The Enlightened Traveler: New York's Best Bakeries

We're crazy about good bread and cookies – not necessarily in that order.

Over the years, we've sampled our way through loaves and tempting treats of all kinds from San Francisco to San Juan.* No place in North America has more fine bakeries than New York City.

Mitchel London cupcake: not fancy, just fabulous!

We're fond of the deservedly famous cupcakes at Magnolia Bakery, whose Upper Westside location opened earlier this year with, sadly, the same long lines as the original downtown bakery.

Don't feel like waiting? Mitchel London's chocolate fudge cupcakes are equally sublime.

Pick them up at his cafe on East 65th or at Fairway Market on Broadway and 74th, open until 10:00pm.

The hands-down-best-we-ever-tasted almond croissant at the recently closed Payard Patisserie on Lexington Ave. is another passion. Happily this flaky, crunchy marzipan-filled wonder is still available at the Payard Bistro at Caesar's Palace in Las Vegas. It's hard to imagine a better use of $4.

So many NY bakeries, so little time!

Here are our top Manhattan baked goods. These are the ones we bring Zip-Loc bags for.

Citarella Pecan-Cranberry Bread

Citarella has a bakery. Who Knew?

Long Famous for its fish and meat selections, Citarella, at Broadway and 75th, also has a swell bakery on the premises. We always bring a couple of loaves of the dome-shaped pecan-cranberry loaf (sliced thin) back home with us. Toast it lightly. Enjoy with a smear of sweet whipped butter and a cup of tea or coffee.

Citarella also has locations on the Upper Eastside, in the Village, and in the Hamptons.

Amy's Semolina With Golden Raisins and Fennel Bread

This is the loaf that started it all for Amy's, one of the first artisanal bakeries in New York when it opened way back in 1992. We've never been able to get enough of it. Consume the same as with the pecan-cranberry bread. It's also good with a little strawberry or raspberry jam and complements blue cheese nicely. Both this and the Citarella loaf freeze very well.

You'll find Amy's on Ninth Ave. (between 46th and 47th), in the Chelsea Market, and in the Village on Bleecker St. The semolina loaf is also sold at Fairway Market on Broadway and 74th, a block from Citarella. (Why schlep?)

Levain Chocolate Chocolate Chip Cookie

A legion of New Yorkers swear that Levain Bakery's chocolate chip walnut cookie is the best around. We agree, although we think that their chocolate chocolate chip cookie is just as delicious.

Levain cookie: not to size, it's bigger!

The first thing that sets Levain's cookies apart from all others is their size. They're huge, about the size of a squashed softball or an engorged hockey puck. They're chewey and rich.

The chocolate chocolate chip is prepared with an extra dark French cocoa and semisweet chocolate chips. They come out of the oven with molten layers of chocolate swirling together. Trust us when we tell you that one of these babies will feed two ravenous adults. (Allow one per person if you skip dinner altogether.)

At $4 each, you could get a whole box of store-bought cookies for the same money. But, honestly, why would you want to?

Levain is on West 74th St. between Amsterdam and Columbus.

*In San Juan, Puerto Rico, we recommend the mallorca con mantequilla (a round, flat pastry dusted with confectioner’s sugar and served with butter) and a strong cup of coffee at La Bombonera.

This Just In! Enjoy Music Anywhere In Your Home – Even Outside – Wirelessly

We've got more than 120GBs of music in our computer at home. Listening to it when we're not at our desk or don't want to walk around with an iPod and earphones is another matter.

Trust the good folks at Bose to solve that problem.

Their new SoundLink™ wireless digital music system lets us enjoy all of our digital music – iTunes, Podcasts, Internet radio – all around the house wirelessly.

It's easy: no wires, no software, no setup. We just plug the little USB key into any of our computers, whether PC or Mac. Voila! Music streams in high fidelity to the lightweight, portable speaker unit indoors or out, up to 60 feet away.

And the sound quality is robust, full, rich – as you would expect from any device produced by the famed engineers at Bose. In fact, the SoundLink will breathe new life into your music.

It has lots of handy features to make your listening super enjoyable.

Rechargeable lithium-ion battery delivers more power and longer playing time than other rechargeable batteries (3 hours at full blast, much more at normal listening levels). Charges whenever the system is plugged into a wall outlet with included power cord.

Built-in carry handle allows quick, easy transport from place to place, even outdoors.

Auxiliary input for playing an iPod or other MP3 player or DVD/CD player through the system.

Remote control operates power and volume, and can also play/pause and skip tracks within a playlist from almost anywhere in the room.

The SoundLink will be available in mid-September. If you order now, we'll send it to you as soon as it's in stock. Promise!

$549.95

Buy it now at www.shopjasperandjames.com

For more gift ideas, click right here.

The Enlightened Traveler: In Rio de Janeiro, Forget Copacabana!

Rio de Janeiro doesn't have many must-see sites for the visitor. (The impressive Christ the Redeemer, with it's breath-taking view of the city and shimmering bay, is a noteworthy exception.)

Rio's museums and shopping aren't much either. You'll do better elsewhere.

The main reason to visit this Brazilian gem is a simple one. If you enjoy people watching and like to hang out into the wee hours at cozy neighborhood cafes, bars, restaurants – as the locals do – then Rio's for you.

Before we had been there, our friend, screenwriter Tom Musca, informed us that there's only one thing we needed to know about it - Leblon. How right he was.


Leblon, at bottom, boasts Rio's nicest beach, cafes and streelife

The trendy quarter known as Leblon is two beaches south and a world away from the tawdry tourist stomping ground that is Copacabana Beach.

In fact, we advise you to skip Copacabana altogether. In no circumstances lodge there, unless it's at the luxe, palatial Copacabana Palace and you don't mind taking a taxi to other neighborhoods for strolling, dining, and shopping.

Ipanema, the famous beach between Leblon and Copacabana, is a mixed bag, with nicer hotels, restaurants and shopping, like the impressive H. Stern jewelry workshops and sales floor. This is where you'll find Vuitton, Cartier and other international brands. But you you're not traveling 20 hours for that, are you?

For most of your visit, you'll want to stay close to Leblon, with its mix of sophisticated bohemian pleasures. (Pronounce Leblon as if you are speaking French: "luh-blohn" with the nasal "n" at the end.)

Its beaches and streets are among Rio's cleanest, safest, and least crowded.

We often dine at the brasserie Garcia & Rodrigues, where we are well fed by their French chef from early in the morning until very late at night. For snacks or take out, they have their own bakery, deli counter, and wine cellar. The place is casual, friendly, and filled with students, sophisticates, and otherwise untouristy, very cool folks – just like us.

Garcia & Rodrigues is on the Ave. Ataulfo de Paiva, Leblon's main boulevard, and right across from the Hotel Ritz, where you can nest in a spacious one bedroom apartment, not a paltry room such as you'll get in Ipanema or Copacabana, for around $125 per night, breakfast included – if you ask politely.

Right next door to the the Ritz is the fabulous Letras e Expressoes book and record emporium. You'll want to own every CD in the store and most of the DVDs, books, and international newspapers. They frequently host free performances from established and young Brazilian musicians. (Click here to see videos.) It's open until 2AM weeknights and round the clock on the weekend.

Many of Leblon's best restaurants can be found on Dias Ferreira street, just around the corner from the Ritz. The hot South American designer Isabela Capeto also has a boutique there.

Not to be missed: Pizza Guanabara, serving Cote d'Azur style pizzas that are so good you'll be back several times during your stay. Don't forget to order a choppe (Brazilian draft beer and pronounced "shop") with your meal, as the Cariocas do. You can sit outside all night, basking in the sultry tropical warmth as the hours and crowds gently pass by.

Just a few blocks from Leblon in Ipanema is Restaurant Da Silva, under the same ownership as the famous Antiquarius, which is to say that at Da Silva you get much of the same food, but cheaper and more casual. It's where young professionals and artists like to dine.

After your meal, it's time to hurry back to Leblon to browse Letras e Expressoes, grab a desert and coffee at Garcia & Rodrigues, or join the illuminati at the profusion of outdoor bars and cafes.

And the best part is, you're in Rio!

As much as we love Leblon, Rio has other attractions. The formerly dicey Santa Teresa neighborhood is being gentrified and is home to art galleries, trendy cafes, and hip boutique hotels. ♦ Catch the entertaining, flashy samba show at Plataforma, which is in Leblon, even though it caters to tourists. ♦ Leave your good jewelry and watches at home. Brazil can be unsafe even in the best neighborhoods. ♦ The first "R" of any word in Brazilian Portuguese is pronounced as an "H". It's the Hotel Hits (not Ritz), Hee-oo (not Ree-oh). If you meet someone named Rosa or Roberto, now you know how to pronounce it. ♦ For Brazilian history and music, we recommend these volumes: "Brazil, The Once and Future Country" by Marshall Eakin and "The Brazilian Sound" by Chris McGowan and Ricardo Pessanha.

Gordon Ramsay Finds Himself in the Soup

Does Gordon Ramsay have his fingers in too many pies? As the recession lingers, the super chef has discovered that running a far-flung network of pricey eateries is no piece of cake.

Attendance is down at Ramsay's 20 restaurants across Europe, North America, and Japan, causing him to breach the terms of a $15.7 million bank loan. The celebrity chef is being forced to restructure his global empire, shuttering his Prague location and reducing his 1,200 person staff by 15%.

He is closing some of his restaurants at slower times of the week and is using less expensive cuts of meat, according to an article in the Wall St. Journal. Costly out-of-season ingredients no longer have a place on his menus.

Reasons for the decline are several. Corporate expense accounts have been slashed, and diners are ordering fewer high priced bottles of wine, where the fattest profits are.

Another reason for the drop in patronage may have nothing to do with the souring economy. With so many restaurants, Ramsay isn't cooking in any of them very often. Diners who pay several hundred dollars per head may be reluctant to do so when the star chef is not in the kitchen.

It's a good bet that the tough Scot can withstand the heat. Yes, he sold his silver 430 Scuderia Ferrari. But he still earns an estimated $16 million per year for his TV shows ("Hell's Kitchen" and "Kitchen Nightmares"), as well as from publishing and endorsements.

That's a lot of bread, even in a stale economy.

You'll find the full text of the Journal article here.

The Enlightened Traveler: The Best Burger in San Diego or Pretty Much Anywhere Else

After spending the month of July cleaning out and moving our offices (same address, just a different part of the building) we were eager to escape to La Jolla for a few relaxing days with our friends Nancy and Andy.

On a lazy Monday, we strolled into town to lunch at Burger Lounge, which had been commended to us recently. We cannot recall who told us about the place; all we could remember was the name.

And a good thing, too, because the burgers are among the most agreeable we have ever tasted.

The concept behind Burger Lounge is simple. The owners, Dean and Mike, use only all natural grass-fed beef from Kansas.

This produces a juicy, tender, mouthwatering burger. There also are a host of health (no hormones or antibiotics) and environmental benefits, which are enumerated on the restaurant's website.

Patties are topped with iceberg lettuce, tomato, house-made 1,000 island dressing, fresh onion and white cheddar or American cheese. Everything rests delicately on a signature home-style bun. Ask for grilled onions, which provide an additional layer of flavor.

Grilled turkey burgers (also fabulous) and veggie burgers are are on the menu, too, along with fresh-cut fries, thick shakes, and made-on-the-premises Red Velvet or cream-filled chocolate cupcakes that are every bit as rich and toothsome as the ones you find at specialty bakeries.

Oh yes, and the decor, while casual, is sleek and sophisticated. In other words, Burger Lounge is seriously not a greasy spoon.

Burger Lounge opened in the heart of La Jolla village two years ago and now has three other locations in the San Diego area.

If they don't open in Los Angeles soon, we might have to move south.

You'll find Burger Lounge at 1011 Wall St. (corner of Herschel Ave.), La Jolla, (858) 456-0196, and also in Coronado, Kensington, and recently gentrified Little Italy. www.burgerlounge.com

Rhode Island Is Famous For Jay Strongwater. We Preview His Impressive New Collection

The great jazz pianist and whispy-voiced chanteuse Blossom Dearie, who died earlier this year, was known for her expert musicianship and casual sophistication.

She often took a nonchalant approach to lyrics with dryly humorous renditions of the two Dave Frishberg tunes "I'm Hip" and "Peel Me a Grape" and a breezy version of the Arthur Schwartz-Howard Dietz number, "Rhode Island Is Famous For You."

That song, a panegyric to the Lower 48, contains one of our favorite verses:

Ol' whiskey comes from ol' Kentucky
Ain't the country lucky?
New Jersey gives us glue
And you, you come from Rhode Island
And little ol' Rhode Island is famous for you!

(You can listen to Blossom Dearie's complete recording here.)

Which brings us to another of that state's celebrities, designer Jay Strongwater.

From his Rhode Island workshops, Strongwater fabricates exquisite picture frames (like the orchid and palm model shown here) that sparkle with crystals and bold colors. He also creates fanciful clocks, vases, figurines, lighting, and other art objects for the home.

Each piece is ornately hand enameled. Strongwater is partial to nature imagery – leaves, flowers, coral, animals, insects, and sea shells.

The other day, we chatted briefly with the designer who gave us a preview of his Fall collection. We were particularly impressed by this desktop clock in the shape of a squirrel with an acorn.


What time is it? Open the top of the acorn to reveal the clock.


This sensational draped table mirror knocked us out...


...as did these chrysanthemum and lacewing picture frames.

Strongwater's Menorah will be available in time for Hanukkah, which starts on December 11. (Be prepared, the Festival of Lights arrives early this year.)


Not new this season but one of our favorites is this gingko vase made of luminous earth-toned Portuguese glass with hand-painted enamel and metal leaves and a dragonfly.

There's certain to be a Strongwater objet that each of your Emmy and Oscar nominees and winners, valued clients, and cherished loved ones will adore. Please ask us to help you select the perfect one. We are at (310) 581-6710.

The Enlightened Traveler: Buenos Aires –There's More to the Capital Than Tango

To hear visitors tell it, you'd think that there is no other music in Argentina but tango.

While we love the national art form as much as the next guy, at times we want something different – which is why when we are in Buenos Aires we're happy to spend a mellow evening listening to jazz at Notorious.

It's a memorable experience. For one thing, the cozy night spot is tucked away behind a record store on busy Av. Callao. From the street, you wouldn't know the club is there. You walk through bins of CDs to a small opening at the rear.


Surprise! This is a great jazz club.

It's a simple affair, an intimate black box really. All of the tables are close to the "stage." Young, sophisticated Portenos (what the residents of Buenos Aires call themselves) make up the crowd.

You'll hear mostly local musicians – albeit very accomplished ones – with an occasional gig by an internationally known name. One night we enjoyed a mellow Chet Baker-like set from the trumpeter Roberto Fats Fernandez. When we mentioned this to one of our Argentine friends, he exclaimed, "Fats Fernandez has played in New York, you know!"

What will your night out cost? About US$5 for admission. A plate of charcuterie with a baguette (enough for two) and a couple of beers will set you back another US$10.

A great night out, and the price is right!

Notorious is located at Av. Callao 966 (a few minutes by cab from Recoleta). Telephone 4816 2888. www.notorious.com.ar

Things Not Available in the U.S.: Philips 21:9 True Widescreen TV

A few years ago, you were in the vanguard if your TV had a 16:9 aspect ratio screen. Today, that's the norm, allowing you to watch most movies more or less in their original format.

But if you want to watch widescreen movies at home, you have to put up with those annoying black bars at the top and bottom of the screen.


Philips has solved this problem with the introduction of its 56 in. Cinema 21:9 HDTV, the first set with the same spectacular 2.35:1 aspect ratio as today's biggest films. Think Michael Mann's new Public Enemies or Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince.

The set also has a record number of pixels, at 8.3 million. To get the full benefit you'll want to play movies recorded on Blu-ray discs.

Philips hasn't set a release date yet. They have announced the price, about US$7,400.

The British TechRadar website said: "Four and a half grand [in UK£] is a lot of money, but then this is, in every sense, a lot of telly.

"If you are serious about video quality and have a substantial budget, then this set should be at the very top of your list."

The review added that the picture quality is "remarkable."

Sadly, Philips says they won't be selling the TV in the U.S. or Canada. Just in Europe for now.

Read more here.

The Annals of Luxury: Premium Wine Prices Falling

Americans are forsaking premium wines and buying more mid- and low-priced wines, reports today's Wall St. Journal. Sales of wines priced above $25 per bottle slumped 12% in the first quarter.

Boutique wineries – those that make $100 per bottle cabs, for example – are seeing sharper drops of up to 40%. How much are they suffering? Auction Napa Valley, the industry's annual event, raised $5.7 million last month, down from $10.4 million last year.

While winemakers are feeling the heat, consumers are benefiting from lower prices on top bottles. If you've got money to splurge, now is the time to stock up on pricey domestic cabs and meritages.

The full report is here.

The Grill of Your Dreams

Cooking food out of doors over glowing embers is one of summer's great pleasures.

If you're more into Bauhaus than Beaux Arts, have we got a grill for you!

This lustrous all-stainless steel beauty was designed and is manufactured in Denmark. You'll admire its sleek, architectural lines while waiting for your steak to reach medium rare.

The generous 23 in. diameter cooking surface is large enough to prepare food for up to six guests.

After dinner, throw on a few logs and your barbecue becomes a welcoming hearth. (All the more inviting if you break out a bottle of vintage port or premium Scotch, along with a couple of good cigars.)

An optional dome lid is available for indirect cooking, as is a custom fitted cover that will keep the stainless steel looking good for many years.

At $1,890 there are less expensive barbecues. But if you're the kind of person who knows the difference between Philip Johnson and Don Johnson, then you gotta have this.

Special order only. Allow 4-6 weeks for delivery. To make sure you get yours in time for Labor Day, call us now at (310) 581-6710.


A Sweet, Chic Alternative

If you're a design snob on a budget, the same Danish team has come up with this nifty porcelain table top grill.

It's perfect for intimate dinners on the terrace or for an impromptu picnic at the beach or park. The practical handle makes it easy to carry anywhere, everywhere.

Available in white or black. $350. Also special order only.

...And The Livin' Is Easy

We're having a nice winter here in Santa Monica this summer.

It's the end of the month, and our famous June Gloom shows no signs of letting up. If you're planning a trip our way, bring a sweater!

It's much more temperate elsewhere in the Northern Hemisphere. England is enjoying 80º weather this Wimbledon week. Even Rio de Janeiro is ten degrees warmer than Santa Monica, and that's in the Southern Hemisphere.

On the proposition that it's got to be hot and sultry somewhere in the world at any given moment, we offer recipes for these fast, uncommon thirst quenchers, courtesy of hooch hotshot Derek Brown and The Atlantic's excellent food blog.


Easy Mixing: 5 Cocktails for the Lazy

I don't get the chance to be lazy too often. My workweek is frequently seven days long. Come Sunday afternoon I'm writing, preparing for an event, or responding to emails. Thankfully, I love what I do and, being that my job is what it is, I get to go out to bars and restaurants often. So it's not all that bad.

Yet the feeling of swinging in a hammock, beneath the fiery mid-day sun with an ice-cold drink sweating in the palm of my hand and the intermittent sips the only thing keeping me from melting in to a pile of flesh and bones, beckons as the summer advances. Being lazy feels good.

So while I usually caution readers to take care in crafting cocktails, this time I'm going to call for a different tact: be lazy. Below are some of my favorite drinks for the shiftless, idle and indolent. They go for simplicity and ease:

Let's start with the Cheribita. Supposedly a British invention in Spain, the Cheribita doesn't even require you to lift a full bottle. Buy a half bottle of fino sherry (dry sherry) and a bottle of orange bitters. Pour sherry over ice and add two dashes of bitters. Stir with your finger.

The Dark and Stormy is the national drink of Bermuda. The hardest part of making a Dark and Stormy is finding ginger beer. (Barritts is from Bermuda and is the ginger beer most commonly called for.) Leave off the lime and mix at two to one, ginger beer to Goslings Dark Rum. Add ice. Done.

White Port and tonic is a Portuguese favorite. Mine too. The tonic balances the sweetness of the Port and makes an easy blend at almost any ratio. Pour the Port over ice and top with tonic. Ah, summer.

The Ice Pick is genius. It mixes vodka with ice tea, so you can tell your significant other that it's just ice tea, and you'll get back to Sunday afternoon chores after a short break. Don't bother eyeing or measuring. Make a pitcher of tea. Pour vodka to taste. Avoid heavy machinery.

The Rickey is a drink you're going to hear a lot about from me. It's Washington, D.C.'s native cocktail. You can use any spirit you wish (gin is the most popular). Pour in a shot. Squeeze half of a lime and drop it in the glass. Add ice and soda. Kick back and feel the breeze.

Enjoy.

Put a Libeskind in Your Driveway

For folks who really do have everything, here’s something you don’t see every day – a contemporary home dreamed up by Daniel Libeskind, the designer of such high profile projects as the Jewish Museum Berlin and the master plan for the World Trade Center site.



With dramatic sharp, pointed angles, expansive floor-to-ceiling windows throughout, and an exterior clad in zinc, the 5,500 sq. ft. villa isn’t your average split level.

The home’s strong geometries allow for an asymmetrical interior of spiraling, two-story peaks. The entrance hall leads to an elaborate Grand Room with a kitchen at one end. Also included: four bedrooms, family room, office, and a basement sauna and wine cellar.

The elegant zinc façade enables the use of 21st Century technologies such as a solar thermal system and a rain water harvesting system.

Libeskind says the villa, which is manufactured in Germany, can be shipped and assembled anywhere in the world within months and will be assembled on location by a team of experts within weeks.

The price of all this fashionable luxury? $2.8 million to $4.2 million, depending on your location. Of course, this does not include the cost of your lot. Add another $500,000 if you live in Baltimore, or $5 million if you prefer Bel Air.

For that you get “regional exclusivity,” which means that the celebrity down the street cannot have one like yours.

While he has designed museums, universities, hotels and other major cultural and commercial buildings, Libeskind has designed only a couple of individual homes before this.

Now’s your chance. Get one while you can!

For more on the Libeskind villa:
www.libeskind-villa.com
www.daniel-libeskind.com

Things Not Available in the U.S.: Alfa Romeo Mito

Alfa Romeo's pint-sized city car, the Mito, looks anything but. We want this car, and we want it bad. Sadly, it's not for sale here.

As The World Turns, And Turns, And Turns...

Remember the globes we had when we were kids – those sickly turquoise colored numbers, printed on cheap paper, the whole thing covered with a thin coating of varnish that yellowed with age?

We are not 11 anymore. But we still consult our globe to track the geo-political implications of each day's headlines.


Would Mies van der Rohe buy this globe?

Only now – after college art history courses and years of reading shelter magazines – we expect each object we place in our home or office to reflect the principals of good design. What would Frank Gehry think of it? Would Philip Johnson have put it in his Glass House?

Surely these modern masters would approve of our sleek see-through Earthspheres, cast in heavy acrylic with countries, continents, and other topographical references carefully silk screened on the inside and thus impervious to sticky little fingers.

Several smart colors are available, including an eye-popping red version that is on display at Barney's right now. We prefer the the more understated ones imprinted in matte silver (shown above) or gold, as well as a stunning opaque black and white model that sports silver and gold highlights.

Our globes appear to float – they are mounted on graceful, sculptural pedestal bases of matching acrylic – and are available in two sizes, 12 in. ($295) and 16 in. ($395) in diameter.

If making a statement is your thing, you will want our impressive 30 in. globe with floorstand base ($1,499).

These globes make wonderful gifts for the person who has nearly everything, except for, of course, an acrylic earthsphere.

Call or e-mail us for details.

The High Cost of Buying Cheap

Is it heresy to criticize IKEA? Here's an alternate view from the smart folks at The Atlantic on why shopping there might not be so PC after all:

Everyone loves a bargain, as long as we believe it’s in good taste. And nobody does low-price, high-style better than IKEA, the world’s largest furniture retailer. IKEA passes as the anti-Wal-Mart: a company where value and good values coexist. It uses design as a proxy for quality, and its brand—embodied by all those smiling, white-teethed Scandinavians standing next to smooth, shiny modular furniture with unpronounceable names—as a passport to a guilt-free world of low prices.

But put down your 59-cent Färgrik coffee mug and ask yourself: Can we afford to keep shopping at places where an item’s price reflects only a fraction of its societal costs?

IKEA designs to price, challenging its talented European team to create ever-cheaper objects, and its suppliers—most of them in low-wage countries in Asia and eastern Europe—to squeeze out the lowest possible price. By some measures the world’s third-largest wood consumer, IKEA proudly employs 15 “forestry monitors.” Eight of them work in China and Russia, but illegal logging is widespread in those vast countries, making it impossible to guarantee that all wood is legally harvested. (The company declines to pay a premium to ensure that all timber is legally harvested, citing costs that would be passed along to the consumer.) IKEA furniture made of particleboard and pine is not meant to last a lifetime; indeed, some professional movers decline to guarantee its safe transport. But to be fair, creating heirlooms is not IKEA’s goal. Nor, despite a lot of self-serving hoopla, is energy conservation: the company boasts of illuminating its stores with low-wattage lightbulbs but positions outlets far from city centers, where taxes are low and commuting costs high—the average IKEA customer drives 50 miles round-trip. Cleverly, IKEA transfers transport and energy costs onto consumers, who are then handed the additional burden of assembling their purchases. Designed but not crafted, IKEA bookcases and chairs, like most cheap objects, resist involvement: when they break or malfunction, we tend not to fix them. Rather, we buy new ones. Wig Zamore, a Massachusetts environmental activist who was recently recognized for his work by the Environmental Protection Agency, is working with IKEA and supports some of the company’s regional green initiatives. But as he put it, “IKEA is the least sustainable retailer on the planet.” And in real costs—the kind that will burden our grandchildren—that also makes it among the most expensive.

Ellen Ruppel Shell is an Atlantic contributing editor and the author of Cheap: The High Cost of Discount Culture.