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 A Renewed 17th-Century Farmhouse in Normandy
Ever since the train line from Paris to the seaside town of Deauville, France, was established, in 1863, wealthy urbanites from the French capital have been besotted by Normandy’s verdant Pays d’Auge area. Today, instead of heading all the way to the coast, many Parisians are choosing inland villages like Cormeilles. That’s where, this month, Aurélie Debiève, who previously worked in marketing for LVMH, and the chef Bastien de Changy opened La Roquerie, a seven-bedroom lodge and vacation rental in a meticulously restored brick-and-half-timbered 17th-century cider press. Debiève determined the décor, which riffs on a style the French call Anglo-Normand, a reference to the Anglophilia of the French bourgeoisie, with their love of tartans, mounted stags and afternoon tea. Here, that means chintz fabrics, floral wallpaper and antiques mixed with plump canapés and armchairs. In one room, rubber boots in many sizes are an invitation to go for walks in the surrounding woods and fields, circle the duck pond and visit the farm’s two-acre garden, which is where de Changy sources ingredients for his daily menus. On a rainy day, the huge fire in the main lounge beckons. “This is the perfect place to do nothing,” says Debiève. De Changy cooks ine consultation with his guests but often makes dishes like roasted Camembert from a neighboring farm, beet carpaccio and a trout landed from a nearby brook a few hours earlier. The well-equipped kitchen is also available for guests who want to do the cooking themselves after a visit to one of the many excellent local markets; Debiève and de Changy like those in Blangy-le-Château and Cormeilles. From about $270 a night with a two-night minimum for individual rooms; from about $8,000 for the entire house for one week; airbnb.com. EAT THIS The Lemony Leaf That’s on the Menu in Istanbul
Sorrel, known in Turkey as kuzukulağı (“sheep’s ear”), is a leafy perennial prized for its bright, lemony acidity. Each spring, cooks across Turkey gather it from fields and hillsides for salads, soups and the vegetable stews known as zeytinyağlı. The herb has been a humble staple of seasonal home cooking for generations, though it’s now finding new life in restaurants and bars across Istanbul. “Sorrel has a flavor that’s both nostalgic and surprising,” says Ozan Türkeli, the owner of Wizard of Oz Gelato, which serves a sorrel sorbet with a dash of lime and pink Himalayan salt. The chef Cihan Çetinkaya has fond childhood memories of foraging for sorrel in his hometown, Mengen, in the northwestern part of the country. At Mikla, in Istanbul’s Beşiktaş district, he now creates a pesto-like paste from the herb and pairs it with Chios artichokes and artichoke vinegar on the restaurant’s seasonal tasting menu. “Sorrel’s freshness and acidity enhance the vegetable’s flavor,” he says. At the restaurant and bar the Townhouse, fresh sorrel is blended with vodka and elderflower for the Special K cocktail. “It’s remarkable how much flavor a single leaf can hold,” says the co-owner Eren Canatar, adding that sorrel’s smooth texture and versatility make it particularly well suited to experimentation. TRY THIS Put the Meal on Your Tab at These New York Restaurants
When Jay Wainwright opened Wainwright’s Tavern on the Upper East Side of Manhattan in April, one of the perks for would-be regulars, besides reliable renditions of shrimp cocktail and an herb-roasted half chicken, was the ability to open a house account. He got the idea from Red Horse Market in East Hampton, where shoppers with house accounts settle up with a monthly bill instead of paying at each visit — a level of ease he wanted to replicate for guests at Wainwright’s. “It makes it feel that much more like a neighborhood place,” Wainwright says. House accounts have historically been tied to country clubs and grocery stores, but they’re increasingly showing up at new restaurants in New York, with the aim of fostering a sense of community. At Montague Diner in Brooklyn Heights, nearly 250 people have signed up for house accounts that offer 5 percent off, with a 20 percent gratuity built in. Each account comes with a keychain that’s been hand-hammered with a unique four-digit code. “A lot of families get them so their kids can come after school,” says the restaurant’s general manager, Nicole Gluck. (The system was inspired by the Upper West Side deli Barney Greengrass, where the Montague Diner co-owner Gabriel Nussbaum’s great-grandmother opened a house account more than 70 years ago.) Cedric Nicaise, an owner of the six-week-old live-fire restaurant Oriana in Chinatown, says the real appeal is that customers can make a swift exit: “There’s no worse time to be in a restaurant than when you’re ready to go,” he says. At Oriana, house accounts are offered to regulars by request, which also, Nicaise adds, creates ease for whoever’s playing host: no more pouncing for the check the second it hits the table or slipping a credit card to the server midmeal. STAY HERE In a Medieval Italian Mountain Town, a Hotel With a New Modernist Edge
When the architect Hannes Peer was growing up in South Tyrol, a province in the Italian Dolomites, the nearby Hotel Aurora loomed large. “It’s one of the most important hotels in the region,” says Peer, citing its reputation as a celebrity haunt in the 1970s and ’80s. Founded in 1964, it sits at the riverside entrance to the medieval village of Merano, a spa town favored by the Austrian royal dynasty the Hapsburgs in the mid-19th century. Its third-generation owners, the siblings Melanie and Philipp Aukenthaler, asked Peer to oversee the 59-room property’s recent renovation alongside the firm Feld72. They left some decorative elements intact, like the stepped bas-relief in the dining room by the local craftsman Herbert Kinkelin. But for the most part, Peer redesigned the space, channeling Californian midcentury modernism with built-in concrete benches in the lobby (inspired by John Lautner’s Sheats Goldstein residence) and cherrywood-and-mirror walls in the Listening Bar, where guests can play records and unwind with a cocktail after a day of hiking or skiing in the surrounding mountains. Peer commissioned his mother, the artist Ursula Huber, to create an abstract concrete wall panel for the hotel’s entryway. “My mother was born in Merano, so it was a homecoming for her,” says Peer. The renovation is the first phase of a multiyear project; Peer plans to redesign more guest rooms and add a rooftop pool in 2027. Rooms from about $285 a night, hotel-aurora-meran.com. VISIT THIS Cookbook Shops Are Having a Moment in New York City
After working at the Manhattan bookshop Three Lives & Co. for 14 years, Troy Chatterton decided to create his own place, with a culinary focus. This past spring, he opened Wild Sorrel Cookbooks on East 13th Street, stocking new and vintage titles. The shop’s design echoes the cooking theme, with a Heath Ceramics tile-topped display table, a print by Patricia Curtan (the longtime artist for Chez Panisse’s menus) and pots of herbs by the door. Chatterton isn’t alone in homing in on a genre: According to the American Booksellers Association, 605 independent bookshops opened in the United States in 2025, among them an increasing number of single-topic stores. This past fall, BEM Books & More, a cafe and culinary bookstore dedicated to Black voices, debuted on Lewis Avenue in Brooklyn’s Bedford Stuyvesant neighborhood. Operated by the sisters Gabrielle and Danielle Davenport, BEM launched online in 2021 and hosted pop-ups around the city before securing a permanent location. And the longest operating New York City cookbook shop, Kitchen Arts & Letters, which has been on Lexington Avenue since 1983, is running a pop-up in Lower Manhattan at 111 Broadway, now through Labor Day. FROM T’S INSTAGRAM Just Another Day at the Office, Aside From the Dance Troupe and Drone
The New York dancer and choreographer Kyle Abraham’s latest work, “White Space,” will have its U.S. premiere today at the annual Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival in the Berkshires. Last month, dancers from his company, A.I.M by Kyle Abraham, performed an abridged and adapted version of the piece at T’s office. At first they looked like any other office workers. Then they lunged off their ergonomic chairs and spun, crouched, stepped and rolled their necks in unison. Click here to watch the full performance, and follow us on Instagram.
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