Breaking Bread in the East End

Food has a way of getting people talking.

This summer, it took us from London’s East End, to Long Island’s. From a beach hotel in Montauk to a table on the North Fork: two conversations and one shared idea that nothing brings people together quite like sitting down to eat.

In Montauk, Richard was invited to join a panel hosted by Chapter and Marram on Designing Community Through Dining. Alongside Michael Yarinsky, Principal of Office of Tangible Space and Charmaine Landicho Baechle, founder of City Beet Kitchens, the panel explored how design shapes the way we come together around food.

Marram Montauk, home to Design Dialogues © Marram

Designing Community Through Dining

Moderated by Editor-in-Chief of the Architect’s Newspaper, Jack Murphy, the dialogue drew parallels between the panellists’ work - Michael's redesign of the public café at the Brooklyn Museum to celebrate the institution's bicentenary, mirrored Holland Harvey’s work with Corner at Tate Modern.

Charmaine’s City Beet Kitchens is part of Project Renewal, a project aligned with our own long-term collaboration with London’s Shelter From The Storm. Project Renewal is a non profit whose mission is to end the cycle of homelessness by empowering individuals and families to renew their lives - serving approximately 15,000 homeless New Yorkers every year.

The discussion highlighted the important role food plays in bringing people together, whether for sustenance, celebration or rehabilitation. It also raised a wider question about the spaces that support those moments, and how the setting, atmosphere and experience can shape the way we interact with one another.

Food, Glorious Food

On Long Island’s North Fork, a dinner hosted by Mastercard and Friend of Chef brought chefs, restaurateurs, operators and hospitality leaders together at chef John Fraser’s North Fork Table & Inn.

The North Fork is shaped by its landscape, with farms, vineyards and waterways providing an abundance of fresh, seasonal produce that feeds into the food culture of the region. At North Fork Table & Inn, that connection to place was at the heart of the experience. The day’s catch was cooked over an open flame, alongside local produce, with the food reflecting the landscape that surrounds the restaurant.

Bringing together people from across the food and hospitality world in such a special place created a different kind of richness, a chance to share stories and learn from each other around a table, breaking bread away from the usual settings of the industry.

Dinner was beautifully and theatrically presented by John and his team, designed to celebrate the local ingredients and connect guests to the North Fork: provenance served as the main event.

It’s a theme that’s always been relevant to how we think about hospitality. With projects spanning restaurants, bakeries, cafés and hotels, the common thread is not simply the function of the space but making the everyday space extraordinary, by creating environments that invite people to stay, break bread and connect.