Crystalline choice
Villa Mabrouka, St Barths real estate, Pocketbook Hudson, Maré, Yoshino, La Quinta Resort and Club, Chez Carrie, Gift Horse, MORE
GETAWAYS • Morocco
Tangier tango
“Tangier is more New York than New York,” Paul Bowles wrote in his 1952 novel Let It Come Down.
The best time to visit the Moroccan port city of Tangier is in the fall, and the best hotel there is Villa Mabrouka, which opened a little over two years ago.
Just above the Kasbah and the Medina, and with breathtaking views of the Strait of Gibraltar and the North Atlantic Ocean, Villa Mabrouka is an intimate, 12-room hotel housed in a 1940s modernist building on a 12-acre hillside. The property was once the holiday home of Yves Saint Laurent and Pierre Bergé, and was transformed into a hotel by British designer Jasper Conran in 2019. Its unveiling was stalled by the pandemic, with a soft opening taking place in 2023. But now the kinks are all worked out, creating an unmatched luxury hotel experience, without ritzy affectation.
The design of Villa Mabrouka reflects a blend of modernist architecture and traditional English country house aesthetics, with elements like floor-to-ceiling glass windows, intricate fretwork, and antique furnishings. The gardens, by landscape architect Madison Cox, feature cascading terraces, with over 6500 trees, shrubs, and flowers, including banana palms, ferns, bamboo, citrus trees, hollyhocks, nasturtiums, roses, bougainvillea, and agapanthus. A variety of birdsongs and the five-times-a-day calls to prayer from the mosque next door add to the Tangier experience.
The villa features two crystalline swimming pools, three restaurants, and a rooftop coffee and cocktail bar. The dining options emphasize local Mediterranean ingredients, with dishes like grilled lobster, sauteed sole, and tagines (lamb, beef, or chicken).
To prepare for your trip, read Bowles’s classic novel The Sheltering Sky, which will put you in the mood for this storied North African city. –Brad Inman
→ Villa Mabrouka (Tangier) • 1 Sidi Bouknadel • Nov. wknd king from $698/night.
REAL ESTATE • First Mover
Three for-sale properties on the island of St. Barths with water views.
→ CR-LVE Dévet (Dévet, St. Barths) • 2BR/2BA, 0.1 acre • Ask: $4.049M • villa with open kitchen extending into terrace facing the water • Agent: Marion Sautereau, Corcoran.
→ La Case (Marigot, St. Barths, above) • 2BR/2BA, 0.145 acre • Ask: $7.98M • Caribbean-style residence with separate bungalow and private staircase to sea • Agent: Sibarth Real Estate.
→ Villa Azetes (Petite Saline, St. Barths) • 4BR/4.1BA, 0.48 acre • Ask: $8.615M • hillside abode with pool toward western end of island with views to St. Maarten and Anguilla • Agent: Sotheby’s.
HOTELS • Hudson Valley, NY
Next dance
Next week, after a five-year renovation of a vacant pocketbook factory, the 46-room, multi-hyphenate Pocketbook Hudson hotel will open a few blocks off the town’s main street. It’s destined for every list of Upstate New York getaways. But it’s a gift for full-time Hudson residents like me, too.
The main floor, the social hub of the hotel, is outfitted with red leather couches and metal chain curtains along with a massive bar. There’s a cafe-style menu by day, and drinks with bites at night. The lobby overflows into the new restaurant Ambos, which serves Argentinian-inspired food with open-fire cooking techniques.
Rooms feature high loft-style ceilings, exposed brick, and simple furniture, with industrial touches like in-room stainless steel tubs and custom metal mirrors straight out of a futuristic dentist’s office. Oversized accents make standard rooms feel larger than they are.
There’s also a club on the first floor, which will host events and rotating DJs. With street-level windows and concrete walls, there are not-so-subtle influences of a Berlin nightclub. Try as it might, it’s unlikely Pocketbook will become Berghain. But in a town full of hotels catering to leaf-peepers and summer interlopers, it’s bringing something fresh and new. I’ll take it. –Sylvie Florman
Photo credit: Sean Davidson
RESTAURANTS • Hove, England
Tidal pull
Brazilian chef Rafael Cagali is best known for Da Terra, his fine dining spot that’s picked up plenty of accolades since its 2019 launch in London. After opening the more casual Elis next to his flagship in 2022, Cagali and his husband Charlie Lee chose the East Sussex seaside town of Hove for their first venture outside London. Opened in September, Maré by Rafael Cagali occupies an elegant, light-filled spot on a busy main street, one block from the seafront.
A meal at Maré gets better as it goes on. Lobster rice is the showstopper, with gleaming hunks of fresh meat on a bed of sushi rice, laced with chunks of ox tongue, Brazilian dendê oil and a topping of crispy leeks. I only wish there was more of it. For dessert, boozy baba comes drenched in cachaça, and there’s a tempting choux bun that I’d like to try next time. Jake Garstang shines as sommelier-manager, serving a varied wine list that includes Sussex-grown sparkling labels, as well as artisanal cachaça and some of my top non-alcoholic options, like London brand Jukes Cordialities.
In peaceful Hove, Maré is a special occasion spot packed with personality and colour, bringing a little of Cagali’s culinary magic to the South coast of England. –Laura Price
AROUND FOUND • Other Notable Recs
→ NEW YORK: FOUND NY’s omakase correspondent files a fresh report from Yoshino, her second-favorite sushi counter in the city. One detail from the 20-course omakase: “Baby sardines draped over a slice of shokupan finished with nutty, umami-rich melted gruyère cheese is the first grilled cheese course I’ve ever encountered in a sushi omakase, and one of the night’s most unexpected highlights.”
→ LOS ANGELES: FOUND takes a trip to the recently revamped La Quinta Resort and Club in La Quinta, CA, checking out its new spa options and iconic steakhouse, Morgan’s in the Desert.
→ PARIS: Best-known as the woman who taught Parisians to love vegetables, Michigan native Carrie Solomon has carved out an impressive gastronomic career for herself since arriving in Paris 23 years ago. In September, she finally hung out her own shingle at Chez Carrie (above), a Californian/Mediterranean restaurant in the Sentier.
ROUTINE • Getaways
Select answers to the FOUND Routine query, What was your last great vacation?
→ EMMA BENGTSSON, executive chef, Aquavit (NY): For the past few years, my vacations have always been about going home to Sweden to visit my family. I usually spend the first half of the trip in the countryside at my parents’ house. The other half I spend in Stockholm with my sister and nephew. I love taking a boat out to the nearby islands, stopping at small seaside restaurants for lunch — often simple, perfectly cooked fish and new potatoes, eaten while watching the water sparkle in the sun. Stockholm’s food scene keeps getting better, and my latest favorite is Babette, a cozy neighborhood spot that captures everything I love about Swedish dining: unpretentious, seasonal, and full of heart.
→ GIANCARLO PAGANI, founder, Pagani Projects and managing partner, Mother Wolf Group (LA): I was in Miami for eight full days with minimal meetings, which for me is a rarity, and a bit of a miracle. I stayed at Soho House, which I always enjoy. I used to work in Miami, so going back to just enjoy the food, beach, and scene was next level. I made a point to hit up Macchialina, chef Michael Pirolo’s place and still my favorite restaurant out there. Next up for travels: Nayarit, Mexico.
→ PETERSON HARTER, owner, Sandy’s (SF): The last actual vacation I took was for my 40th birthday last year. I went to Nicaragua for a surf trip with some great friends. We specifically went to a place called Playa Colorado, on the southwestern coast of the country about two hours southwest of Managua. We got a house right on the beach and all we did was surf. There were some guys that would catch spiny lobsters on the reef and walk around selling them, so I bought some of those and cooked them up, along with lots of beans and rice.
GETAWAYS LINKS: Death & Co. team building bar-first hotel brand Midnight Auteur • On the slopes: Ikon Pass adds 9 Asian ski mountains • Delta opens new 34,000 sqft SkyClub at SLC (and Amex debuts newest Centurion Lounge) • On the Belvedere Suite at The Fairmont Chateau Lake Louise, and the power of return travel.
WEEKEND ROUTINE • Rhode Island
Ocean glaze
ABIGAIL AND ERIC SMALLWOOD • co-founders • Myrth
Neighborhood you live in: Rumford, East Providence, RI
It’s Friday afternoon, how are you rolling into the weekend?
On Fridays, we wrap up the week with an early evening dog walk with our Aussie Raine along leafy Blackstone Boulevard not too far from our studio. We launched six brand new glazes for our tableware last month. We’re getting stocked up for the holidays while also creating new plateware for several restaurants, so things have been busy. On the way home from our stroll, we may pop into Myrtle in East Providence for a cocktail and some live music.
Where are you dining this weekend?
For dinner in Providence, our favorite spot is Gift Horse. Rhode Island has amazing seafood and chef Sky Haneul Kim’s Korean spin on it is out of this world. When it’s chilly out, we love to get ramen and a cabbage Caesar at Pickerel. They also host a killer daytime coffee bar called Reprise that makes the best latte in town.
How about a little leisure or culture?
Providence is home to the Brown University and RISD campuses, which have a cluster of museums, galleries, and libraries that we love to visit. We’ll first stop at Ceremony for lattes (black sesame for Eric and hojicha for me), then wander over to the RISD Museum, the List galleries, or the Athenaeum.
Any weekend getaways?
Jamestown, RI, is a favorite and sentimental day trip for us. We got married at Beavertail Lighthouse and love to return with Raine to take in the ocean views. Jamestown is just over the Newport Bridge, so stopping in Newport for dinner at Giusto, an Italian restaurant where our tableware is in service, is a must.
What was your last great vacation?
We took a short but very sweet trip to Los Angeles recently to debut Myrth on the West Coast for the first time. After our work responsibilities were fulfilled, we had two days to explore the city, and by that I mean eat! Our favorite meal was a tie between two outstanding mariscos — Venice food truck La Isla Bonita and Holbox, the acclaimed restaurant in a historic food hall in South Central. Before leaving LA, we also made a visit to Toiro Kitchen Supply, which makes traditional Japanese earthenware cookware. I adore cooking in ceramic, because it holds heat very effectively (much like our porcelain plateware), and their cookware is perfect for grains, beans, and stews. We scooped up an amber brown donabe with a steamer to add to our collection.
What’s a recent big-ticket purchase you love?
A Hilma bag in sumac from our studio neighbors Lindquist Object, who make the most elegant leather bags and accessories.
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Very excited for Pocketbook Hudson!