Every major city’s landscape includes nooks, crannies, and walkable neighbourhoods which means there’s more than enough room for everyone to carve their own cosmopolitan niche.
Every major city also defines its “cool” through localized shortlists of hotspots curated and top-tenned by exclusive lists of #instastars and influencers; these lists are rotated through every local glossy/blog/lifestyle channel making a select list of boutiques/restaurants/galleries seem as though they are the lone spots in cities so vast you need weeks to explore their bustling streets. If you’re a lucky chef/boutique owner/musician/etc., you may win a spot on these lists and people will flock to be in your presence (or, let’s be honest, the presence of whatever you’re schilling in the hopes of making rent).
On our way to The Midlife, we’re told we should strive to live in the moment of cool; that we should reserve a spot so that we can be seen being cool; that we should covet weekly drops so that we can wear the epitome of cool.
But what happens when we’re over it? When we’re so tired at the end of a long week — thanks to long days at the office, thankless bosses, demanding partners and wailing kids — that the last thing we care about is scoring a seat on some patio, eating, drinking, and socializing #forthegram?
If it’s true what “they” say, we will inevitably reach a point in our lives when we seriously just don’t care, hotspots and top ten lists be damned and relegated to the pages of in-flight magazines and 30-word posts.
As the years force change in your life, you may be more inclined to create your own lists of hotspots, and while those lists would probably incite groans and eye-rolls in your younger counterparts, your lists have meaning.
Kid got an “A” on their last test? Your number one restaurant might be the local burger joint that thankfully has a kid’s menu and a playroom. Your boss congratulated you on how you handled the company’s biggest client? Your hotspot might be some local dive, but the bartender always has a smile and a perfect pour for you as soon as you sit down. And what if your best friend broke up with her boyfriend again? That calls for dour martinis at the pub where the décor is forever stuck in the 80s. But it’s s dark décor and dim lighting allows your BFF to ugly cry in a corner booth, hidden from other patrons’ pitiful stares.
Yes, your hotspots have meaning, and, quite frankly, they deserve to be on someone’s list — so why not yours?
Think about the hotspots in your life. List them. Write them down. Share them with people who deserve to know about them and their unrequited glory.
These places may never be the star of a 30-word where-to-go-for-afterwork-drinks-with-the-besties post, but they’re list-worthy all the same.
Let every hair flip be fabulous.
XOXO
Le Snobbery
Original photo by Olga Serjantu|| manipulation by built this cool
Le Snobbery 