FOOD, an artist-run restaurant that briefly catered to the Manhattan art community in the 1970s, will be revived this autumn in Chinatown by the artist Lucien Smith. A project realised in collaboration with the estate of Gordon Matta-Clark, the restaurant aims to support artists through work opportunities and host events to “enhance some of the artistic engagement downtown”, Smith says.
A half-business, half-artistic intervention launched by Matta-Clark and the artists Carol Goodden and Tina Girouard, FOOD opened in 1971 in Soho, then an underserved neighbourhood. It had a highly experimental menu and programme, at times welcoming guest chefs like Robert Rauschenberg and Donald Judd, and staffed its kitchen with artists and designers. Although FOOD operated until the 1980s, its original founders stepped down around the mid 70s. Even so, the project became enshrined as a revolutionary moment in the history of downtown New York.
The ethos of the project resonated with Smith, who describes his approach to food and art as akin to Rirkrit Tiravanija’s, which is “collaborative and never ends”. Expanding on his work as founder of the Serving the People, a non-profit that supports artists through online and in-person partnerships, Smith sought approval from the Matta-Clark estate to relaunch FOOD, researching archival materials related to the eatery—including film footage, photographs and surviving menus.
For Smith, FOOD’s essential feature is its artist employment programme, which aims to help artists stay financially afloat while honing more practical skills to support themselves at various points in their lives and careers. “For creatives, many work opportunities can feel like distractions from their practice,” Smith says. “I believe that if you put time and energy into young creatives, that in turn will create a much healthier ecosystem.”
Ahead of its soft opening in October, FOOD plans to host a pig roast in September as a tribute to the 1971 Brooklyn Bridge Event, in which Matta-Clark staged an exhibition and barbecue on a pier beneath the bridge. The restaurant—located at 89 Canal Street, the former site of a diner—will have between four to five staff members, including Smith, on its day-to-day roster, with menus conceived by head chef Mathieu Canet, previously of Le Dauphin in Paris.
The core menu will be practical and “approachable for anyone that is working there”, Smith says, with dishes made with straight-forward appliances like rice cookers. “We’ve been doing experiments with Asian curries, and there’s more playful dishes that we will do as one-offs. A green eggs and spam sandwich was one recent experiment.”
FOOD is being realised in collaboration with the menswear designer Laurence Chandler, a collector of Smith’s work and co-founder of the clothing label Rochambeau, who previously worked on Kanye West’s Yeezy label. The project has been funded with support from friends and family of the duo and other collaborators. Smiths adds that they were also lucky to find a space with relatively “cheap rent” for their five-year lease.
Smith and Chandler hope to expand FOOD to other cities like London, Milan and Paris, and envision that a second space will open in New York, with the Chinatown restaurant eventually converted into a satellite kitchen. Even as a chain, the founders hope that FOOD will stay true to its radical spirit and community-minded approach.
“I’m always on the lookout for things from the past that may have not worked at the time but can work now,” Smith says. “Our approach is to really rethink what a restaurant in New York City is today and how we can creatively sustain that.”
