Joey Batista, who owns Joey Bats Cafe on the Lower East Side, claims to have been on hundreds of first dates since moving to New York City in 2013. The 43-year-old says his phone is filled with the phone numbers of more than 1,000 women, whom he connected with over the years on sites such as Tinder, Match, Bumble and Hinge.
By Millicent Borges Accardi Currently based in Seattle, Caitlin DaFonte Flynn is an award-winning journalist and writer interested in Portuguese culture.
Boiis Co. [Official]
One mid-pandemic creation that’s seen an uptick in orders in recent months is an inventive new line of shortbread cookies stuffed with mochi. Meet mookies, the desserts from the nearly two-year-old company the Boiis Co., which is based out of Sunnyside, Queens, and recently launched nationwide shipping.
The Boiis Co. sells these cookies in three different flavors: an ube cookie with an ube mochi filling; a matcha cookie, which is also stuffed with ube mochi; and a salted caramel cookie teeming with caramel mochi. Every month, the company also introduces an additional flavor of the month. In February, Boiis Co. sold a strawberry cookie with a matcha mochi filling as part of a Valentine’s Day offering, and this month they’re selling a calamansi-flavored shortbread cookie stuffed with poppyseed mochi.