This month's issue of Wallpaper* features our annual Secret Elite directory, must-have names and numbers for the cool-seeking traveller. Here are just a few to whet your appetite along with some lovely exclusive images, which can also be viewed in the gallery below. For the full edit, and to ensure you don't miss out on other great features, subscribe by clicking here
Accessories
Huis A Boon, Antwerp
This timewarp of a boutique tucked away in Antwerp is the place to head to if you want to make sure that your hands are as well-dressed as the rest of you. From lambskin gloves trimmed with rabbit fur to wild pigskin driving gloves lined in silk, the inventory here is both delicate and decadent. Buttery-soft, tissue-thin gloves spill out in colours that range from muted greys and neutrals to flamboyant fuchsias and marigolds. But what we love most about Huis A Boon’s boutique is that, since its opening in 1884, quality and service remain paramount.
Lombardenvest 2-4, tel: 32.3 232 3387
Food & drink
E Dehillerin, Paris
This is a cooking mecca for those in the know. Established in 1820, this family-run, dusty, ramshackle destination caters primarily for kitchen professionals, stacked high as it is with quality basics and many hard-to-find accessories — but its culinary gadgetry is also the sort that can make the amateur kitchen fun, efficient and stylish. You’ll find top-quality knives, baking utensils, pans, boards, moulds in every shape, size and material, and elusive extras such as ceramic baking beans and sharpening stones. The service is serious and professional — a certain level of expertise might be assumed.
18 et 20 rue Coquillière-51 rue Jean-Jacques Rousseau, 1e, tel: 33.1 42 36 53 13
Restaurants & bars
Awfully Chocolate, Singapore
In 1998, this patisserie set up with only one thing on sale, a chocolate sponge cake blanketed with dark fudge. Eight years and four shops later, this remains the star attraction, but the range has expanded to include other cake flavours and ice cream.
112 East Coast Road, Katong Mall, tel: 65.6345 2190, www.awfullychocolate.com
The Good Fork, New York
In Brooklyn’s once gastronomically bare Red Hook peninsula, this restaurant balances an understated exterior with
an ambitious, Asian-inflected menu that manages to be both challenging and comforting at the same time.
391 Van Brunt Street, Brooklyn,
tel: 1.718 643 6636, www.goodfork.com
Books & stationery
Dashwood Books, New York
David Strettell, the former cultural director of Magnum Photos, opened Dashwood Books just over a year ago and it remains the only independent bookstore in New York entirely devoted to photography. Focusing specifically on work from the last 50 years, and stocking publishers hitherto not distributed in the US, such as Osiris (Tokyo) and Verlag Schaden (Köln), Strettell treats his many rare, out-of-print and vintage finds as works of art unto themselves. Also featuring titles from the likes of Chris Boot and Rocket (London), Artimo (Amsterdam), Fotohof (Vienna), Little More (Tokyo) and a host of North American publishers, such as Nazraeli Press and Visionaire, this place is a delight whether you’re buying or just browsing.
33 Bond Street, between Lafayette and Bowery, tel: 1.212 387 8520, www.dashwoodbooks.com
Super agents
Indigo Lodges
Stunning retreat Pinhal, built by Portuguese architect Pedro Ferreira Pinto in fashionable Comporta, features an ecological pool and three wings. When it’s empty, Ivan Sellers, of Indigo Lodges, can book two of the wings for €20,000-22,000 per week, or the run of the whole property for €28,000-32,000. Sellers has a string of similar European properties on his books.
www.indigolodges.com
Now it's your turn. If you have any recommendations up your sleeve or think there's a glaring omission from the full list, we want to hear from you. Click here to share your hot tips.
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