My family has always had a theory that the uglier and more out of the way a restaurant, the better the food. When I was a kid, my dad was under the impression that there was nothing worth eating in our suburban Chicago town, so we routinely found ourselves at 65 Restaurant in Chinatown, which had a giant red and gold Buddha in the entrance and a wonton soup to which I compare all others.

I felt a little out of the loop when other kids would talk about eating deep-dish pizza from our local Giordano’s chain, but we had Buffo’s; a sleazier, wood-paneled joint 45 minutes from home with decidedly better pizza. While it used to annoy me, I’ve come to embrace the theory wholeheartedly as I’ve gotten older. It’s no secret that restaurants that look like they’ve stood the test of time tend to serve great food, or maybe food just tastes better when you have to work a little for it.

Either way, Salumeria Biellese is one of those places. If it weren’t for the sun-faded press clippings and awards plastered all over one of the font windows, you could walk by every day and not realize that it offered anything to distinguish it from the hundreds of other generic corner delis in the city. It resides on a stretch of 8th Avenue below Penn Station with little to lure in crowds besides superior encased meats. While locavorism and slow food have become increasingly popular in recent years, Salumeria Biellese has been making its own cured meats and sausages since 1925. They expanded operations to New Jersey a few years ago, but local family farms continue to supply all of their meat (mainly Berkshire hogs), and the salumi are based on traditional Piedmontese recipes.

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Massimo Piombo outside Barneys New York.

Piombo, the colorful Milanese menswear label is finally landing on U.S. shores with its debut this week at Barneys New York. Situated in some very prime real estate on the first floor of the Madison Avenue flagship, the Italian label has long been a insider favorite of menswear editors like Esquire’s Nick Sullivan (who introduced me to Piombo originally).

But why did it take so long to get this stuff to New York? “Mark Lee (Barneys CEO) wears Piombo and he approached us to come to Barneys and New York. It is the perfect partner for us,” said Massimo Piombo this morning as we surveyed the clothing and the newly installed (and stunning) window display on 60th Street.

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Of all the great menswear shops in New York, Paul Stuart arguably has the best windows of any of them. Known as the more European-American answer to a preppy Brooks, Paul Stuart’s windows wrap all the way around the Madison Avenue storefront and down a good stretch of 45th Street, telling a great story in the process. To kick off it’s fall season Paul Stuart culled together a group of menswear folks — Esquire Fashion Director Nick Sullivan, Chris Callis and Woody Hines from Men of Habit, Lawrence Schlossman from Sartorially Inclined and your humble correspondent — to rig out its windows in a homage to plaid and tweed.

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A vintage Breitling on display in the company's 57th Street shop.

A few weeks back I got an invite to meet the new Breitling USA President, Thierry Prissert at the watchmaker’s new boutique on 57th Street. Me being someone with a fairly shallow knowledge of Breitling, it seemed like a good opportunity to learn about a very historic brand straight from the head of the company.

Honestly, what I had been expecting to see at Breitling was a lot of very very large brutish watches that don’t appeal to me. Upon visiting the shop and seeing the collection, my preconceived opinion was partially confirmed. But more surprisingly, Breitling also has some very classic looking timepieces that I would definitely want to own.

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We stopped by the recently opened Gant Rugger shop on Prince Street in Manhattan to check out the new Gant Rugger SS12 collection and were pleasantly surprised by the presence of one of our favorite designers — Mr. Christopher Bastin. We had no idea Gant’s original Bastian was going to be walking us through the new clothes, but were happy to get an expert tour. The new Rugger collection looks solid per usual; the clothes are very collegiate and also very wearable. It is important to also note the colors are all spot-on (often with preppy, the colors are all wrong) and the fabric selection was very well done — all directly attributable to our pal Christopher Bastin.

Since we had him hostage we coerced Christopher into helping us show off some of our favorites pieces from the upcoming SS12 collection. Check it out after the jump.

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Inside the loo in the famed New York Athletic Club hangs this intriguing bit of engraved marble that, apparently, has been salvaged from The Grand Union Hotel. It reads as follows:

“The Meanest Man
in the United States
occasionally visits this Toilet Room.
He always carries away as a souvenir, either a coat
hook, doorlock, or paper holder and often several of each.
He would take the marble slabs if they were not made fast.
We guarantee this man a warm reception
if we get hold of him.

Ford & Co.
Grand Union Hotel.”

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After 81 years, the famous New York establishment 21 Club is finally getting a few bar stools. Glenn Collins at The New York Times reports on some new developments at 21 which include a new bar in the lounge, complete with places to sit and drink.

“The bar was for drinking, not for resting,” said a customer of 36 years, Thomas Moran, the chief executive of Mutual of America.

In the era of the three-martini lunch, the standing elbow-benders were three-deep at the bar, nearly as much a part of the lore of “21” as its checked tablecloths and the ceiling dangling with dozens of toy airplanes, patrons’ sports memorabilia and other curios (they are dusted twice a month). “I’ve served many people who ate a whole meal standing up,” said Tara Wright, a bartender there for the last six years. The tradition was “that you’d made it when you could stand at the bar,” she said. “You’d arrived.”

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