Palettes for palates
Experimental eateries blend food, music, art in interactive experiences
Bartender Luca Famulari shakes a cocktail.
The "7 Paintings" immersive dining event May 29 in Hollywood, Calif., pairs food with art and music.
Top: A guest uses a silicone brush to apply sauces onto an entree, a nod to abstractionist Jackson Pollock.
Above: A course is served with a soup can, a nod to artist Andy Warhol.
Guests partake in a "7 Paintings" dinner event, a seven-course meal with presentations of food, on May 29 in Hollywood, Calif.
Darryl Mayes of Charlotte, N.C., left, and Taylor Smith of North Hollywood uncover their main courses.
IMMERSIVE DINING
My dinner course is served. It is a Campbell'sinspired soup can, lightly angled so strands of broccoli are peeking out. I lift the can to uncover a slow-braised short rib and mashed potatoes.
It's an American dish to represent an American artist: Andy Warhol.
The room is overtaken with projections, scenes of bustling New York traffic paired with bachelor-pad-like guitar riffs. Shown on a wall above a dinner table is a selection of Warhol silkscreens.
It's a Friday night in West Hollywood, and I'm surrounded by a mix of out-of-towners and those celebrating an anniversary. While this is a special occasion, we're urged to get a little messy with our food — use our hands, paint with a salad, draw on a cookie.
Play is the primary side dish at "7 Paintings," a tech-infused dinner theater that aims to be a crash course in fine art. Veggies paired with multiple mini cups of colorful dressings? Guests are encouraged to mix and match the vinaigrettes into a mess of colors, a nod to abstractionist Jackson Pollock. Yellowfin tuna with dashes of avocado and taro chips? That's an edible tribute to Banksy. What does raw fish have to do with stenciled street art? It's bold, heavily angled and has a short shelf life? Maybe? Perhaps don't overthink it.
"Have you ever eaten a painting before?" says Nadine Beshir, the Dubai-based creator of "7 Paintings." "We try to get people out of their comfort zones and eating paper. I want to bring out the child in them."
Techy trend
"7 Paintings," held at Sunset House L.A. through the end of August, is the latest example of immersive dining to arrive in the city. Such experiences often are accentuated with advanced multimedia technology and sometimes theatrical elements.
For instance, Eatrenalin at Germany's Europa-Park, a dining room-meets-ride where participants are whisked around the space on trackless "floating chairs," just received a coveted Michelin star. Ibiza's Sublimotion brings 12 diners together in a room that comes alive with otherworldly projections and performers. At times, diners don virtual reality headgear.
Tech-driven immersive dining experiences never quite took off in Los Angeles as a trend. Last year, the Gallery, where fantastical cityscapes and projections surrounded downtown L.A. diners, stood just a couple months before the concept was abandoned.
"The economics of a restaurant are not the same as the economics of theater and the challenge of combining the two lies in thinking outside the box with respect to pricing and cost structure, such that the customer perceives high value from both the food and the experience," Gallery co-founder Daren Ulmer said.
Pricey balance
A spot in the "7 Paintings" dining room runs $175, on par with a number of the city's most acclaimed restaurants.
There also is the reality that all public dining is in some fashion immersive, usually requiring varying combinations of engagement, communication and presentation. Are all of the added elements distracting to guests?
Throughout "7 Paintings," for instance, an animated Mona Lisa, on the wall next to the main dinner table, provides brief biographical details of each artist represented.
"Being able to nail the food, and nail the story, those are two very difficult threads to weave," said Joanna Garner, an immersive designer and former creative director with experiential art firm Meow Wolf. "I do think, ultimately, people come to a dinner table to talk to the people at the table and to have intimate experiences. To have an experience where you're constantly being taken away from the food, I'm not so sure if that's what people are looking for."
Food is framed as a star of "7 Paintings," but tasting it is just one component. At one point, we must uncover a cheese course in a tiny treasure chest, the code for the lock hidden in the projections (it's not a hard puzzle).
Beshir highlights the Pollock-inspired salad course, which is accentuated with a jazz soundtrack, as the thesis of the evening.
"This course is really about getting people to free their minds from preconceived ideas," Beshir said. "Like, you have to eat with a fork and knife, or the salad comes and then the dressing.
No, the dressing comes and then the salad, and it's trying with big brushes to paint the way he did. A lot of people do not understand Abstract Expressionism, and they think it's people just splashing colors around. But when you understand the link between the rhythm of the music and painting, you live it. We give you time to paint with your salad dressing."
'Fun dining, not fine dining'
In L.A., Beshir partnered with nightlife impresario Kim Kelly, who is plotting a "Sleep No More"-inspired walk-around theatrical show for the Sunset House venue later this year. "7 Paintings," however, is fully seated, and purposefully a little silly. Beshir and Kelly evolved it during its L.A. run, recently adding a stronger painting component by giving guests their own canvas to work on throughout the evening. Each night crowns a winner.
"Everyone comes over to look at their art," Kelly said. "It just kind of changed the whole thing, to be honest. People are now being creative throughout the entire evening. Instead of just watching and occasionally painting, you're now painting the whole time."
As for what soba noodles with edamame and mushrooms have to do with Pablo Picasso, or why Salvador Dali gets an unexpected dessert course of a white chocolate potato souffle, Beshir clarifies the goal of the evening. This isn't an educational night. "It's fun dining, not fine dining," Beshir said.
By the end of my night, strangers socialized, showed off their painted cookies, shared Banksy tidbits and asked for recommendations on vinaigrette combinations. Ultimately, it was an evening of discovery, packed with surprises, like finding an entire course hidden under a canvas.
"I want this to be your movie and dinner thing," Beshir said. "I want people to be waiting for our next show, and to be able to afford to come every couple months."
To come home not with leftovers but perhaps a painting of their own.
