About last night
Friends in Napa takes Manhattan
In June 2005, five days after graduating from Cornell, I began working at the New York headquarters ABC News as a desk assistant on the overnight. My hours were either 8pm-5am (the worst, talk about a hit to your social life), midnight-9am, or 3am-noon — my favorite, because it allowed me to hit up happy hour, inhale a falafel pita or two from Azuri Cafe, and catch a few hours of sleep before starting my day.
One such happy hour took place at a bar near Grand Central Station. It was hosted by Laurel Touby, the founder of Media Bistro, a website I had visited no less than 500 times throughout college in a desperate attempt to find a job in the media industry. I wore my most fetching yet “professional” outfit — key piece was a carnation pink blazer from Forever 21 — drank a white wine, and found myself dazzled by this ebullient blonde who worked the room with cat eye glasses and a feather boa around her neck. I wore a name tag. I took a few business cards (I didn’t have my own, yet). I posed for a photo taken by an event photographer that remains one of my most flattering ever but I can’t find it now. It used to be on Google Images. If you track it down, drinks on me.
Years went by. ABC was good to me (in some ways) but I was jonesing to get out of there not long after getting in; that was and maybe still is the way you move up in media, lateral shifts, competitive offers, go back to from whence you came but with a higher salary and godwilling more vacation days. (Below, my late father’s advice on that front, which I did not follow.)
By 2013, I could take it no longer. I left ABC with a dream of a byline in the New York Times, which I got after my first 12 ideas were rejected. That led to more, including inbounds from editors such as Jon Fine, then at Inc. Magazine, who was curious if I’d consider writing for him. Would I! Some of my favorite assignments have come from Jon. Had he not asked me to profile the co-founder of StockX, I would not own a pair of Ben Baller Did the Chain slides, which I treat like small, niche breed dogs.
One winter, Jon and his wife found themselves in Los Angeles. Nikhil and I met them at Wally’s. I knew Jon was married to Laurel, and I walked into that restaurant feeling like I was about to meet a celebrity — Laurel had no idea how her site got me in the door of an industry I might never have had access to otherwise, and I was fully prepared to fan girl. Laurel does not tolerate fan girls. She gets down to brass tacks right quick, asks the tough questions, makes you uncomfortable (in a good way) and, if you’re lucky, lets you into her life to such a degree that you might well find yourself overwhelmed by her generosity. Girl loves to throw a party, and boy does she know how to do it.
Last night, the day after the official publication of Friends in Napa, I had the honor of being fêted by Laurel and Jon at their Manhattan home, surrounded by 100 friends and family from Cornell, ABC, the New York Times, Amazon Publishing, and everywhere in between. I truly don’t know what I did in a past life to get so lucky in this one, but the evening will go down in the books as one of the best I’ve ever had. If you were there, thank you. Laurel and Jon: then, now, and always, I raise my glass to you.
How it started.
How it … progressed.
Updated 4/4/24 to reflect accurate turnout and maximum revelry.
A previous version of this ran on Instagram.