Stories and News I Can't Stop Thinking About - The Deets: No.16
Miso on the brain and the legacy of the creator of Two Buck Chuck
Hey everyone, it's Laura from New Denizen. I hope you are having a great September.
I recently got back from my first international trip since Covid - a vacation through Copenhagen and Norway. I'm excited to share some photos and stories about my adventures in Europe with all y'all in the near future.
Many of you have reached out to say you’ve appreciated a number of the articles I’ve shared on Instagram. Thank you! However, I realize that not everyone logs into Instagram 24 hours (congrats on having a life, btw) and you may be missing the links I’ve shared.
That's why this week I'm using this newsletter to share a roundup of the most interesting news items and articles I’ve shared, adding a little bit of commentary from me. Let me know what you think!
While I’m at it, I wanted to mention that I really want to know what you'd like to see more of in this newsletter, on my IG account, and on my blog. Please DM me on Insta or send me an email. I do read every message sent, but please know it may take me a while to respond.
On to the articles!
Food and Bev
New York Times columnist and author Eric Kim wrote a beautiful preamble to a recipe for homemade miso soup. In it, he recounts that the best miso soup he’s had in his life was from Benkay, a sushi bar and Japanese restaurant in Portland, Maine. I loved this article because it highlights the hours of learning and love that Benkay’s chef/owner, Seiji Ando, has put into mastering something as “simple” as a bowl of soup. It also lightly touches upon the practicalities of designing a menu for the clientele of a Japanese restaurant in Maine, and the limitations in sourcing ingredients that require chefs to devise culinary workarounds. Link
Fred Franzia, the creator of “Two Buck Chuck” recently passed away. In reading about his life I learned that Franzia was so pissed his family gave up control of their namesake wine business, which eventually was sold to Coca-cola (yes THAT Franzia of boxed wine fame), he started Bronco Wine Company. A fierce believer that high price points on “good” wine was abhorrent, Fred later deployed the Charles Shaw brand to sell wine to Trader Joe’s for the low low price point of $1.99 and “Two Buck Chuck” was born and the rest is value wine history. But I wouldn’t pile too much reverence onto Franzia. After reading the 2009 New Yorker profile that was done on him, I got the distinct impression that Franzia was the kind of guy that likely found the Me Too movement a bunch of highfalutin nonsense as well. Link
New York Magazine's Grub Street covered why restaurant menus are being paired back due to continuing labor shortages and rising food costs. Link
AAIP
Afar magazine asked Bonnie Tsui to write about why Chinatowns in the US are so resilient. Link
Speaking of Chinatowns, the Colorado Asian Pacific United and the Denver Office of Storytelling have created a documentary, “Reclaiming Denver’s Chinatown,” honoring the history and stories of Denver's Historic Chinatown. The historic Chinatown was located on Wazee Street between 15th and 17th Streets, extending up to 22nd Street. An advanced film screening will be held on September 21 at 6 P.M. at the Randy Weeks Conservatory Theatre. Reservations for the screening are FREE. Claim your spot! Link
Misc
Many cheered after hearing that Yvon Chouinard, the founder of Patagonia, and his family transferred the company (estimated to be worth $3 billion) to a trust and the Holdfast Collective – a 501(c)(4) non-profit organization designed to be devoted to fighting climate change and protecting undeveloped lands.
But reports by the New York Times and other outlets leaned heavy on the altruism angle and gave non-tax professionals (like me) the impression that the Chouinards won’t receive any significant benefits from the transfer. Unfortunately, that depiction is a little misleading.
Bloomberg did a good job of going deeper into the tax implications and explaining that while the transfer will cost Chouinard approximately $17.5M in tax for the trust transfer, he will also avoid the scenario of paying $700M in capital gains tax if Patagonia had been sold instead. Additionally, on the transfer that goes to the non-profit, the Chouinards avoid paying US estate and gift tax of 40% had it been directly transferred to heirs. Meanwhile, the structure still allows the Chouinards to control the company even though they don't "own" it.
I don’t want to be entirely cynical about what the Chouinards did, but I don’t want to ignore the benefits they received. “Giving away” your company to a 501(c)(4) has its perks and one of them is that the nonprofits are designed to allow for their funds to be used for political donations. Less taxes are paid and more money goes to the non-profit to fund activities related to combating climate change, I get it. But as the Bloomberg article points out, Barre Seid executed a similar estate planning maneuver last year and his non-profit focused on getting an anti-abortion, anti-voter rights conservative majority on the US Supreme Court, so if you’re a rich person who wants to push an agenda, 510(c)(4)s seem to be a sweet deal.
Going forward we’re likely to see this maneuver being used more and more by ultra-wealthy families. Dunno how it’s all going to shake out, but there’s definitely something weird about laws that allow billionaires to minimize their taxes in order to use those bucket loads of cash to try to influence politics in whichever direction they want. Would LOVE to hear your thoughts on this one! Link
In Colorado news, here’s a hot tip: Don’t be so chill when trying to wave down your rescue helicopter. A lost CO hiker gave a casual wave to the Blackhawk sent to find him so the pilots thought he was someone just saying “hi” and didn’t pick him up. Oops. Link
Liked this? Share it with your friends!
On a personal note, most people find out about New Denizen through word-of-mouth. If you enjoyed this newsletter and/or my Instagram account, you would be doing me a huge solid if you mentioned it to friends, family, or followers via whatever means of communication you share good things with people you like. If you got this from a friend and would like to subscribe yourself, please do so here.
Best,
Laura
----
The Deets is a sometimes newsletter sharing interesting food news, blog updates, and other random musings curated by Laura from NewDenizen.com / @newdenizen. Like it? Forward to a friend!