By Adam Erace
When you order the Martini Petit Pois at Salón Rosetta, the elegant pewter-blue bar above the lauded Mexico City restaurant of the same name, the glass has been just as carefully considered as what’s inside of it. The bowl of the coupe is a sort of Goldilocks: not perilously shallow nor a triangular menace from the ’90s, but just right in its depth and curvaceous proportions. The stem feels natural yet important between your fingers, like a fine fountain pen or a conspiratorial cigarette. The rim, flared out ever so slightly, keeps the mixture of gin, dry vermouth, aquavit, and sweet-pea essence inside the glass when it’s meant to be there, and sends it down a gentle little slide when it’s meant to be in your mouth.
“Design has always been part of how I understand cooking—and life itself,” says Rosetta’s chef-owner Elena Reygadas, who designed the martini glass as part of a bespoke collection with Milan-based studio R+D.LAB. “The weight of a plate, the curve of a glass, the way light hits a surface—these details affect how we taste and how we remember a meal.”
Increasingly, talented chefs and culinary professionals like Reygadas are exploring creative pursuits outside—through spiritually tethered to—their restaurants. Table settings are a popular medium, with lines launched by former Le Bernardin sommelier Aldo Sohm (the lightweight and lovely Zalto series) and Shingo Gokan, one of Tokyo’s most acclaimed bartenders. The latter collaborated with Yutaro Kimura, fourth-generation designer of Kimura Glass, on the Sip and Guzzle collection, which includes a Van Dyke cocktail suite that’s become a new industry standard. At Honeysuckle restaurant in Philadelphia, where every detail connects to Black culture and foodways, chef-artist Omar Tate and entrepreneur Cybille St. Aude-Tate created their Colonoware series with designer Gregg Moore. Drawing inspiration from pottery unearthed at former plantations, the collection functions as both servingware and, in the case of the 79 vases displayed on a long wooden table in the center of the dining room, art to admire.
Chefs and restaurateurs, it turns out, are natural curators of physical space and intangible vibes, so it makes sense that their talents would extend to retail. In New York, Donna Lennard’s perennially popular Il Buco grew out of her Italian antique shop on Bond Street. Now that the buzzy, cozy restaurants have become their own ecosystem, she’s returned to her retail roots with Il Buco Vita, a boutique stocked with la dolce vita–inspired ceramics and tableware, including fetching green and amber glasses designed by David Netto.
Meanwhile, across Houston Street, Flynn McGarry sells a monthly CSA-style box at GEM Home. McGarry stocks his cafe and boutique with fresh sunflowers, marinated olives, and striped tea towels inspired by an Edo-era pattern he fell for on a recent trip to Japan. Across Houston Street,
In Napa Valley, Philip Tessier, chef of the legendary Press restaurant, recently opened Under-Study, a gourmet food hall and market where locals pick up spelt-and-sesame loaves from the bakery, Snake River rib caps from the whole-animal butchery, and a bottle of Calistoga rosé from the bottle shop. There’s also a culinary lab for content production, education, and pop-ups. “It’s been a huge lift,” Tessier says. “Sometimes I’m like, Why did I create so many different things? But it’s really exciting to see the team. They’re all like kids in a candy shop.”
Back in Mexico City, Renaissance woman Reygadas was also in on brick and mortar. After a dinner of soursop scallops and sweet-potato mezzaluna spiced with salsa macha, diners could head next door to Mesa to recreate the Rosetta experience at home with Oaxacan clayware, hand-embroidered linens, and, of course, the signature martini glass. When the shop made way for more dining space, the pieces moved exclusively online. “Design,” Reygadas says, “creates the conditions for hospitality.”
