halley? One mic took the day off & didn’t let us know until it was too late…and then my latest convo (set to release in a couple weeks)…I filmed on the road in Chicago with goddess Chef Chloe Gould. We literally had to film twice because I lost the entire first file to the cloud gods. She was gracious, and yes, I was mortified.

So yeah, I get it…I may not have premier production prowess, but I am one fiesty Virgo with a camera, two mics (that may or may not work), and a refusal to wait for permission or better equipment. And before the “stay in your lane” comments roll in… I know.

But the lane I’m in is this…I wanted to elevate these women. Kip and Halley…Haley and Chloe…and more. I want to sit with them, share a bowl of cereal, and just chat about things. I can’t sit around and wait for someone with a gaffer and a sound mixer to decide they were worth filming.

I’m leaning all the way into the fact that I’m a chef with a camera, sitting across from women I want to celebrate, asking you to love us. Groundbreaking or not, it gives me joy, and hopefully makes you smile.

And, I also know this...The Loring Place just announced its closing last week. Dan Kluger’s iconic spot was just a few months shy of hitting the 10-year mark. A neighborhood spot that was a piece of the fabric that makes NYC so special, and it’s closing.

The market isn’t too crowded…it’s too quiet.

We’re losing the middle-aged restaurants. The ones that survived year 3, made it past trend, got good at their actual jobs…the ones with good bones. They’re disappearing while the masses continue to chase the newest opening…the see-and-be-seen supper clubs and controversial $40 chicken.

And yet, Kip and Halley opened Cleo last weekend during “the worst time for restaurants.” And Dan’s closing Loring Place just a few months from now. The throughline isn’t over-saturation…it’s under-attendance.

The over-saturation of chef videos & content isn’t the bigger problem…the empty tables are. And showing up…to restaurants and also, in life, ...is the whole point, it’s the only way to save the ones we don’t want to lose.

THE GRAZING PLATE

(quick bites, short reads, things to nibble on)

When No One Shows Up: Hospitality as a Spiritual Discipline by The Rabbit Room
About the home table, but it's the same love language in restaurants. Hospitality is hospitality...whether you're plating for guests in your dining room or filling a 40-seat room on a Tuesday. So what happens when the guests don't return? Don't attend? Don't bother to RSVP and then don't show when they say they will? Read this, then make a reservation.
The Courage to Embrace Our Humanness by Kindred Mothering
About motherhood as a mirror...how it surfaces the parts of yourself you've been too afraid to hold, and the work of carrying your wounds consciously so your kids inherit love instead of unhealed pain. I'm currently sitting with this as I edit my piece for Mother's Day. But it landed here too, because opening a restaurant and raising a child ask the same thing of you: show up imperfect, do it anyway, let it change you.
Joy That Makes No Sense by Kate Bowler
Bowler has quickly become one of my favorite writers. In this piece, she writes about joy as interruption...not a reward for a life well-managed, but something stranger that shows up when you say yes to small, unnecessary, beautiful things. "Absurdity doesn't fix anything. But it does interrupt despair." Go out to eat on a Tuesday when the news is bad, and your budget says stay home. Joy anyway.

THE UTENSILS

(tools, recipes or things that help you do the work)

Brooklyn Kura Revisited Wrote about this here in last week’s Setting the Table. We are opening our bottle of Secondi, a limited release bubbly sake, this week as I finish the edits on Ep 2 of Between Bowls with Kip + Halley...it pairs with everything, including the chaotic audio mishaps. Nihonshu wa ryori wo erabanai...sake doesn’t fight with food. It doesn’t fight with bad audio either…there’s room at the table for it all, the good and the bad.
Good Bones...applied. Last Sunday’s piece about how bone is 70% mineral, 30% collagen. How mineral without collagen shatters, and collagen without mineral collapses. How the places we love need both: structure and warmth. Loring Place had both…for 9.5 years…and not even the good bones could keep it alive.

THE VESSELS

(what holds us, what gives our chaos shape and space)

Shut Up, Everything by Jess Sowards
"A nervous system in crisis cannot look away...they keep our nervous systems in crisis. It's not a conspiracy, it's just a business model." Sowards on algorithms fragmenting our shared reality and why the antidote is the garden, the kitchen, the front porch...anywhere people can sit across from each other and disagree without becoming enemies. If you're reading The Feed series, read this too.
The Dinner Plan: Trinity Mouzon Wofford by Maggie Hoffman
On weeknight cooking without a meal plan...foundational prep on slower days, quick assembly on busy ones. "It's like a base layer of clothing, but for cooking." Read for permission to not have it all figured out in advance and still feed people well.

THE GLASSWARE

(the bubbles, the refreshment, what quenches)

Between Bowls: Cereal Chat w/ Kip Gleize + Halley Chambers
Use headphones (and turn them to the max to make sure you don’t miss the good stuff!).

Cinnamon Toast Crunch, Cleo’s grand opening, Superpowers, and more! We talked about the pandemic bringing them together, opening Margot without outside funding, the diner almost breaking them, and why they kept going anyway. About being women in rooms that weren’t built for us...and the way a maternal instinct shows up in hospitality when you stop being ashamed of leading with your heart on your sleeve.

I brought up my love for neighborhood spots like Jeffrey’s Grocery that I keep coming back to: “In New York, where there’s a bajillion people and a bajillion restaurants...it’s easy to feel lonely and to feel like not known, and not seen and not acknowledged. And I think the best restaurants do well when they simply take care of you, and even better when they know you.”

That’s the whole thing. That’s why I’m having these conversations…even with janky audio and one working mic. Because taking care of people is not something these women do casually...and you can’t fake that with a lav mic.

And I didn’t want to wait for perfect conditions to show you that and document women while they’re in it...not ten years later when someone decides they’re important…the bones are good…the women are special…and the sound issues? Well…I’ll figure it out, people.

THE NAPKIN

(for wiping away the week’s mess, the reset)

The “Good Bones” Restaurant Audit From Sunday’s essay, applied:

Name 3 restaurants open 5+ years you’d be gutted to lose.
When did you last go?
Can you go before July 14?

If #3 is no, that’s why Loring Place is closing. And it’s not because it wasn’t good, it’s because we got quiet.

Bone remodels under pressure...Wolff’s Law. Use it or lose it. That’s true for restaurants too.

THE DESSERT PLATE

(the sweet stuff, pure joy, no justification needed)

Two reservations to make, one shared mindset.

1. For the beginning: Cleo Week two. They don’t need your like...they need your reservation or just go walk-in. Sit at the bar and order the rotisserie chicken…and stay for the amazing cornbread. Tell them The Freckled For said HEY!

2. For the ending: The Loring Place Closing July 14. If you can get in before then, go. If you can’t, go to your version of it. Head to your spot in your neighborhood…the one with good bones...the one that’s been there, that’s consistently doing the work, off the “hot” “new” list, but excellent as always.

Thinking About This Week…

What’s your spot? The one you assumed would always be there. The one you’ll post “gutted” about when it closes, even though you haven’t been since 2023.

Go out to eat…this week. For continuity, for self-care, for community-care…because someone needs to be in the room. Restaurants don’t die from bad reviews…they die from silence…and from us all assuming they’ll always be there.

They won’t. The market isn’t too crowded…it’s too quiet…and quiet kills restaurants faster than rent.

Let’s go eat!
xo, Jess

Setting the Table drops every Thursday. And Part Two of The Feed..."The Eye Roll That Cost Me Six Months"...comes this Sunday. Thanks for sharing your love for The Table Between & all things Freckled Fork…pass along to your friends, share, like, heart…do all the things. I really appreciate it more than you can ever know <3

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