新的商品軍備競賽：餐廳使用帽子和 T 卹來傳達狀態

有些人說商品已經結束了，但我請他們睜開眼睛，看看它實際上（仍然）無處不在 - 也許比以往任何時候都更像是一種身份象徵。

When Balthazar threw its 25th-anniversary party in April, it was impossible to get a table. But earlier that day outside the restaurant, I passed the then-manager, who palmed me a small gold coin on a keyring that had a scripted “B” on it. Only later did I find out that just 150 were given out to people dining there that night. These sorts of in-the-know finds don’t just look cool — they telegraph to people that you’re on the inside.

當 Balthazar 在 4 月舉辦 25 週年紀念派對時，根本找不到座位。但那天早些時候，在餐廳外，我經過了當時的經理，他遞給我一枚小金幣，上面有一個鑰匙圈，上面寫著「B」。後來我才發現，當晚只分發了150個給在那裡用餐的人。這些知情的發現不僅看起來很酷，而且還向人們傳達你是內部人士的訊息。

Some people say merch is over, but I’d ask them to open their eyes and see that it’s actually (still) everywhere — and maybe more of a status symbol than ever. In New York, everyone is wearing baseball caps from restaurants right now, some of which are available to buy online, but others of which can only be obtained by having good timing and even better people skills. In the past few weeks alone, I’ve spotted a few Odeon hats on the guys at J. Mueser, an Estela in the Elizabeth Street Garden, several Nat’s on Bank flat-brims in the West Village, and more Amber Waves Farms than I care to mention. But in the larger context, in an age where even attempting to enter certain establishments to spend your money passes for blood sport, a Raf’s hat, for example, shows that you’ve got friends who can slip you a hard-to-find accessory now — and a harder-to-get reservation later.

有些人說商品已經結束了，但我請他們睜開眼睛，看看它實際上（仍然）無處不在 - 也許比以往任何時候都更像是一種身份象徵。在紐約，現在每個人都戴著餐廳裡的棒球帽，其中一些可以在網路上購買，但有些則只能透過良好的時機和更好的人際交往能力來獲得。僅在過去的幾周里，我就在J. Mueser 的員工身上發現了幾頂Odeon 帽子，在伊麗莎白街花園(Elizabeth Street Garden) 戴著一頂Estela 帽子，在西村(West Village) 發現了幾頂Nat on Bank 平沿帽，還有比我還多的Amber Waves Farms 帽子關心提一下。但在更大的背景下，在這個時代，即使是試圖進入某些場所花錢也被視為血腥運動，例如，一頂皇家空軍的帽子表明你有朋友可以給你塞一個很難找到的配件現在——以及以後更難獲得預訂。

On a local level, merch is also reflective of who we are and where we live — down to the neighborhood — almost functioning as an instantaneous personality test for passerby to decide whether or not they want to engage. “Like attracts like,” says Liv Schreiber, founder of Hot and Social. “If you want to attract someone who went to Michigan, wear a Michigan shirt, right? It’s just about signaling that you place yourself in that bucket.” And with, say, an Estela hat or a T-shirt from Neir’s Tavern, you can identify yourself as a member of the most niche groups. “Living in the part of Brooklyn I’m in, if I see somebody in a Sharlene’s shirt, I feel like I have common ground with that person,” says culture writer and merch connoisseur Jason Diamond of the Prospect Heights dive bar.

在地方層面上，商品也反映了我們是誰、我們住在哪裡——甚至是社區——幾乎可以作為路人的即時性格測驗來決定他們是否願意參與。 「同類相吸，」Hot and Social 創辦人 Liv Schreiber 說。 「如果你想吸引去過密西根州的人，就穿密西根州的襯衫，對嗎？這只是表明你將自己放入那個桶中。比方說，戴上 Estela 帽子或 Neir's Tavern 的 T 卹，您就可以將自己視為最小眾群體的一員。 「住在我所在的布魯克林地區，如果我看到有人穿著Shalene 的襯衫，我就會覺得我與那個人有共同點，」來自Prospect Heights 潛水酒吧的文化作家兼商品鑑賞家賈森·戴蒙德( Jason Diamond) 說。

That’s why finding someone representing your favorite spot in the wild can feel like seeing a friendly face. I recently moved to the Upper West Side — I’m glad I’m uptown now, but I was worried I’d never make it to Wildair or Kiki’s again. But my first weekend, I saw someone waiting on the platform of the 96th Street subway wearing a white cap that said “Raf’s” in embroidered lettering. That guy was uptown at 9 a.m. but still went to Noho often enough to snag one of the rare hats they produced when they opened. (If you weren’t there or don’t know the right person to ask, there’s nothing online to track it down.)

這就是為什麼在野外找到代表您最喜歡的地點的人感覺就像看到友善的臉。我最近搬到了上西區——我很高興現在在住宅區，但我擔心我再也不會去 Wildair 或 Kiki's 了。但我的第一個週末，我看到有人在第 96 街地鐵月台上等候，戴著一頂白色帽子，上面繡著“Raf's”字樣。那傢伙早上 9 點就到了住宅區，但仍然經常去 Noho 買一頂他們剛開業時生產的稀有帽子。 （如果您當時不在場或不知道該詢問的人，則無法在網路上找到相關資訊。）

Previously, merch offered a financial lifeline to restaurants during COVID — every time I’d take a socially distanced walk, people would nod and point to my black hat from The Odeon (I assumed they were smiling). Now, it can feel like another emblem of the way restaurants have been gamified to favor the mega-rich and well-connected. But still, the very fact that merch is so ubiquitous that we’ve created stratified tiers to categorize it indicates that it’s anything but passé.

此前，在新冠疫情期間，商品為餐廳提供了一條財務生命線——每次我在保持社交距離的情況下散步時，人們都會點頭並指著我在The Odeon 戴的黑帽子（我以為他們在微笑）。現在，它感覺像是餐廳被遊戲化以偏愛超級富豪和人脈廣泛的方式的另一個象徵。但儘管如此，商品如此普遍，以至於我們創建了分層的層級來對其進行分類，這一事實表明它絕不是過時的。