A Conversation With Bobby & Matt: What We're Collecting, Reading, and Cooking This Month

One of our favorite parts of Dugazon is sharing the things we’re loving in our own lives, what we’re reading, cooking, collecting, and finding comfort in as the season shifts. We realized these little conversations happen between us constantly, usually over coffee in the kitchen or during a walk through the shop. So we thought, why not bring that conversation here?

A monthly peek into what’s inspiring us, simple, personal, and true to the way we live.

Matt: What I’m Reading & Collecting

Reading: “I’ve fallen deep into a Mary Higgins Clark rabbit hole,” Matt says. Where Are the Children?, her 1975 thriller, has completely taken over his nights. There’s something about a vintage mystery that feels perfect this time of year: moody, engrossing, with just the right amount of nostalgia.

“I can't get enough. There’s a comfort in her pacing and the world she builds, it’s familiar but still gripping, and I love that.”

Collecting: Lately, Matt has been hunting down old issues of Vanity Fair, specifically the Tina Brown and early Graydon Carter years from the mid-80s to early 90s.

“They’re fabulous, the writing, the photography, the cultural moment. They feel like holding a little slice of New York history.”

Stacks of these magazines are starting to form at home, and honestly, we’re not mad about it. They’re as much inspiration as they are conversation pieces.

Bobby: What I’m Cooking & Returning To

Cooking: “I’m always cooking from River Road Recipes,” Bobby says, the iconic Junior League cookbook from Baton Rouge. His mother swore it was one of the greats, and over the years, he’s come to agree. It’s the kind of book where the pages stick together and recipes are marked not with notes in the margins, but with memories.

But recently, two new books have joined the rotation:

• Peter Som’s Family Style

• Lidey Heuck’s Cooking in Real Life

Both have quickly become cold-weather staples in the house, soups, stews, gumbos, hearty pasta dishes. “Comfort cooking,” Bobby says. “The kind that fills the house and makes the night feel warm.”

Seasonal Inspiration: Winter at Dugazon always leans into practicality with a little romance. You’ll find pots on the stove, linens on the table, something simmering, and candles lit before dusk.

What We’re Both Loving Right Now

A few things we’ve been reaching for over and over again, without even noticing:

• A linen we’ve been using daily, soft and perfectly broken in

• A vintage serving spoon that somehow ends up in every dish

• A photograph we found on a trip that now anchors a corner of the shop

• A taper candle color we can’t stop lighting as the days get shorter

These are habits, rituals, small pleasures, the things that feel right in the moment and eventually become part of the home.