Morning Brew - 🍳 Holy sheet

Hello, and happy halftime. It’s July 1 (we’re 50% through 2021), so we’re kicking off this month with a few Sidekick announcements: 

• Today we’re debuting our first monthly theme, Summer Recipes. (Because y’all love a good recipe rec.) In addition to related content in the newsletter, we’ll publish two guides—called Specials—per month. First up: how to grill like a pro. 
• You asked, and we delivered. We created a master Sidekick spreadsheet with every recipe ever mentioned in the newsletter. Bookmark it, and no longer will you have to Google “Sidekick Morning Brew Rachel’s go-to salmon recipe.” 
• For the second piece in our summer series, Opening Up, I chatted with a top dating coach and matchmaker. Get the inside scoop on what to say (and what not to say) on your dating apps. 

— Rachel Cantor 

Great Jones has always been more than a millennial cookware company. Owning the Dutchess says something about you—you’re a young professional, living in a tiny Williamsburg apartment with zero countertop space, who has memorized Alison Roman’s Caramelized Shallot Pasta and dreams of hosting backyard pizza parties. 

It’s part of the reason DTC brands like Great Jones have a special cachet. They’re simultaneously hip and ingenious, but they reach beyond aesthetic. To me, they’re their mission, their culture, and their team roster. So when the entire team walks off the field, it’s a force majeure event. 

On Monday, journalist Anna Silman stirred the pot and published an Insider article (can confirm it’s worth the $1 subscription), unveiling the messy cofounder fallout between Sierra Tishgart and Maddy Moelis that ultimately led to the resignation of the six full-time staffers who were there at the time (props to them for speaking up in this piece). “It was all very much about the facade,” the operations lead told BI about the aspirational brand. Former staffers described a toxic workplace culture and poor quality products (I’m honestly too scared to use my blueberry Hot Dish after breaking my first one, less than a month after I got it).  

As a DTC fangirl and owner of a few Great Jones products, my phone, Twitter, and mental headspace have all been consumed by this story. Even my Nap Dress group chat quickly turned into a Great Jones catastrophe debrief. We were all trying to make sense of yet another female founder takedown. 

Great Jones is the latest brand to join Away, Glossier, Outdoor Voices, and The Wing in the decline of the girlboss convo. And I can’t help but feel sheer disappointment. It’s not like I didn’t see this coming. But it’s another example of women building this entrepreneur narrative—particularly white women from privileged backgrounds—of launching mission-driven brands to uplift other women. Yet they often carry out the same discriminatory practices and create unwelcoming, unsafe work environments like any “traditional” business. In the case of Great Jones, “employees said Tishgart treated them as personal assistants—in a few instances having them return shoes she'd ordered online.” An employee in creative said, “I would just walk out of meetings, sobbing, saying it’s just not going to get better, she’s not going to change.” As the Tumblr saying goes, “Gaslight, gatekeep, girlboss,” and now, we have gaslight, gatekeep, Great Jones. 

All the while, I’m still grappling with the double standard for women, especially female founders. I’m not standing by Tishgart’s behavior, but it’s all part of a larger issue. Women—especially BIPOC women—are judged for staying quiet, while they’re also judged for speaking up and asserting themselves. We all hold onto hope, thinking these women could change the narrative and lead without succumbing to power and ego like many male CEOs, but it’s all just a trap. At the end of the day, women CEOs are just CEOs. Glamorized DTC brands are just brands. So where do we go from here? 

• If you’re tagging along to your best friend’s freshman roommate’s Fourth of July BBQ (raises hand), skip scouring the internet for a recipe and consult our Sidekick recipe spreadsheet. We’ll update it every month. And you can even submit your own all-star recipe here. 
• All your grilling questions have been answered in our first-ever Sidekick Special, by guest contributor and award-winning food writer Adam Erace.
• This s’mores charcuterie board is my kind of appetizer. The peanut butter, Nutella, and marshmallow spreads take your classic s’more to the next level. (Btw, there’s more s’mores content below.) 
• I’m not just talking about food in Live today. For my Opening Up series, I chatted with dating coach and matchmaker Tennesha Wood about FODA (fear of dating again) and dating app no nos. 
• If/when things go south, thanks to Postdates (real company), you can get your XL college hoodie or fiddle leaf fig back from your ex and never have to see ’em again. 

There’s never a bad time to read a Brené Brown book—or listen to her podcast, Unlocking Us, for that matter. In honor of the 10th anniversary of her book, The Gifts of Imperfection, the researcher, author, and idol of mine dropped a six-part podcast series with her two sisters. In each episode, the Brown fam gets real deep, real fast and discusses the guideposts to living a wholehearted life. 

Brown defines wholehearted living as “cultivating the courage, compassion, and connection to wake up in the morning and think no matter what gets done and how much gets left undone, I am enough.” It’s an ongoing process—not something you check off your to-do list—that starts with loving ourselves. In the book, she writes, “I now see how owning our story and loving ourselves through that process is the bravest thing we will ever do.” Each episode dives into various aspects of this journey, like letting go of perfectionism and practicing self-compassion instead. 

After years of it sitting on my TBR list, I’m finally getting around to reading The Gifts this weekend. If any Sidekick readers are up for it, we can start a lil book club and follow along with the pod. 

Sanctuary meets stronghold.

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PCMag and CNET have named SimpliSafe “Editor's Choice,” and U.S. News & World Report even named it "best overall home security of 2021.”

In other words, if there were an awards show for home security, SimpliSafe would be walking away with the golden padlock.

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• Ashritha, the Brew’s lifestyle intern, dropping by to rec Crate & Barrel’s non-stick BBQ skewers. They're lightweight yet sturdy, and they pierce with ease, ensuring my turkey kofta kebabs are perfectly charred and splinter-free. The non-stick finish also makes them easy to clean. Rinse them off after dinner and bring ’em back out for marshmallow roasting.
• I don’t mess around with s’mores. It's my all-time fave dessert. For years, I’ve been working to perfect the s’more, and while Hershey is Jackie O, Lily’s Sweets’s Peanut Butter Cups is the cool older cousin. The better-for-you peanut butter cup is a must-add to your s’mores charcuterie board this weekend. A girl’s gotta have options. 
• Serve every summer salad—potato, watermelon/feta, and caprese—on this Made In serving platter. It’s dishwasher safe, made in England, and has a “no chip” guarantee. Plus, the high-quality tableware holds up and lasts a longggg time. The red or navy trim adds a little something extra...patriotic, and it frames your dish nicely.