How Many Millionaires are in the Sweetgreen Line?
What really happens at the Met, NYC is the richest city, Sweetgreen's new steak, the influencer extinction, Substack's new video initiative, caffeine updates, and my new watch
GM everyone! Hope you’re having a good morning. I just ran 5 miles and I can’t stop sweating.
On today’s letter:
NYC’s is the richest city in the world
Sweetgreen’s new steak
The impending influencer extinction
Substack’s new video initiative
What’s going on with caffeine
and my new Cartier watch
But first, I promise this is going to be the last Met Gala mention on this newsletter until next May, but I had a number of people I know attend the Gala for work so I wanted to to share what its really like to be there.
I spoke with my friend Lionel Lashad who is La La Anthony’s makeup artist (she hosted the Vogue livestream) Here’s what he had to say—
JB: What was it like being on the carpet? What was the vibe?
LL: The vibe was electric ! Everyone is so excited to just be there and make it up to the top of the stairs.
JB: Who was your favorite look?
LL: Bad Bunny & Zendaya
JB: Where do the people actually working at the event go and do once the invitees are inside?
LL: Most leave to change their outfits and get ready for all the after party’s
NEWS
NYC is the richest city in the world. The demise of New York has largely been exaggerated, and its evident in the staggering $3T in wealth New Yorker’s collectively have. Bloomberg reports that 1 in every 24 New Yorker’s has a million dollar net worth. This is why its important to talk to as many people out there as possible, you never know who you may schmooze with who is looking to invest in a new project or at least buy some drinks.
Sweetgreen launched their new steak offering. The brand’s new steak option is grass fed and pasture raised, and is the latest addition as they try to become more than a go-to lunch spot. Protein consumption has been hard to miss in the discourse, and adding steak to the menu seems like an appropriate addition. You can add it to a salad or get their new caramelized garlic steak protein bowl, which the brand introduced late last year. As a regular Sweetgreen customer, I had to try the new bowl. While it doesn’t look as good as the photos (duh) it was honestly pretty good.
Will I be getting it over the crispy rice bowl? No. I also loved the their Instagram grid to promote the launch.
Where will influencers go if TikTok is banned? As TikTok challenges the law forcing them to sell to an American entity, influencers who have cultivated followings on the app face the possibility of losing their status. If TikTok is banned, many creators who call the app home will be left at square one, without an audience, platform, or income.
We are going to see more creators begin to migrate their audiences to new platforms and potentially try out new mediums. Creators like Oren John has amassed millions of views on TikTok, but has worked consistently to program to a diverse array of channels like X, YouTube, and Reels. Emma Apple Chozick garnered 30k+ followers on TikTok for her poignant brand videos, but is now writing a Substack. Moral of the story is to start preparing for a TikTok ban.
Substack wants to steal TikTok creators. Speaking of switching platforms, Substack has launched a new initiative to convince TikTokers to bring their video content to Substack. They’ve launched a new program called the Substack Creator Studio, and opened applications to partner with Adam Faze’s production studio Gymnasium (producers of the viral hit Boyroom) to professionally produce content for Substack.
This strategy is interesting to me, as Substack seems to be courting established video creators to kick off this initiative, rather than turning to its most popular Substack writers to develop video. For example, Casey Lewis could turn her immensely popular After School newsletter into a video series. All I know is Who Do You Know? would translate really well into an interview show. Christina Loff let’s talk about turning me into Substack’s David Letterman.
The caffeine wars are getting interesting. Panera’s absurdly caffeinated Charged Lemonade is being discontinued after it allegedly killed several people, leading to several wrongful death lawsuits. Many people are starting to wake up and realize the adverse health effects of caffeine overconsumption. Brands like VYBES have introduced low caffeine alternative beverages. I spoke with Jonathan Eppers, founder of Vybes, earlier this year. Go read that.
WHERE TO BUY A CARTIER TANK IN NYC
Things have been going well for me so I decided to splurge on an early birthday gift. My 26th birthday is on Monday and I figured it was time I get a nice watch. I have never really owned a watch, spare a Fossil or something when I was like 12.
My friend Tyler owns a Cartier Tank which looks great on his wrist, so I thought I’d look for a vintage Tank (I like old stuff)
The question was where to buy it?
There are now tons of places online to buy an authentic watch from the terribly named Hodinkee and even eBay.
But I wanted to be able to try it on in person. So I went to my favorite watch TikToker, Mike Nouveau, to figure out where he went. The answer was a tiny storefront in Chinatown called Chen’s Watch Repair.
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I went into the shop and talked with Mrs. Chen and began to try a few options on. The selection there was pretty incredible, from great entry watches, to super rare Rolexes and APs. But one watch stood out to me: a 90s Cartier Tank Francaise, as seen in this photo of Princess Diana.
After doing some research and looking at copious inspiration photos on Dime Piece, I decided to pull the trigger. So now this beautiful watch is on my wrist as I write this and it looks great! If you want to get a authentic vintage watch, I highly recommend Chen’s.
OKAY GOTTA GO BYE! TOMORROW WE ARE TRASHING BELLA HADID’S NEW FRAGRANCE BRAND!
Jake Bell is a content marketing and creative strategist based in NYC. He specializes in content creation, branding, art direction, creative strategy, and making things cool.
To learn more about Jake visit www.jb.studio
Have a tip email me jake@jb.studio
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Like fit pics and pictures of chairs? Visit his Instagram.
Damn i love this newsletter
I mean publication