新的商品军备竞赛：餐厅使用帽子和 T 恤来传达状态

有些人说商品已经结束了，但我请他们睁开眼睛，看看它实际上（仍然）无处不在 - 也许比以往任何时候都更像是一种身份象征。

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.

当 Balthazar 在 4 月份举办 25 周年纪念派对时，根本就找不到座位。但那天早些时候，在餐厅外，我经过了当时的经理，他递给我一枚小金币，上面有一个钥匙圈，上面写着“B”。后来我才发现，当晚只给在那里就餐的人分发了150个。这些知情的发现不仅看起来很酷，而且还向人们传达出你是业内人士的信息。

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.

有些人说商品已经结束了，但我请他们睁开眼睛，看看它实际上（仍然）无处不在 - 也许比以往任何时候都更像是一种身份象征。在纽约，现在每个人都戴着餐馆里的棒球帽，其中一些可以在网上购买，但另一些则只能通过良好的时机和更好的人际交往能力来获得。仅在过去的几周里，我就在 J. Mueser 的员工身上发现了几顶 Odeon 帽子，在伊丽莎白街花园 (Elizabeth Street Garden) 戴着一顶 Estela 帽子，在西村 (West Village) 发现了几顶 Nat on Bank 平沿帽，还有比我还多的 Amber Waves Farms 帽子关心提一下。但在更大的背景下，在这个时代，即使是试图进入某些场所花钱也被视为血腥运动，例如，一顶皇家空军的帽子表明你有朋友可以给你塞一个很难找到的配饰现在——以及以后更难获得预订。

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.

在地方层面上，商品也反映了我们是谁、我们住在哪里——甚至是社区——几乎可以作为路人的即时性格测试来决定他们是否愿意参与。 “同类相吸，”Hot and Social 创始人 Liv Schreiber 说道。 “如果你想吸引去过密歇根州的人，就穿密歇根州的衬衫，对吗？这只是表明你将自己放入那个桶中。”比如说，戴上 Estela 帽子或 Neir's Tavern 的 T 恤，您就可以将自己视为最小众群体的一员。 “生活在我所在的布鲁克林地区，如果我看到有人穿着 Shalene 的衬衫，我就会觉得我与那个人有共同点，”来自 Prospect Heights 潜水酒吧的文化作家兼商品鉴赏家贾森·戴蒙德 (Jason Diamond) 说道。

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.)

这就是为什么在野外找到代表您最喜欢的地点的人感觉就像看到一张友善的面孔。我最近搬到了上西区——我很高兴现在在住宅区，但我担心我再也不会去 Wildair 或 Kiki's 了。但我的第一个周末，我看到有人在第 96 街地铁站台上等候，戴着一顶白色帽子，上面绣着“Raf's”字样。那家伙早上 9 点就到了住宅区，但仍然经常去 Noho，抢到他们开业时生产的一顶稀有帽子。 （如果您不在场或者不知道该询问的合适人选，则无法在网上找到任何信息。）

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，在新冠疫情期间，商品为餐馆提供了一条财务生命线——每次我在保持社交距离的情况下散步时，人们都会点头并指着我在 The Odeon 戴的黑帽子（我以为他们在微笑）。现在，它感觉像是餐厅被游戏化以偏爱超级富豪和人脉广泛的方式的另一个象征。但尽管如此，商品如此普遍，以至于我们创建了分层的层级来对其进行分类，这一事实表明它绝不是过时的。