Perhaps the toughest ticket to snag on November 21 was a seat at the Make. Eat. Drink table, a collaborative dinner party held at Canopy Austin in East Austin. An event months in the making, the party was a celebration of the fine line between art and food.
Austin artists Keith Kreeger, Ryan McKerley, Michael Yates, Leigh Taylor Wyatt and Shara Funari joined chefs Shion Aikawa from Ramen Tatsu-ya, Grae Nonas and Michael Fojtasek from Olamaie and Elyse Hoang from Sway to create a full dining experience, from handcrafting the tableware to plating the dishes.
For $125, guests were treated to a five-course dinner surrounded by local art on exhibit for the East Austin Studio Tour. A portion of the proceeds went to Big Medium, the non-profit arts organization that puts on E.A.S.T.
On the menu? Japanese-inspired charcuterie and tsukemono board; chicken wing, sweet potatoes, grilled persimmons, huckleberry chestnuts and carrot gastrique; smothered cauilflower, bone marrow and egg yolk; lamb belly, winter squash, sorghum glazed carrot and pecan; and black sesame sticky rice, roasted chestnuts, white gourd and chrysantheum ice cream.
"It went beautifully and exceeded my expectations of what could have happened that evening," said Kreeger, the Austin-based ceramicist who recently collaborated with Paul Qui to create the tableware for his flagship restaurant qui. It's definitely going to be something that happens again. The wheels are already turning."
A table setting at Make. Eat. Drink.
