At Home with: Alex Delany

There is a slim to nil chance you follow me on the Internet and don’t know who Alex Delany is so I will spare you a wordy introduction. You can read our past interview for Five Fits With for some background should you be unfamiliar. On the record, and most certainly off the record, we’ve had extensive conversations about style. As menswear enthusiasts, we’re just about reaching our limit on how interestingly we can talk about personal style. I cover that in my Esquire column, anyway.

In conducting these interviews, I’m selfishly asking things for my own edification, and hopefully yours as well. This is about learning from others’ mistakes and successes. It’s about figuring out how to keep hungry and persistent; how to adapt to life’s many twists. It’s also about learning how many of the most cultivated people I’ve met have forged their tastes. Things can look deceptively easy when viewed judgmentally through a phone screen.

Alex is a man of many talents and passions. He’s also one of my closest friends. When I met him to photograph his apartment for this piece, I sat down with no questions written and no preconceptions of where our chat might go. I’ve never had a problem finding things to talk about with Alex. Over a couple of Suarez Family Brewery beers, we discussed his time at Bon Appétit, the reason he made the jump to freelancing and his advice on navigating the initial break-in period, his relationship to design, his love of art, whether or not it’s bullshit to do beverage and music consulting work, how he’s monetized some of his passions, how to investigate one’s stylistic choices, and many more topics.

There is a paywall after the first couple of bits of dialogue and a few photographs. Please consider a subscription. I will be doing at least one piece like this each month through the end of the year.

We've known each other for how many years now?

14 years.

We lived in our first NYC apartment together…

For two years. We didn't pay our ConEd bill for six months. And then we were like, “Have we been paying the electricity?” Remember when the electric got shut off and then neither of us knew how to pay the electric bill?

What were you doing at the time for work?

I was a production assistant at Bon Appétit making $34,000 a year. Now I'm making a little bit more than that and I have a lot more shit.

And what are you doing now?

Now I am doing a multitude of things, about 50% food and beverage related and 50% music related. On the food and beverage side, it's throwing events where I bartend, pour wine, do some kind of drinks curation and take over in a space. Or consulting with bars and restaurants and hotels or food brands on the editorial or creative direction side. Also, still doing a bit of food and beverage writing. The other half lately that's been really picking up has been playing a lot of records, DJ’ing a lot, whether that's for brands, clubs, restaurants, or bars. I recently started doing a lot more work curating music by making playlists for restaurants and shops which has been really fun. If I could just do that, I would just keep doing that. But we need to build up the client roster.