Lindsay's List: June 2025

A natural wine bar with Vietnamese-inspired ice cream, my dream summer concert venue and perhaps Chinatown's best rice rolls

Jul 09, 2025

∙ Paid

Good morning! I’m currently writing this intro blurb in real time before sending, which I’ve never had to do before this particular episode of writer’s block and procrastination…

Last month’s plea to Mother Nature for warmer weather seems to have worked, maybe a little too well. I clearly forgot to specify that I prefer temperatures below 85, but the silver lining is the rain has stopped enough to get me to Rockaway Beach (my happy place) twice this summer already, where I’ve been beating the heat and humidity. Also, if anyone has suggestions for a portable, high-powered fan, I’m all ears because my $15 one from Amazon hasn’t been cutting it lately.

This summer has continued to be been a weird one for me, but I’m hopeful that it’ll be mostly up from here, especially since my favorite time of year — Leo season, duh! — is just a few weeks away. Also, my copyeditor (my girlfriend Claire) is on vacation so please pardon any typos or grammatical errors this month….

And with that, here are my favorites and flops for June:

The Favorites:

Ice Cream at Lai Rai
Location: 76 Forsyth St on the Lower East Side
Transportation: Grand St B/D; Bowery J/Z; Delancey St-Essex St F/M/J/Z or M15-SBS/103 Buses
Cost: $7/scoop
A perfect pairing
Lai Rai may seem like just another natural wine bar on the Lower East Side, but it isn’t. That’s because Lai Rai doesn’t just serve natural wine, it also serves homemade ice cream made by the owner. Flavors are all inspired by Vietnamese cuisine and culture — like banana leaf and mild, creamy Laughing Cow, a processed cheese that’s beloved by many Vietnamese people. My friend Remi and I shared four scoops (with the help of some Lactaid) and our favorites of the bunch were easily the classic Vietnamese coffee, which was strong, a bit nutty with almost a condensed milk sweetness and fish sauce caramel, which was swirled into a vanilla base, perfectly balancing the rich umami flavor of the caramel. Although small, there’s a great vibe and the bar was bustling and at capacity on a rainy Sunday afternoon even though we went right at opening. This would be the ideal spot for a weekend yap with a friend over wine and ice cream.
“Adults”
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Claire and I devoured this coming-of-age comedy that aired with (sadly!!!) only eight episodes at the very end of May. I’ve seen a lot of comparisons of the show to “Friends,” which I find incredibly misguided, and a lot of criticism about how messy the five main characters are, which makes sense because “The Guardian” probably doesn’t have a queer, early 20s New Yorker writing a TV show review. But as a 25 year-old who equally feels like a kind-of-real adult and way-too-old teenager who has no idea where her youth went, I loved almost everything about this show. Yes, it was exaggerated and kind of insane — duh, it’s TV — but seeing a group of all-over-the-place “adults” navigate and screw up through life in the city brought me (someone who is still figuring it out every day) comfort. The show is hilarious, relevant and I think captures a lot of the essence of being in your early-to-mid 20s in New York in this day and age.
The #2 at Yi Ji Shi Mo
Location: 88 Elizabeth St in Chinatown
Transportation: Grand St B/D; Bowery J/Z or M103 Bus
Cost: $7.50 (cash only)
My rice rolls in all their saucy glory
After hearing from many that these are the best rice rolls in the city, I had to try for myself. I’m no expert, but I can say these have been on my mind a lot. As much as I love a nice meal out, many of my favorite bites in the city are from places like Yi Ji Shi Mo: no bullshit and cheap with out-of-this-world food that bursts with flavor. I opted for the #2, which came with shrimp, dried shrimp, cilantro and egg. The rice rolls are made to order, so expect to wait. We waited ~30 minutes right before closing on a Sunday and we were seemingly some of the last orders of the day. The wait was more than worth it though, with the result being an incredibly fresh early dinner of thin, springy rice rolls packed with so much umami. Make sure to sauce your rolls at the indoor sauce station for optimal flavor and punch (they only provide soy sauce in the to-go bag and I may have had to crawl under the barely-open rolling door gate to properly sauce these bad boys. Oops!). If you’re as lucky as we were, you may be able to snag the only two stools outside the storefront and chow down on one of the best things $7.50 can get you in this city.
Pier 17
Location: 89 South St in Seaport
Transportation: Fulton St 2/3/A/C/J/Z; various ferries at Pier 11 Wall St or Downtown Connection Bus (free!)
Cost: $53 (cost will vary per show)
This was pretty much a perfect night
Somehow I went to Pier 17 for the first time last month and holy shit, what a venue. We went on a perfect early summer night — aka I could still wear a denim jacket — and it was truly incredible to get to listen to live music with friends with wind blowing in my hair while watching the sunset over Manhattan. Highly recommend. Mister Dips is also conveniently on the way out for a post-concert treat (though I’m pretty sure my brownie batter milkshake may have been the last straw for my lactose-intolerant stomach…). Also, if you somehow can get the chance to see Tennis before they finish out their final tour, do it!!!
Margarita & Cream at schmuck.
Location: 97 1st Ave in the East Village
Transportation: Astor Pl 6; 2 Av F; 1 Av L; 8 St-NYU R/W or M8/15 Buses
Cost: $19
That whipped cream though…
I’ve wanted to get to schmuck. for a while, but these days I’m not much of a line waiter or Resy Olympics warrior. Summer weekends are luckily the perfect time to try hyped-up spots and while everyone else was “out East,” we only had to wait 30 minutes to walk in and get seats at the bar. The interior design of this spot is pretty remarkable and exudes a very European vibe. It’s the kind of bar you feel cool just being at — though I will say the music choices were, uh, questionable — and maybe it’s a “very out-of-touch New Yorker living in a time of inflation” thing to say, but I do think for the caliber of cocktails being made, $19 isn’t too bad. Asher and I tried five cocktails among us, but my favorite of the bunch had to be the bar’s version of a frozen margarita, made with strawberries and rhubarb and topped with a cloud of luscious whipped cream. This is arguably dessert, but it’s also the best cocktail I've had in recent memory. Do with that what you will!
“Virgin” by Lorde
Meme credits: @ineed2seekrealhelp and @the_soundgeist
Lorde’s music always seems to come out just when I need it. While it took me a listen or two to fully get the album, I haven’t been able to stop listening since. It’s about figuring out how to deal with early adulthood, learning how to reckon past versions of yourself with the present you and metamorphosis, all things that are particularly relevant for me at this time in my life. It’s been quite a cathartic listen for me and I’m thinking “Virgin” will become what “Melodrama” was for me in 2017, an album that will be the backdrop of my life as I navigate a period of transformation. And for that, I’m already grateful <3
The Flops:
Fuck ICE: I hate to be explicit, but there’s no other way to put it. The assault against immigrants and U.S. citizens that have escalated in the past month are truly deplorable. As a resident of one of the most diverse cities in the world, the immigrant community has impacted my life in so many positive ways. It would genuinely be a disservice to write about restaurants, which have historically relied on immigrant communities, and not address the horrors I’ve witnessed this past month.
My strange addiction: My bouts of sickness have unfortunately led to a former addiction of mine to resurface… Candy Crush 🫣. No, it’s not 2012, I just clearly have a problem. I’m embarrassed to say I played 450 levels in a week and this might be a big part of the reason I’ve been procrastinating writing lately… I’m actively seeking help!!!
If it ain’t broke: Don’t fix it. My beloved L&B Spumoni Gardens finally opened its Dumbo location after years of various delays. I checked it out with some old friends last month and while the pizza was still great, the location and vibe just doesn’t hold a flame to the original Gravesend location. Give me nostalgia and a restaurant that’s been open since 1939 or give me nothing!