Rob Brunner

Politics and Culture Editor, Washingtonian magazine

Politics & Culture Editor at Washingtonian. Previously: Features Editor at Fast Company and fastcompany.com. Have also written about culture and entertainment for the New York Times Magazine, GQ, Esquire, New York magazine, Rolling Stone, The Awl, and Men's Journal, among others.

Follow: @RobBrunnerDC

Contact: RobBrunnerNYC at gmail.com

Portfolio

Latest

Washingtonian - The website that Washington lives by.
10/06/2022
The Mystery of the Missing Prune Danish

Not long ago, I had a craving for a prune Danish. There was a time when dried-plum pastry was a special-occasion favorite, a mainstay of the bagel-and-lox spreads of my youth. Prune was my favorite Danish back then-every bit as good as the cheese variety and far superior to bright-hued fruit competitors like lemon and (yuck) blueberry.

Washingtonian - The website that Washington lives by.
10/28/2021
An Ode to the Final Pay Phone in Downtown DC - Washingtonian

The last pay phone in downtown DC sits in an assuming box fixed to a squat pole on the sidewalk in front of the new Cheesecake Factory on H Street, Northwest. If you've ever walked by, you probably didn't register it. You almost certainly didn't try to make a call.

Washingtonian
05/2018
The Folger Library's Dirty Books

THE FOLGER’S DIRTY BOOKS With Project Dustbunny, the Shakespeare library is using technology to study its collection. It’s part science, part science fiction.

Washingtonian
08/02/2018
What Happens When You Discover Your House Was Designed by a Criminal?

This summer, my family and I moved into a new house. We didn't know much about it at first-just that it was built in 1914 by Washington developer Harry Wardman. This was no minor detail: Wardman was the leading builder during a local development golden age.

Washingtonian
12/12/2017
I Took Suck-Up Lessons, And-Wow, You Are Very Attractive!

"Sucking up," Mark Leibovich wrote in his 2013 book, This Town, "is as basic to Washington as humidity." This seems especially true in 2017, when the President's yen for flattery has turned the practice into a hallmark of his administration. Though sycophancy obviously knows no political party, the current regime tends decidedly toward the adulatory.

Fast Company
03/20/2017
How Chobani's Hamdi Ulukaya Is Winning America's Culture War | Fast Company

Hamdi Ulukaya never planned to move to America, much less start a yogurt business that would make him a billionaire. Things so easily could have been different. He might have gone into Turkish politics or the family cheese-making business, perhaps even married the hometown girl who his mother claimed would be perfect for him.

Nytimes
07/12/2013
'There's No Genius More Unknown Than the One Who Never Was'

You've probably never heard of the movie that I'm most excited to see this summer. It's titled "Thumbscrew," and was directed by a shadowy auteur named Stanislas Cordova, a secretive genius whose dark art films are intensely studied by rabid fans known as Cordovites.

Features

Fast Company
03/22/2016
David Chang Wants To Fuku You Up

It was 9:30 on a Friday morning, and David Chang was already furious. The Momofuku Group founder was at one of his dozen-plus restaurants, Má Pêche in Midtown Manhattan, for a meeting with chef de cuisine Ian Davis and three sous-chefs.

Fast Company
06/22/2015
How Shake Shack Leads The Better Burger Revolution

"I bet no CEO of a company has said this to his team," Shake Shack leader Randy Garutti tells a roomful of employees. "I want to challenge you to put us out of business." It's less than 30 minutes before the 11 a.m.

Fastcompany
09/24/2014
Anthony Bourdain Has Become The Future Of Cable News, And He Couldn't Care Less

"Ready to eat well?" asks Anthony Bourdain. The chef turned TV star is leading the way toward a pair of narrow seats at the New York outpost of a Michelin-rated Tokyo yakitori joint called Tori Shin, a tightly packed establishment that's Bourdain's kind of place: little-known, deeply authentic, and a bit unusual.

Reviews

Rollingstone
06/03/2014
Bob Mould 'Beauty Ruin' Album Review | Album Reviews | Rolling Stone

"Vans" The Pack | 2006 Berkeley, California rappers the Pack made their footwear choice clear in 2006 with the song "Vans." The track caught the attention of Too $hort, who signed them to his imprint. MTV refused to play the video for the song, though, claiming it was essentially a commercial for the product.

Rollingstone
07/29/2014
Jenny Lewis 'The Voyager' Album Review | Album Reviews | Rolling Stone

"Vans" The Pack | 2006 Berkeley, California rappers the Pack made their footwear choice clear in 2006 with the song "Vans." The track caught the attention of Too $hort, who signed them to his imprint. MTV refused to play the video for the song, though, claiming it was essentially a commercial for the product.

Miscellaneous

Fastcompany
11/13/2014
Can A $200 Beard-Growing Kit Make You Cool? We Gave It A Try

For the past eight years, I have worn a totally boring beard-an uninspiring band of quarter-inch-long salt-and-pepper fuzz. Eric Bandholz, the founder of a men's-grooming company called Beardbrand, is way too nice to ever say so, but I know the truth: It's a dad beard.

Fastcompany
06/25/2014
The Woman Behind The Funniest Shows On TV

When the call came, Michele Ganeless didn't want to pick up the phone. Stephen Colbert was on the line, and the Comedy Central president had a feeling it was bad news. "There was a moment of, 'I don't know that I want to have this conversation because I'm afraid of what it's going to be,'" she recalls.