Self-stirring cocktails, a giant cube of olives and a tomato-filled sink are among our picks of food and beverage installations found at NYCxDesign.
Nothing keeps a design week running quite like the charcuterie. Among displays of collectible furniture and objects, New York’s local caterers and food designers also put their best foot forward with displays of towering cakes and tables spread with fresh vegetables at events hosted by Vitra, Lee Broom and more.
Below, we gathered up eight of the most design-forward.
Read on for food and beverage installations from NYCxDesign:
NYCxDesign Opening Party
Local caterer Pinch Food Design created a “self-stir bar” and bites of “tiramichoux” balanced on wooden spoons for the official NYCxDesign 2025 opening party at the top of The Refinery at Domino.
“Eight elegant mixology spoons stand in contemplative display, while cocktails stir themselves, spinning around hand-cut ice spears,” said Pinch Food Design.
“It’s not just a bar; it’s a mesmerising ballet of design and mixology.”
Vitra New York Opening Party
Pinch Food Design also catered the opening of the new industrial showroom and event space for design brand Vitra, located in Chinatown.
The catering company created elongated “pretzel flowers” for snacking and spoons skewered with a crouton and topped with fresh tomato.
DWR x GUBI x Pierre Paulin
Design platform Design Within Reach and magazine Pin-Up hosted the reissue of the Pierre Paulin F300 chair and T877 table with design brand Gubi at the DWR SoHo showroom.
The event was catered by Jen Monroe of Bad Taste in collaboration with BITE New York, which created a giant cube of olives to play on a colour the F300 chair is available in.
“The F300 also comes in a mossy, olivey tone that I wanted to play up,” Monroe told Dezeen about a central olive installation.
“In the past, I had made some tower-shaped olive topiaries and loved the way they showcased the subtle color variations of an olive. I wanted to scale that concept up, this time in a more modernist shape: really big cube.”
Petra Hardware x Sight Unseen
For the Petra Hardware x Sight Unseen exhibition at Host on Howard, Chef Woldy Reyes created a “nourishing green, velvety, fresh, and jade” grazing station of vegetables and other bites.
“I aimed to reimagine the experience of enjoying a grazing station,” Reyes told Dezeen.
“To achieve this, I created a chia seed ‘island’ for all the bites to rest upon, utilising various shades of green produce as vessels to add dynamic visual interest.”
Tangent
At the one-night furniture exhibition Tangent local designer Michael Daae Christensen created a small wooden house and set of chairs for the food display.
The food was provided by community supported agriculture (CSA) group Monday for Wednesday and presented by local shop Bossa Nova Snack Shop, while local deli Falu House served Scandinavian hot dogs nearby on the sidewalk.
Silent Matters at Silence Please
Speaker designer Silence Please hosted the Silent Matters installation in its Manhattan showroom. The installation blended a traditional Japanese tea ceremony with movement and sound to celebrate the 150th anniversary of tea canister maker Kaikado.
Eighteen contemporary ceramicists were commissioned to make vessels for the event, which sat spread out on a large table before they were used to blend matcha for visitors.
Calico Wallpaper x Lee Broom Cocktail Party
British lighting designer Lee Broom debuted a wallpaper collection with Calico Wallpaper and hosted a cocktail party in the studio’s Manhattan penthouse to celebrate.
Catered by Chris Kronner of Mayday, the food display paid homage to the fabric-illusion wallpaper and featured “a mixture of market crudites, fava bean hummus, whipped cultured butter, seed crackers, pain epi, half wheel of grana Padano, jamon iberico, quince mustard, dried and fresh fruit, and shortbread”.
Reform x BIG Cocktail
Kitchen designer Reform hosted a cocktail party with architecture studio BIG at the brand’s DUMBO showroom.
Organised by Reform US brand manager Malena Burman, the “unexpected and playful” offerings included “piles of salami and prosciutto”, a sink filled with cherry tomatoes and a six-tier rhubarb chiffon cake by pastry chef Lauren Schofield.
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