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We had a super-special dinner a few months ago with Our Boyfriend* at L2O. While the edible component of the meal was a long string of hits with nary a miss, two things in particular had both of us basically jumping up and down with excitement: the menus and the water glasses.

The menus, if you have not experienced them, are printed on the most luxurious paper we have ever encountered. We had not, in fact, ever considered paper to be something that could be luxurious, until we touched these menus. They are velvety, not unlike a newborn puppy. Our Boyfriend spent a considerable portion of the ride home lovingly petting the menu our captain had given us to keep.

But the other point of obsession was the water glasses. They're razor thin, nearly weightless, and tinged an aquatic blue that deepens as the glass thickens towards the base. We flipped out over their awesomeness, and have been in a continual state of flip-outtage over them ever since.

Not too long ago, we came across them in real life, and we almost lost it right there in the store. We called Our Boyfriend in an excited panic and shouted into the phone OH MY GOD WE FOUND THE L2O GLASSES OH MY GOD, and then we didn't buy them, because they are ridiculously expensive.

The other night, we and Our Boyfriend revealed to one another that we both had, secretly, almost purchased the glasses for each other as Christmas gifts, but then didn't because — we had identical deterrants — they came in assorted colors, rather than L2O-blue. But it was a total Gift of the Magi moment, perhaps the first of that type to center around glassware.

It looks like we're not alone in our love for L2O's glasses: on the restaurant's blog, Anthony Cournia rhapsodizes about the search for the perfect blue water glass, and how they had to call the folks at Riedel to cut a special deal to get the blue glasses in quantity — sadly for all of us, they're only available to the public in those dealbreaking multicolor sets. And we didn't quite have the guts to ask our server if we could bring home a water glass along with the menu.

Blue [L2O Blog]
L.2O [MenuPages]
L.2O [Official Site]

[Photo via the MoMA Store]

*To prevent confusion: this is not Our Secret Boyfriend Mike Sula, who is our secret boyfriend. This is our real boyfriend, who does not know about our secret, one-sided love affair with Mr. Sula.