WALL STREET JOURNAL JUNE 24, 2013 By DAVID SHAPIRO JR.
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Cassandra Giraldo for The Wall Street Journal
Ava Lily, 8, squeezes out paint to make a headband
In a small herb garden overlooking Wythe Avenue in Williamsburg on Saturday afternoon, Taavo Somer, the New York fashion and restaurant impresario widely credited with popularizing "heritage chic," watched a group of small children tie-dying T-shirts. Mr. Somer was on the roof of his restaurant Isa, a woodsy, psychedelic space, and he was hosting and attending a daylong fundraiser and mishmash of crafting events called the First Weekend.
Cassandra Giraldo for The Wall Street Journal
'Crown-crafting' with stamps made from potatoes.
"It's funny," said Mr. Somer, 40 years old. "We used to do parties and stay out until like 4 a.m., but now that we have kids, it's like, 'Can we do a crafts thing at 11 a. m.?'"
In front of the restaurant a few minutes later, artists Peter Coffin and Jon Santos explained the purpose of the First Weekend. "We're doing the First Weekend to raise money for the Last Weekend, an event we host at the end of the summer. We rent out a summer camp in the Catskills called Camp Lakota and spend a long weekend there. We had about 150 people last year," Mr. Coffin said proudly, who was in New York from Washington, D.C., where he is currently installing artwork for a solo exhibition at the Smithsonian's Hirshhorn Museum.
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Cassandra Giraldo for The Wall Street Journal
Ryder, 7, holds a mason jar with his tie-dyed T-shirt inside.
As reggae played softly over the restaurant's speakers, well-heeled 30- and 40-somethings, many of them friends and business associates of Mr. Somer, steered their children, including a toddler wearing a Motörhead T-shirt, through craft events going on throughout the restaurant. One of the most popular events, "crown-crafting," was hosted by Caroline Z. Hurley, who is currently the artist-in-residence at Isa and uses a small studio above the restaurant.
Crown-crafting consisted of using carefully cut pieces of potato covered with bright oil paints to print designs on bandannas. Ms. Hurley, who uses similar techniques in her fine art, excitedly noted, "My work has become so much more colorful and psychedelic since I've come here."
Cassandra Giraldo for The Wall Street Journal
The owner of ISA, Taavo Somer
In the parking lane on Wythe Avenue in front of the restaurant, Preston Madson and Ginger Pierce, the husband-and-wife team that work as executive chefs at all three of Mr. Somer's restaurants, helped raise money by grilling and selling burgers made of pork, beef and lamb. "They're really tasty," said Mr. Coffin, who was scheduled to DJ at the event later, munching on a burger and enthusiastically offering bites of it to curious onlookers. "It's like a gyro combined with a bacon cheeseburger," he said. Ava Lily, an 8-year-old attendee, reported that the burger "was like a regular burger, but the best burger ever!"
In the evening, carpenter Justin Allen, one of Mr. Somer's collaborators, sat at the bar on Isa's ground floor, sipped a beer, and discussed Mr. Somer's next project, a luxury hotel on the corner of Canal and Orchard streets.
"It's kind of an unheard-of endeavor," Mr. Allen said, referring to the fact that much of the furniture for the hotel is being built in a temporary workshop inside the hotel itself, including 70 beds, 100 nightstands and 65 desks.
Cassandra Giraldo for The Wall Street Journal
ISA artist in residence Caroline Z. Hurley.
"The way Taavo seems to approach things is to dive in and see what comes out—the process really informs the outcome," he said.
As guests gathered on the restaurant's second floor for a synthesizer jam session later that day, Mr. Somer's "dive in, see what comes out" approach was on display.
Abby Echiverri, an audio engineer who hosts a synthesizer festival every year at the South Street Seaport, brought a handful of portable synthesizers for guests to play over the restaurants speakers. While the jam session could have sounded dissonant, Ms. Echiverri was careful to introduce something to hold the whole thing together: "I brought a drum machine to make sure everyone played along to the same beat," she said, smiling and nodding her head.
A version of this article appeared June 24, 2013, on page A25 in the U.S. edition of The Wall Street Journal, with the headline: 'Heritage Chic' for the Crafting Set.
