New York Design Week is upon us and we’re so thrilled to see what has, in years past, been primarily an insular industry-driven event bloom into a city wide celebration. Beyond the tentpole shows and showroom presentations of ICFF, Wanted, OFFSITE, Soho Design District and the A&D Building, this year the team behind the online magazine Sight Unseen (and the annual OFFSITE show) has launched an event series that pairs retail/restaurant spaces with design content. This week as we clock miles on our pedometer during design week, enjoy a bit of rest and relaxation with Sight Unseen Presents; whether it’s for a pink meal fit for Luis Barragán, a view from the inside looking out, enjoying an art-inspired pepper mill or sipping on the lumpy nubbins of a Boba Tea, there’s nothing more satisfying than dining with design.
Think Pink at Lalito
Chef Gerardo Gonzalez is serving up shades of pink at his beloved Cali Mex establishment in Chinatown. Inspired by design retailer Coming Soon’s “Drunk Tank Pink,” installation, diners can enjoy a pink ceviche of fluke, cod and scallops marinated in coconut milk and beet juice plated in pink glass Mosser bowls (stocked at Coming Soon), or a pink dessert tamale of rhubarb and rose petals.
A Room with a View at Mission Chinese
At Danny Bowien’s temple to Chinese American cuisine, executive chef Angela Dimayuga has created an immersive space for experimental art and design with rotating installations from the likes of Grace Villamil, Confetti System and Jacob Hashimoto. For Sight Unseen Presents, Dimayuga teamed up with the editors of PIN-UP magazine and the interior designer Jim Walrod to create a projection reel of animated interior views from famous restaurants around the world. The images remind diners of that Chinese restaurant art mainstay, the moving waterfall “painting.”
Getting Lumpy at the Canal Street Market
Best known for their papier-mâché sculptures and collections of “Lump Nubbins,” the art/design duo Chiaozza invited a group of collaborators to respond to the prompt, “Piles, Stacks, Lumps and Mounds,” a group show on view in the gallery space of Canal Street Market. Snack on lumps of boba tea from the Boba Guys or a mound of Nom Wah dumplings at CSM’s newly opened food hall while you’re at it.
Pepper Crush at Dimes
Since opening Dimes in 2014, chefs Sabrina de Sousa and Alissa Wagner have created a community of health-conscious, downtown artists and designers who frequent their cheerful, veggie-friendly cafe. During New York Design Week the pair launch their first ever kitchen tool, a pepper mill, inspired by beauty of the “Round Bars of Wood” series by mid-century Polish sculpture Andre Cadere, and the functionality of the classic Peugeot model. A limited edition run of 20 of the hand-painted and turned wood mills will be on sale at the Dimes Deli for $98 beginning this week.
Sight Unseen Presents will be on view at participating partners through the 31st. Read more in the Sight Unseen design week magazine available at all the participating locations.
