Plugs — Emilia Petrarca
New York food, drink, and leisure recs from the fashion writer + LINKS
Plugs is The Angel’s recs column. On most Saturdays, you’ll get six picks—a restaurant, a bar, a shop, an ingredient, a person, and a treat—from someone in New York who knows what they’re talking about, plus a selection of Angel-curated links. Plugs are for paid subscribers of The Angel only; upgrade your subscription to receive all six!
#9 is Emilia Petrarca, a fashion writer with bylines in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Vogue, and more—and the brains behind Shop Rat by Emilia Petrarca on Substack. Emilia has been covering fashion and culture for over a decade. She’s profiled Charli XCX, Sarah Jessica Parker, and Chloë Sevigny; written about the golden age of the name Emily (hi); and analyzed Anna Wintour’s go-to lunch. She also took this iconic video of Larry David at Fashion Week. Before going freelance, she was a senior fashion writer at The Cut. I’ve known Emilia since we were teenagers in the downtown scene, and it’s been fun to watch her career flourish. I look forward to her Repair Month package every year, and trust her taste implicitly. I’m thrilled to have her on Plugs today. Here’s Emilia.
Restaurant — Zimmi’s
It’s such a pleasure seeing your friends cook, and I mean that in every sense of the word. My very talented ami, Maxime Pradié, whom I’ve known since high school, opened Zimmi’s in December 2024 with Jenni Guizio, and he really put his whole heart into it. My favorite dish on the menu right now is the soupe aux artichauts, with a dollop of foie gras in the middle. I could eat it for every meal, in every season.
LOCAL BONUS — Gigino’s
Gigino’s (of Dinner Rush fame) is one of the few remaining restaurants in Tribeca that was there when I was a kid, and it still hits. I like to order the spaghetti del padrino, a bright purple beet pasta that was my dad’s favorite.
TAKEOUT BONUS — Silver Rice
Sorry, but I also have to shout out my go-to takeout spot since ~2016: Silver Rice. If you live in Crown Heights/Prospect Heights/PLG, you know what I’m talking about. I seriously think I’ve ordered from here once a week for the last decade. And I always get the same thing: the spicy salmon bowl with flaxseed rice and tempura crunch, plus a shrimp dumping soup (2x dumplings). It’s affordable, fast, healthy, and very satisfying to eat because the bowl comes in a coffee cup. I’m about to move to Carroll Gardens, and if it’s beyond my delivery radius, I think I might die.
