One Year!

A celebration, entertaining tips, and some reflections

We celebrated our one year mark of Salon 21 in our current location at 52 Greene St a week ago and I’m still trying to process it all. The event itself was such a fun coming together of friends, family, and supporters I’ve met over the past year. We indulged in beautiful and delicious desserts made by my amazing mom Michele, as well as “French 21”s (recipe below) supplied by Harridan Vodka (an awesome woman-owned and operated brand; thank you!), and had Rebecca Schneider illustrate our guests.

But one year is also a time to reflect. I tend to view September as a month for reflection in general. Even though I’m way past “back to school,” that feeling has never left me. I’m settling back into the city, which is reminding me why I like it so much once the leaves change and the weather drops below 70. And I’m trying to hit pause so that I can reflect on all of the amazing things one year of being open has brought.

Let’s take a look at some pictures from our celebration and I’ll share some entertaining tips and end with some reflections.

Beautiful but edible…and delicious

If you know me, one of my “hot takes” is that I absolutely hate charcuterie boards. In all forms. I hate food touching other food. “What if someone is allergic?” “How am I even supposed to eat this?!” While they may look pretty (not by my standards; I’m using substack as a forum for my snarkiness now it seems), they aren’t practical, and if you’ve been to a party with them you know they seldom get touched.

INSTEAD! Use serving pieces, cups, trays, and other tableware accents to display food in an interesting and aesthetic way, building volume and visual intrigue, while keeping things edible and fresh. I use that word because I want people to go up and eat the food that I’m putting out. And food can always be replenished - you don’t need to have it all draped and spread out across a damn board! I’ve said my piece.

The "ludicrously capacious" cheese wedge creates drama AND is edible, while the chips and olives are compartmentalized and look regal in their vintage silver cups

If I had to describe this tablescape i’d call it “maximalist yet thoughtful.”

And here is our lovely drink recipe, the “French 21” if you will, so you can try one at home:

FRENCH 21

Recipe for 8 drinks

• 1 cup Harridan Vodka

• 3/4 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice

• 3/4 cup simple syrup

• 1/2 cup water

• Batch, cover, and refrigerate

• Just before serving, pour in one whole bottle of champagne (or prossecco for a larger event, because let’s not be crazy here. Maybe Veuve can sponsor us next time?)

• Pour into glasses, garnish each with a lemon twist, and serve

Centerpieces

Of course we used florals for centerpieces, but something I’ve seen on Instagram lately is using a sheet cake (with florals) as a stunning and interactive stand out moment. My mom took a nod “From Lucie” and adorned her lemon raspberry Italian buttercream cake with flowers we got at the market that morning.

The dessert table menu

She also made stunning meringue clouds to go around, and homemade Italian rainbow cookies (omg!) Once I thanked everyone for coming, we cut the cake and dove in!

Room for activities!

We had an amazing illustrator sketch our guests at the event in their party fits.

I highty recommend having some type of activity for a large cocktail party. What can I say, I spent practically two years of my life attending bar and bat mitzvahs… the cocktail hour has to have a little something extra ✨✨

I was astonished at how many people she was able to sketch that night! They are such fun fashion illustrations.

Illustrations by @xobexstudio

And on a personal note, thank you so much to those of you who celebrated with us. We thought it would be fun to invite our closest friends to join this milestone over delicious desserts, drinks, and bites. This is a toast to all of YOU because Salon 21 is all about community. 

Salon 21 is a space for anyone - emerging artists, aspiring collectors and those who are just curious to learn. 

I’ve always wanted to build a space that celebrates talented people who I’ve been lucky enough to meet and gives them a platform to showcase their work. It’s truly all about this shared love of art, having art be the spark for a new conversation, a new idea, or the mechanism for which you make a new friend…

It’s very hard for me to take compliments or to pause even for a moment to reflect on what we’ve built in a year, but I’m trying my best!

Since opening our doors last September, we have had more than 16 exhibitions featuring over 40 artists. We’ve had close to 100 events, including figure drawing sessions, book club, trunk shows, film screenings, dinner parties, wine tastings, and more.

I can’t wait for this fall and our exciting roster of exhibitions and events. 

See you at the Salon soon,

Alex