Bulletin Board 29

Our first wrist check, the oldest vintage store in the States that will definitely inspire a trip to Cambridge, and my absolute favorite rosé

WRIST CHECK

The Watch: Chopard L.U.C. 1860

The Owner: Eneuri Acosta—watch collector, brand strategist, and former chief brand officer of Hodinkee. 

The Why: “It’s on rotation because it checks a lot of the boxes for what I like in a watch. It is unexpected and unassuming, and since it’s only 36.5mm, it wears a bit smaller, but the salmon colored dial and grey strap give it a nice pop of color and playfulness. And from a watch making perspective it is as refined as any watch from other high end brands. While the case is steel, the dial, hands, hour markers and rotor are all gold. Add a hand-finished guilloche and you have a watch that, in my opinion, gets all the little details right.”

HAPPY HOUR

Delicious in France and Upstate NY

Rosé season is in full swing, but with so many options on the shelf, and such a wide range of prices and provenance, I wanted to share my absolute favorite, Domaine Tempier. A wine produced in Bandol in southeastern France since 1943, it’s our special occasion rosé—when dear friends are coming over, or for a birthday lunch. Besides it being so delicious, I love the label, and seeing those bottles on my table just makes me happy. We love drinking it by the pool in France or the pond upstate; it pairs so well with the kind of summer food we want to eat, like mussels, flambéed shrimp, grilled sardines, but it also goes great with sausages and grilled marinated meats. Even hot dogs. Pourquoi pas?!

Unlike so many of rosé bottles lining shelves today, Domaine Tempier is a family business. Its late matriarch, Lulu Peyraud, was beloved by many in the food world and was a formidable chef herself. No offense to Brad Pitt and all the other hyped up rosé producers out there, but I’ll be sticking to the OG. -M.H.

RAG TRADE

Vintage clothing has become a big business. But as the category has grown more mainstream—and upscale—some of its charms have been lost, with many second-hand stores today feeling more like luxury boutiques.

Thankfully, Keezer’s does not. Originally established in 1895 as a co-op where Harvard students could trade clothing, the Cambridge business presently sits on a quiet stretch of Massachusetts Avenue, in what was previously a Hollywood Video. As the subterranean business’s wall-to-wall carpeting, fluorescent lights and drop ceilings would indicate, it is definitely not “cool”—and thank goodness for that.

What it offers in place of vibes is racks as far as the eye can see, blending the everyday (Brooks Brothers oxfords, madras J. Crew shorts) with the extraordinary (Isaia tuxedos, Savile Row suits) and even the confounding (a silky purple-and-gold jockey’s uniform that somehow fits my 6 '1'' frame).

Any visitor to Keezer’s has a guide in the person of Alton Hughes, the store’s long-bearded and nattily attired buyer/stylist/salesperson, who’s somehow committed the location and provenance of the store’s dizzying stock to memory. Whenever I drop in to buy or sell—or need something altered by the shop’s in-house tailoring team—Alton reliably pulls me aside to show off the unworn Ring Jacket suit that could be my size, some Crockett & Jones slip-ons I might dig, or an unsorted stack of pleated dress pants just dropped off by a nonagenarian who miraculously shares my waist and inseam length.

On my last visit, I picked Alton’s brain for a bit of background on Keezer’s and what’s in the store now. -E.T.

Alton Hughes

Who is Keezer’s clientele, in terms of those buying and selling clothing?
We get everything from college students who are moving and dumping clothes to widows bringing in things to guys that lost weight to clothing geeks that want to come in and trade, and folks doing closet clean outs.

There's not that many places that buy men's clothing. We're one of the ones that do. And so, we're inundated all the time with requests to buy. I've been to apartments in the Ritz and estates in Brookline and smaller places. It's all kinds of folks all over the place. I can't really pigeonhole it.

What are some of your all-time favorite finds?
It was a 1920s stadium or “teddy bear” coat. It had the tickets from the 1930 Harvard football season in it. I still think that's one of the greatest finds that's ever come in here.

What are some of the best things in store now?
We've got a fireman’s happi coat from World War II Japan that’s in pristine condition. A lady’s uncle brought it back, and it stayed in the attic for 80 years. We’ve got this 42 long chesterfield from Rogers Peet, which is for somebody about 6’4”, 6' 5”—if you want to look like money and you’re big enough, that’s the jacket. And we get in Savile Row pieces, Brioni, Polo.

Is there a piece you dream of someone bringing in one day?
That's a tough one. What I really want is a [Ralph Lauren] polo coat… But we get so much good stuff, I really can't complain. Other than something I might want for me, there's not much to say, because we're sitting on so much really good stuff. I can't add up how I'm going to go through it all.

What are customers always looking for?
Blue suits. That's the one thing everybody wants. They come in and it's like, “Got blue suits, white shirts?” I mean, if it’s a blue suit and it’s not a very good one, I’ll take that over a better suit that’s got some kind of odd pattern to it that I know is just going to linger. I have a lot of people buying their first suit.