Author Archives: cleek

Global Searing

The European Space Agency’s website also showed land surface temperatures to be nearing 55 degrees Celsius over many parts of northwest India and crossing 60 degrees Celsius over several pockets.

60°C is 140°F.

Also, medium-rare.

Spoon

Our first show since the Before Time was Spoon, at a nifty little 1,200 seat outdoor amphitheater in Wilmington NC.

They were pretty great, much more interesting than the last time I saw them. Being right up front instead of all the way in the back probably helped. But they seemed more into it, too.

They have ten albums out now, so I wasn't expecting many songs from their older records. But, as with the 2008 show, I was a bit bummed that they played nothing from Girls Can Tell (their third) - or from anything before it. And only two from Kill The Moonlight (their fourth). Oh well. What they picked from the other six albums was all good, though.

Great band. Great show. Hope I don't get COVID.

I didn't take this video, but I'm in it.

Virtual Diners

Casey Lewis was scrolling through Seamless looking for a bacon, egg, and cheese sandwich when it occurred to her: “What are all of these random ass breakfast offerings?” Lewis has lived in Williamsburg for years and describes herself as a regular user of Seamless, but on April 6 she noticed a slew of new businesses listed on the delivery app: All Day Breakfast, the Best Breakfast Company, Anytime Breakfast Sandwiches, and others. “The names were so generic,” she says. “Something seemed off.”

It turns out all three of the businesses — and more than a dozen others — are tied to the same address in Williamsburg, which belongs to the neighborhood’s decades-old 24-hour diner Kellogg’s.

At first glance, the businesses tied to Kellogg’s might resemble ghost kitchens, but they’re actually part of a newer class of online restaurants called “virtual brands,” according to Scott Landers, co-founder of delivery consultancy Figure 8, whose clients have included restaurant chains like &Pizza and Mexicue.

While ghost kitchens operate out of separate commercial spaces that don’t have a physical dining room, virtual brands operate out of brick-and-mortar restaurants that already exist. Companies come up with the brands — which usually consist of just a logo, a name, and a short menu — then license them out to restaurants and bars, who execute the recipes and package them for takeout and delivery.