Welcome to the T List, a newsletter from the editors of T Magazine. Each week, we share things we’re eating, wearing, listening to or coveting now. Sign up here to find us in your inbox every Wednesday, along with monthly travel and beauty guides, and the latest stories from our print issues. And you can always reach us at tmagazine@nytimes.com. STAY HERE An Austrian Guesthouse That Combines Alpine and Japanese Architecture
The Vorarlberg — Austria’s westernmost province, on the borders of Switzerland and Liechtenstein — has been a destination for contemporary alpine architecture since the 1960s. The area’s latest notable opening is Haus W, a four-room guesthouse designed by the fourth-generation hotel owners and architects Gerold and Katia Schneider, who also operate Hotel Almhof Schneider in nearby Lech. The ski-in, ski-out property is the latest in a constellation of spaces created by the duo that showcase works from contemporary artists, including James Turrell and Anthony Gormley, but it also serves as a time capsule, preserving a disappearing Alpine heritage and craftsmanship. The 17th-century chalet underwent a three-year renovation to restore its scalloped shingled facade and Walser-style timber windows. Interiors were gutted, leaving behind untreated knotty spruce walls and rough-hewn beams and ceilings, and were later adorned with rare stonework like Breche de Aubisque marble and Belgian blue stone. Belgian carpets, Italian linens and Spanish wool blankets soften the hard lines. The kitchen, which can be used by guests who reserve the entire property, features a wood-fired oven topped with copper kettles and pots. Japanese techniques are found throughout as well, brought in by the couple’s longtime collaborator the designer Shinchiro Ogata. Dimpled naguri wood, interlocking lattice screens, iridescent raku tiles and a sauna made of whitewashed limestone give each room a temple-like feel. From about $410 a night, hausw.com. NEIGHBORHOOD GUIDE Where to Go for Linen Shorts and Shave Ice in Honolulu’s Kaimuki Neighborhood
On most afternoons, Waialae Avenue, about three miles northeast of Waikiki in Honolulu’s Kaimuki neighborhood, hums at a frequency somewhere between small-town main street and creative lab. Experimental restaurants and design studios sit next to natural wine bars and gift shops that sell queer indie journals and interiors magazines. It’s also decidedly local in flavor, in a famously touristy place. “The people who visit my space are embedded in this neighborhood,” says Andrew Mau, a furniture designer who grew up in Honolulu and opened his fashion, apothecary and vintage décor shop, Island Boy, in 2024. Mau’s neighbors include newer boutiques, cafes and restaurants, including the shop Small Kine Gift, the butcher-bakery hybrid the Local General Store, Chillest Shave Ice (which serves an elevated version of Hawaii’s unofficial state dessert), artisanal bread makers Breadshop and Pig and the Lady, the perennially packed Vietnamese restaurant that closed up shop in Chinatown and moved into its new space here in October. In the 19th-century, Kaimuki was farmland owned by King Kalakaua, who ruled shortly before the overthrow of the Hawaiian Kingdom. In the decades that followed, it became a suburban-style community, with Waialae Avenue as its main commercial artery. Many of the older businesses that took root years ago are still here, such as the Crack Seed Store, which sells preserved fruits and opened in the 1950s; and Okata Bento, a Japanese takeout staple that’s still run by Lyndon Okata, who started his business in 1981. But it’s the newcomers, lured by relatively reasonable rents on an otherwise expensive island, that are infusing new energy into Kaimuki. “Business owners don’t have to sign a lease with some large overseas corporate entity or land developer. They can do business with real people,” says Jordan Lee, the founder of Keep It Kaimuki, an organization that promotes small businesses. (He’s also the owner of the Public Pet, which resembles a stylish curio shop for dogs and cats.) As more travelers show interest in seeking an authentic version of the islands, they’ll find a living, breathing expression of it in Kaimuki. TRY THIS Mending Ceramics and Slowing Time With the Japanese Art of Kintsugi
Against the backdrop of throwaway consumer culture, there’s a renewed interest in repair. Kintsugi, the centuries-old Japanese method of mending ceramics, goes beyond restoring functionality: The cracks are typically accentuated with gold powder, giving a once-broken object a conspicuous beauty. “It’s a visual representation of how it’s OK to not be perfect,” says Tina Koyama, the Kyoto-based founder of POJ Studio, which showcases Japanese crafts through curated home goods and artisan-led workshops. Its debut product in 2020 was a kintsugi kit. Since then, POJ’s kintsugi classes — with upcoming dates in Long Beach, Calif., and San Francisco, along with a four-day immersion at Shishi-Iwa House, a retreat with cabins in Karuizawa, an hour outside of Tokyo — have joined an evolving landscape of hands-on instruction. Traditional kintsugi uses a multistep lacquer technique known as urushi, made with sap from the poison oak family that dries to a durable, food-safe finish; embellished repairs are thought to have appeared on tea ceremony vessels as early as the 15th century. Gen Saratani, a third-generation urushi master and contemporary artist known for his museum-quality restorations, regularly leads four-week kintsugi courses in Long Island City, Queens. Yuko Gunji, who apprenticed under Saratani and now takes on kintsugi commissions full time, teaches out of her Brooklyn studio. (For details, email info@yukogunji.com.) Her students liken the workshops to “meditation time,” she says. Elsewhere, classes in an abbreviated version of kintsugi, using materials like epoxy putty and ceramic glue, are on offer, as at Chicago’s Heritage Museum of Asian Art. Both approaches keep treasured pieces in circulation. “Once you know kintsugi, you actually get excited about how the break looks,” says Koyama. “You can already imagine, ‘Oh, this is going to be so pretty.’” EAT HERE A Fresh Start for Le 21, a Cozy Paris Bistro
In October, the chef and restaurateur Braden Perkins bought Le 21, a seafood-centric bistro in Paris’s Latin Quarter that Didier Granier (formerly of the Ritz) and Paul Minchelli (formerly of Le Duc) first opened in 2006. “Everybody glided around, the food was effortless and there were cool people in every corner,” says Perkins. All of this struck him as worth preserving, as did the white cotton curtains, which he had embroidered with “21.” He also brought down the brightness in the dining room and took out a bookshelf where the previous owners showcased house-cured anchovies and other pantry items for sale, revealing the vintage floral wallpaper behind it. When the restaurant officially reopened on Feb. 14, it was with a set menu of technically precise and vegetable-forward dishes. Each course consists of a handful of options that might include lobster thermidor served with lobster giardiniera (a pickled relish) and Parker House rolls; XO roast cabbage; and heavily caramelized apple. Organic wines are also a focus, and the lobster course is paired with a classic white Burgundy from Meursault. “If you close your eyes, you’re with your grandparents eating seafood at your first white-tablecloth restaurant,” says Perkins. For dessert this spring, offerings include his take on strawberry shortcake: a green strawberry reduction poured over egg yolk biscuits and a vin jaune sabayon. le21paris.com. VISIT THIS In Porto, Portugal, an Eight-Room Hotel That Highlights Local Design
When guests arrive at Casa Cedo, a new boutique hotel within a 150-year-old townhouse in the center of historic Porto, Portugal, they often think they’ve mistakenly navigated to a flower shop. The windows are filled with bouquets and, inside, the reception counter is covered in arrangements of seasonal blooms. Each of the eight rooms are named after “flowers with fascinating stories,” says Massimiliano Salé, who owns the hotel with his life and business partner, Jeremiah Healy. The Mandragora room, for example, is named after the toxic mandrake plant whose forked roots were once thought to be an aphrodisiac. The interiors were designed in collaboration with local artisans, including Ayala Braidman of Lava Objects, who made ceramic lamps and plant-inspired pieces for each room. For breakfast, pastries and bread sourced from local bakeries are served with home-churned Portuguese butter and artisanal preserves; there’s also a small à la carte menu. For other meals, the staff will recommend restaurants for guests in advance of a stay, and Casa Cedo plans to occasionally host visiting chefs like Monika Bloch of the local vegan restaurant Venn Canteen for dinner events. From $320 a night, casacedo.com. FROM T’S INSTAGRAM
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