At the heart of Gorky is collaboration, and working with ANANAS ANANAS and Rodete to bring our June 3rd Apéro to life was nothing short of dreams. The ANANAS duo, consisting of Elena Petrossian and Verónica González, is a food-art studio based in Los Angeles and Mexico City and have devoted their work to deconstructing fine dining and brining attention to existing systems that produce immense food waste. Their experiences encourage their audience to interact with and think about food in a multi-sensory way.

Paulina López, the imagination behind Rodete, also thinks about jewelry differently—rather than an adornment, a complement to organic movement and physicality. We were struck immediately by her nose pieces which evoked Solange Knowles on the cover of 'When I get home'—otherworldly but familiar at the same time. And we nearly fell off our chairs when we saw her experimental collection she created with Francisco Cancino for his fifth collection.

While researching concepts for the event, we were delighted with a series of videos that Verónica and Paulina sent to us from Mexico City one afternoon in May with little more than a message of 'having some fun in the studio.' Was it glass? Was it ice? Maybe both, maybe neither, but we were happy to be surprised with the results.

The resulting installation was stunning. Verónica and Elena's ingenuity transformed our main display into a surreal tablescape consisting rows of crispy rice balls coupled with glass sculptures, made in Mexico City and brought to LA with Paulina for the event. The held a delicious red pepper chutney that disappeared as quickly as the rice balls. Hung from the rafters were loaves of braided olive sourdough bread, also made from scratch, and meant to be dipped into a bright pink brick of a creamy cheese concoction that also looked too beautiful to eat—it took one brave soul to take that first dip.

And of course, setting the vibe was the etheral multi-hyphenate and immense talent Dana Boulos, who took to the decks and evolved from whispering electronic dance to full on get-on-the-dance-floor now nostalgic hip hop and R&B.

For a visual diary of the entire evening, see the photo gallery here shot by MK Sadler and shop Rodete below.