Forget hipsters, let's all hate on twee for a while

I was going to try to summarize this whole article in New York Magazine this week called “The Twee Party,” asking if Brooklyn’s artisanal movement is a step forward for food or a sign of the apocalypse, but then I read sentences like the following and I had a twee allergy overload so intense that I am presently trying to declog sinuses of cross-stitched granola bars and locally brewed marmalade-flavored session mayonnaise, so I had to stop reading. Exhibit A): “There is the twee comedy of eating Brooklynishly, and then there’s the twee sincerity of producing Brooklynishly: wide-eyed entrepreneurs slogging through the nitty-gritty of business-building. The word artisan, shopworn as it may be, is usually not, actually, an affectation.” And exhibit B): “While the carefully considered choice of what jar to put your homemade jam in might seem like design-junkie hairsplitting, economic-development types hope that a borough’s worth of would-be jelly moguls could actually add up to something more.”

With this girl still fresh in our memories, it seems we’re reaching a zenith (or nadir) of our tolerance for cutesy wutesy, twee and precious things in Brooklyn. So tell us your thoughts on twee: like it or spike it? Important note: We at Brokelyn don’t actually encourage hate in any form, just healthy skepticism, please. And really; is good food doing anyone any harm? I will say that to those of us who point our diets in a different direction, all you artisanal-obsessed foodies sweating over what the thread count was on the sheets your dead cow slept on look like hilarious fetishists you seen on HBO at 4am to us.

8 Comments

Blayze Apr 16, 2012

I make weekly trips into New Jersey because I can’t afford half the shit in this damn borough. I literally am smuggling food over state lines to cut costs.

Oh county o’kings, it stings.

Apr 16, 2012 at 1:24 pm

Reply
- Tim Donnelly Apr 16, 2012
  
  But is it really worth having to go to New Jersey, Blayze?
  
  Apr 16, 2012 at 3:05 pm
  
  Reply
  - conaldarcy Apr 16, 2012
    
    And why is everything called “twee” nowadays?
    
    Rabble, rabble!
    
    Apr 16, 2012 at 3:40 pm
    
    Reply
- Faye Apr 16, 2012
  
  Blayze, where do you shop in NJ?
  
  Apr 16, 2012 at 6:39 pm
  
  Reply
conaldarcy Apr 16, 2012

The problem is the word “artisanal” has become diluted. It used to denote craftsmanship built up over a lifetime, usually through an apprenticeship program. Now anyone with seed capital can set up shop, memorize a recipe from Wikipedia, and slap an artisanal label on it and charge twice as much.

Apr 16, 2012 at 3:05 pm

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- Tim Donnelly Apr 16, 2012
  
  Not to mention this: http://gothamist.com/2011/10/25/everything_ever_is_being_called_art.php
  
  Apr 16, 2012 at 3:06 pm
  
  Reply
dave Apr 16, 2012

Big words from a guy in the food-based version of Hezbollah.

Apr 16, 2012 at 3:31 pm

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- kate mooney Apr 16, 2012
  
  yeah, can the next like it or spike it topic be vegans?
  
  but yeah, spike twee.
  
  Apr 16, 2012 at 4:19 pm
  
  Reply