In the Heart of Mayfair, John Saumarez Smith presides over what many consider the best little book shop in the english-speaking world. "Try that," he says, extracting a book from a messy, tempting pile as if he'd been expecting me, though it's months since I've been in London. "I think you might like it," John Saumarez Smith …[Read more]
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The Man Who Loves Books
In the Heart of Mayfair, John Saumarez Smith presides over what many consider the best little book shop in the english-speaking world. "Try that," he says, extracting a book from a messy, tempting pile as if he'd been expecting me, though it's months since I've been in London. "I think you might like it," John Saumarez Smith …[Read more] 
Hermès, which turned basic accessories into modern icons, takes the lid off what's luxe now. Reggie Nadelson reports from 24 Rue Faubourg St.-Honoré. Once upon a time in a suburb of Paris, a guy kissed a bag, though it was no frog and did not really need a kiss. It was at the Hermès workshops in 
In seafood shacks, at gourmet tables, and especially during a stomach-defying live-fish auction, Reggie Nadelson discovers the true—and a new—Hawaii. It's 5 a.m. at Honolulu's fish auction, and I'm eyeballing a quivering Hawaiian opah, a pink and silver moonfish, round and flat as a plate. 
Redesigning your mother's engagement ring is serious business. Reggie Nadelson travels to Gstaad and master jeweler Andrew Grima to get it done right. "Shall I surprise you?" Surprise me! Andrew Grima, a big man with a generous smile, sits behind his desk in his shop in Gstaad and scribbles a design for a diamond ring 
I love ice cream. I mean, I really love it, as much as sex, almost as much as Frank Sinatra, more than Manolos. I'll eat anything sweet and frozen (and have): yogurty vanilla ice cream in Red Square in the dead of winter as Soviet soldiers ate their own; an exquisite prune-and-Armagnac flavor at Berthillon, on Paris's Ile St.-Louis; Vassar Devils (hot fudge and marshmallow sundaes served on brownies) accompanied by many gin