What's Your Fav Restaurant Bathroom?

Plus Supreme's Weight Bench, a Robotic Massage, and more.

In Today’s Newsletter—

• Equinox Rolls Out Robot Massages

• Aesthetic Restaurant Bathrooms

• Supreme’s Weight Bench

• Sneakers N Stuff x Adidas

• Frank Ocean’s Endless Turns 8

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Would You Get a Massage from a Robot?

In March, Equinox announced it was partnering with Aescape, a robotics startup, to rollout fully automated massages at 10 NYC locations.

Aescape claims its created the world’s most advanced massage, powered by two giant robotic arms, infrared sensors, machine learning.

Backed by $80M in venture funding, Aescape wants to make massage therapy more accessible—

“Aescape aims to make massage an accessible, regular part of rest and recovery, no longer reserved for indulgence or injury,”

Lauretta Chartlon described her experience in the New York Times, saying that the machine froze mid massage and had to be reset by a technician.

I just saw at the gym this morning that Aescape is getting rolled out to my location soon and I am dying to try it.

I have never, not once, received a massage. I don’t love random people touching me. But a robot? Sure.

To all my massage heads, would you get a massage from a robot?

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The Most Important Restaurant Quality? The Bathroom.

Bloomberg touched base with the designer of Coqodaq, an upscale Koren fried chicken restaurant in New York to discuss their bathrooms.

The restaurant is admittedly eye catching, designed with incredible detail by David Rockwell.

But one standout element is their striking bathrooms. Every detail from the sinks to the mirrors was considered, creating an environment perfect for selfies.

For new restaurants, getting free PR from social media posts is integral in spreading the word. Thus, creating a bathroom that is nice to do bathroom activities in is great, but creating a bathroom people look hot in and want to take selfies, then tag the restaurant is almost just as important.

It got me thinking about how the bathroom can really make or break a dining experience.

Its always jarring when you leave a beautiful table and delicious meal and find the bathroom is gross and small.

One of my favorite bathrooms is in Altro Paradiso, equipped with a large mirror, skylight, aroma diffuser, and Aesop handsoap.

The restaurant bathroom is a great place for brands to put their products to gain exposure and synergize with restaurants that align with their brand.

I’ve been put on to new Diptyque scents, and Apotheke soap just from using it in a bathroom.

I was struck last year in Toronto by the bathroom in Matty Matheson’s restaurant: Prime Seafood Palace. Adorned with a 20 foot ceiling, skylight, custom sink, and Byredo soap— that has to be the best bathroom I’ve ever used.

What’s your favorite restaurant bathroom?

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Quick Hits

• Supreme is releasing a power rack for hypebeast gym bros. In typical Supreme fashion, they are dropping a plethora of collaborative accessories in their FW2024 collection. The standout? A power rack weight bench collab with Tru Grit. Chris Black of How Long Gone put it best—

Big day for guys in LA who have two roommates, a G-Wagon, and an empty garage in North Hollywood —

• Sneakers N Stuff x Adidas is tired but looks good. The Samba is overplayed, it has been for awhile. But this collab with Sneakers N Stuff that marks the Swedish retailers 25th anniversary looks really nice. Coming in a ‘Shadow Green’ colorway, these are going to hit hard this Fall with the incoming Who Do You Know? hats.

• Frank Ocean’s visual album ‘Endless’ turns 8 today. Let me set the scene, I’m 18 and about to venture off to college. Rumors had been swirling Frank Ocean was set to drop a new album soon. In an expected twist, he dropped a 30 minute video of him building a staircase, soundtracked by an ethereal, experimental, synthy album called ‘Endless’ Before that album could be truly appreciated, he independently released the critically-acclaimed Blonde. The music industry politics that led to this iconic double release are fascinating: he essentially played Def Jam out of $20M. While we all love Blonde, I do think Endless is by far his most experimental body of work and is criminally underrated, mostly due to the fact a CDQ, tracked version is not available on streaming services. If you haven’t listened to this— please do. Here’s the link.

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Jake Bell is a content marketing, creative strategist, designer, and writer based in NYC. He specializes in brand building, content strategy, creative direction, business development, and making things cool.

Want to chat? Email me: jake@jb.studio