Lulufork vs. Pitchfork
It's a vibe just trust me
Comically writing about my favorite 2024 bites and songs deeeeep into 2025 but who cares! Patrick said something funny after I mentioned my next Cafe Lulu post (this one): “in typical Cafe Lulu fashion, a post about 2024 will be written later in 2025” or something along those lines. I am a serious procrastinator but I always think it’s never too late. I once called my grandma three weeks after her birthday and she said “at least you called eventually…some people think it’s too late and don’t call at all”. That made me sad but Abuelita Sarita has a point. She ate with that one bit.
Lulufork vs. Pitchfork
I would say I was a big fan of Pitchfork during a time every person should be into Pitchfork: high school. For those who are unaware, Pitchfork is an online music magazine that became known for their journalistic style on reviewing indie bands and rappers. It later evolved into something much bigger, eventually producing its own music festival in Chicago (RIP), and its final hoorah: being purchased by Condé Nast in 2015. Pitchfork inevitably shaped the music interests of thousands of readers through their interesting takes, bitchy write-ups, and sometimes bizarre opinions. If you really look back to their writings, most of it was so zainy and mean for NO REASON. Their edge made them different until it didn’t.
However, I really enjoy a listicle or a ranking format of sorts and felt inspired by reading Pitchfork’s 50 Best Albums of 2024, as I do every year. I decided to create a Frankenstein of sorts — meshing music, because yes, I do partake in the Arts, with my other interest, food and restaurants. Enter: Lulufork, an annual Cafe Lulu list sharing my favorite soundbites…bites and sounds(?)…of 2024.
5. Bon Bon by Fckers & Mission Chinese’s Shiso Fried Rice + Kung Pao Pastrami
Fckers opened for George Clanton in Brooklyn when he visited last year. I was just coming off of my Jockstrap high and Fckers was the exact sound that I was craving. You are not close to me if you didn’t hear me play this song once.
Mission Chinese is a SF-based restaurant doing a pop-up on Mott Street in Chinatown. I made a reservation for this place a week-ish in advance for my dad’s annual visit and it did not disappoint. Get BOTH the shiso fried rice and kung pao pastrami. If you’re able of consuming the Chongqing chicken wings, then I tip my hat to you sir.
4. Diet Pepsi by Addison Rae & Gage and Tollner’s Baked Alaska
WHEN WE DRIVE IN YOUR CAR I’M YOUR BABY
LOSING ALL MY INNOCENCE IN THE BACKSEAT
My Poop (pookie) and I have a tradition of going to specific genres of restaurants for both of our birthdays. I decided we’ll be dining at Asian restaurants for his, and for mine, we’ll do steakhouses. Gage & Tollner have been on my list the moment I looked out the window of the B52 to see a restaurant on Fulton that didn’t quite fit. The steak here is delicious, along with all of its sides, but don’t sleep on the cinematic experience of a Baked Alaska. Never in my life was I so thrilled but I was also off the dirty gin martini and weed-gummy combo.
What’s in a Baked Alaska? The layered dessert consists of mint, chocolate, and cherries, topped with meringue, torched, on a bed of chocolate dust of sorts. A Baked Alaska is as sweet as Addison Rae’s Diet Pepsi drink…or at least I can image…I’ve never drank Diet Pepsi.
3. I’m All Fucked Up by This is Lorelei & The Monumental Discovery That I Actually Like Martinis
I started working at a cocktail club exactly a year ago today! After a shift, we get a shifty (free shift drink) and I have made it my goal to get through the whole drinks menu, including non-alcoholic. I’ve made a couple exceptions with some whiskey-forward drinks because I don’t like whiskey. But this experience has allowed myself to fully discover the alcohols and cocktails styles that I do and don’t like. In this era of experimentation, I discovered my love for…a dirty gin martini.
In the wake of 2024’s martini craze, my job developed ‘A Little Pickle’, a pickle martini that tastes exactly how it sounds. I gave it a shot, loved it, and explored with different martini styles until I settled on the dirty or filthy gin martini. Now, I find myself craving one with dinner all of the time. I do feel unbelievably chic when I pour my sidecar into a martini glass — I know the exact vibes Samantha, Carrie, Charlotte, and Miranda all felt when they drank a Cosmo and I feel it soooo badly.
This is Lorelei came out with their single “I’m All Fucked Up” sometime in the Spring 2024 while I was in San Diego, taking care of my friend post-op. My friend asked me if I was willing to nurse them for five days in San Diego and they would pay for my flights, hotels, meals, etc.. At first, I was nervous because I barely take care of myself but once I got there, they were nearly fully-functioning and really just needed me there for some company and to retrieve a plate from free breakfast buffet downstairs. The first thing I had to do in California was get edibles but I ended up buying too much so while en route to the airport, I ate a shit-ton. While waiting at TSA, “I’m All Fucked Up” starts playing and I was in shock. It sounded so perfect and I was so high at the San Diego Airport that I played it 30 times that day. Please read the following below from the Nate Amos, This is Lorelei’s website:
In the summer of 2022, while working on Box For Buddy, Box For Star, Amos was laser-focused on personal growth and felt an unfamiliar but pressing need to reflect honestly on his life through lyricism. Emotionally, it was a tough period, especially coupled with his mission to write without smoking weed—a substance he relied on nearly every day for the last 15 years—for the first time.
2. Alesis by Mk.gee & Master Donut
“Awesome pad thai and great maple bars” is an AWESOME review of a DONUTS and THAI PLACE. Patrick and I discovered this spot while we were doing laundry in a strip mall in Eugene, Oregon. Patrick was deeply unsettled with the characters that were in that coin laundry because apparently they were all “weird” but I found them endearing. In this situation, he’s a city slicker and I’m a country mouse (I grew up in South Florida). Instead, I sent him over to the donut place next door to fetch us some breakfast. The maple and bacon donuts, plus the coffee roll, and a coffee…I never understood that combo until that day.
I have no idea where Mk.gee came from but this song wrecked my Spotify algorithm until I learned to like it. I remember the turning point for me and this song was when I heard it in my dreams and it took me a while to figure out what song it was. I’ve been thinking of hosting a random songs karaoke night where no one can pick popular songs and I think I would sing Alesis.
DID YOU FIND IT?
DID YOU FIND IT?
LEAVE IT TO ME TO KICK THE DOOR UH HUHHHH
#1 Club Classics by Charli xcx ft. bb trickz & Joon Eats’ Pistachio Rose Brittle
I’m gonna make this short and sweet because I think this is the longest Cafe Lulu blog post ever and it took me months to write this. There’s no way I would have made the first annual Lulufork post for 2024 and not include our lord and savior, Charli xcx. Dare I say, I almost liked the remix album more than the original? No, that’s a bit controversial and it more depends on what mood I’m in. But the remixed Club Classics with bb trickz, you can confidently say that’s the superior one.
This was the first work event I went to last year and it happened to be on a boat on one of the hottest days of the year. When you’re on-site, you shouldn’t be eating but being around so much good food, my kleptomaniac fight or flight skills kicked in and I stole something from the dessert bar. I did this while it was raining and we were all trying to figure out what to do because we were on a boat…but it was docked so I can’t remember why we didn’t just hop off. I wrapped a dessert in a napkin and stuffed it into my pocket. I ran in the rain from Pier 60 to the nearest subway station and boarded a C train headed into Brooklyn. I unwrapped the treat in the bright subway car to discover it was miraculously still fully intact and it was completely made of sugar, with bits of pistachio and rose petals. I savored it slowly and have thought of that moment ever since.
Late cafe Lulu is the best, it’s aged like a fine wine