Kikkoman Merch, a Breakfast Cookbook, and More Things to Buy This Week

This post originally appeared on June 18, 2019, in Add to Cart — the weekly newsletter for people who love shopping (almost) as much as they love eating. Subscribe now.

As anyone who’s seen Taylor Swift’s new music video is aware, it is Pride Month, designated as such because June was the month when police raided the Stonewall Inn in New York’s Greenwich Village, targeting the bar because of its LGBTQ clientele and setting off a wide, public push for gay rights. The first Pride march took place exactly one year later, in 1970, in NYC.

Pride parades are alive and well, but Pride Month has also become a hook for brands looking to generate goodwill and sales with rainbow motifs (Dig Inn literally changed its signage on buildings) and promises to support queer communities or causes.

Some of them do follow through on the charitable front. Kind Snacks, for example, is giving 100 percent of the proceeds from its rainbow-wrapped dark chocolate nuts and sea salt bar this month to the Ali Forney Center. Shake Shack is donating all proceeds from its Pride merch to the Trevor Project; Chipotle is doing the same, but a smaller percentage. Some restaurants and bars across Chicago, Philly, D.C., and other cities are donating proceeds of specific dishes to queer charities. On the other hand, as Eater’s Adam Moussa has put it, many restaurants and bars are “gay for pay,” promoting Pride with rainbow dishes or merch without making significant contributions at all, financial or otherwise. (Not to mention the major corporations that are behind certain brands you love that profess LGBTQ support, then donate to anti-gay politicians.)

All of which is to say, it’s a great month to be an extremely discerning shopper! Enjoy the rainbow snacks with a side of skepticism — or better yet, focus your buying on brands that support queer charities year-round, like Gay Beer or Big Gay Ice Cream.

Things to buy

• Iconic soy sauce maker Kikkoman has an extremely cool (like, hypebeast cool) merch collection in collab with skateboarding brand Primitive, which includes this soy sauce “Dad hat.”
• Amazon’s “Best Books of the Year So Far” list, which dropped today, includes several Eater recommendations, including Breakfast: The Cookbook by Emily Elyse Miller.
• If you’re looking to invest in a backyard grill or smoker, Tulsa pitmasters swear by the Hasty-Bake, which can handle both.
• Truly, who would not want this “Dr Pepper Is a Woman” T-shirt?

Things to know

• Great Jones has spiced up (sorry) its rainbow palette with two new colors for its Dutchess pot: Salt (white) and Pepper (black).
• If you’ve ever eaten at a Chinese-American restaurant, you’ve probably eaten on a zodiac placemat. Here’s the story behind them.
• Finally, a good natural wine explainer.
• Bless the heavens, Queer Eye is coming back!

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