We Are ALL The Jetset

“If you’re hungry to learn and be better, I urge you to travel - as far and as widely as possible. Sleep on floors if you have to. Find out how other people live and eat and cook. Learn from them wherever you go. Travel is about the gorgeous feeling of teetering in the unknown. Travel changes you.” -Anthony Bourdain

JETSET X is a lifestyle! Grab your passport, and let’s take a trip together! Whether you’re a wanderer, a flaneur, a member of the gypset, a bon vivant, boulevardier, or a bonafide adventurer, the world is getting to be a smaller and smaller place! Every day around the globe, we post photos of the places we travel, of the foods we love to eat, and of the people we meet. We have more in common than you might think!

As a Chef by profession, I’ve always been interested in the breadth of creative ideas expressed through food, many unique to the regions of the world where they’re found. In many cases, these foods have been served for hundreds of years, rooted in language and tradition, art, music, culture, and community.

Maybe the one thread that connects us all is our drive to connect with others. We are social animals, and as long as we’ve been around, we’ve shared meals. After all, we need to eat to live, but why can’t food be fun too? While I can’t promise we can solve world peace over a meal, it’s certainly not a bad place to start, especially if it brings us closer together.

So, after a lifetime of travel, of dining and drinking in the world’s most glamorous restaurants and dive bars alike, here’s a bit of advice for what it’s worth: Go somewhere you’ve never been! Taste something new! Start a conversation in another language! Keep an open mind! Never stop exploring!

I sincerely believe that the world is what WE make of it, so for every meal you buy, we’ll also help buy a meal for someone less fortunate! We’re on a mission together to make the world a better place… one meal at a time!

We are ALL the JETSET!

Cheers,

Phillip Craig Thomason

CEO / Founder JETSET X

Why JETSET X?

“If you are lucky enough to have lived in Paris as a young man, then wherever you go for the rest of your life, it stays with you, for Paris is a moveable feast.” -Ernest Hemingway

JETSET X began as a dynamic pop-up concept in Paris in 1990, introducing global comfort food to the international crowd of students, artists, writers, musicians, models, and bohemians near La Sorbonne in the heart of the city on the Left Bank. In Aspen in 1992, the concept continued to evolve, offering affordable designer meals to a discerning mix of jet-setters, ski bums, adventure junkies, cowboys, and celebrities. During the 1995 polo season in Palm Beach, JETSET X expanded bespoke services for private clients and in 1997 followed prevailing culinary trends (and the grunge music scene) to the West Coast, first to Seattle then to San Francisco before branching out to Los Angeles. The concept has continued to grow from 2001 to the present day circumnavigating the globe in the process.

X marks the spot! X symbolizes a crossroads, a destination on a map, a place where we meet to connect, to inspire others, and to aspire for more. X crosses space, it marks time, it defines confluence. Two paths come together, intersect then depart. X flattens the dimensional, and it creates a visionary form where imagination strikes. X symbolizes the unknown.

X is an abbreviation for the prefix “ex” in Latin, which means “out of or from,” used commonly in words like extraordinary and exceptional. The word expat, as an example, refers in fact to a community of people living outside of their home country.

X is also short for express, which describes what we do really well! We don’t serve fast food! We serve fresh, amazing food fast, showcasing global cuisines packed with flavor! There’s a difference! So, stretch your legs, get comfortable, and come taste the world with us!

The most common phrase written on postcards is “Wish you were here,” and if you look closely at our logo, you may notice the familiar symbols X and O, travel shorthand for kisses and hugs. In that spirit and with all sincerity, we look forward to seeing you soon! XOXO from our global team of partners, artisans, and collaborators!

Safe Travels,

The Team at JETSET X

History

“Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts. Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the earth all one’s lifetime.” -Mark Twain

The term “jet set” was first attributed to Igor Cassini, an American reporter for the New York Journal, who wrote under the pen name “Cholly Knickerbocker.” Used originally to describe an international group of wealthy individuals who often traveled around the world to participate in various seasonal social activities inaccessible to most, the term “jet set,” which replaced "café society,” came from the lifestyle of traveling from one stylish or exotic place to another via jet plane. Jet passenger service in the 1950’s was marketed primarily to the upper class, but its introduction eventually resulted in a substantial democratization of travel. Although the term "jet set" can still be heard commonly, its literal meaning, those who travel by jet, is no longer really applicable in the same manner.

The term has continued to be used, however, to refer to those who have the independent wealth and time to travel frequently and widely for pleasure. Cities on the standard jet set routes over the years have included Honolulu, Mexico City, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Washington DC, Rio de Janeiro, Athens, London, Madrid, Paris, Rome, Vienna, Bangkok, Hong Kong, and Tokyo. From one season to the next, new hot spots like Nassau and Huntington Hartford's fashionable nearby development Paradise Island, which opened in 1962, supplanted other popular destinations like Bermuda and Acapulco. Meanwhile, Cannes, Capri, Saint Tropez, Marbella, Portofino, and select small towns on the French and Italian Riviera continued to make it onto the jet set itinerary. Greek islands like Mykonos and Santorini were included in the loop around 1974.

The early members of this elite, free-wheeling set were "socialites" who were not shy about publicity and entertained in semi-public places like restaurants, hotels, and night clubs, where the "paparazzi,” a jet set phenomenon, photographed them. They were the first generation that might weekend in Paris or fly to Rome just for a party. At this time, the jet set began to be celebrated in popular culture; in films like La Dolce Vita in 1960, Federico Fellini captured their sophisticated lifestyle.

A sign that "jet set" had lost its more exclusive connotation happened in the spring of 1962 when Vogue first coined the term "the Beautiful People,” an expression that initially referred to the social circle that formed around President John F. Kennedy and First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy. Readers of the February 15, 1964, issue of Vogue could learn "What the beautiful people are doing to keep fit." The two phrases ran for a time in tandem as well; in 1970, Cleveland Amory speculated "that the Beautiful People and the Jet Set are being threatened by current economics.” A more serious economic threat was the 1973 oil crisis, which cast a shadow over the idea of jetting about for pleasure. A sign that "jet set" had passed from urbane use was the 1974 country song "(We're Not) The Jet Set", in which George Jones and Tammy Wynette claim they are "the old Chevrolet set," as opposed to leading a glamorous, "jet-setting" lifestyle.

At once used less and less, the term "jet set" gained its second wind with the introduction of the supersonic Concorde. Scheduled flights began on January 21, 1976, on the oil executive route between London and Bahrain and the decidedly jet set route between Paris and Rio de Janeiro via Dakar. From November 1977, the Concorde began operating fast convenient flights from London or Paris to New York City, and passenger lists on initial flights were consistently gossip column material. The Concorde restored the term's cachet: "From rock stars to royalty, the Concorde was the way to travel for the jet set," according to the Nova retrospective special "Supersonic Dream.”

That lifestyle, which involved freely traveling around the globe and staying typically in only the most expensive accommodations, synonymous with celebrity, the aristocracy, nobility, patrons of auto racing and international polo, haute couture and cuisine, film and rock and roll, has now become more inclusive than ever. We’re entering a new “golden age” of travel, and as social media and omnipresent mobile phones with high def cameras have affirmed Andy Warhol’s prescient observation from 1968 that everyone will eventually have their “fifteen minutes of fame,” the jet set and the paparazzi are indeed everyone, everywhere now!