Written by Andrew Breitenberg

The day I met Kevin in the early Spring of this year I remember telling my wife Mariah that I had a new mancrush on the guy that ran Commune. It was Mariah that told me about Commune in the first place – she said something like, “there’s this restaurant in the arts district that looks straight out of Cape Town or Williamsburg. You won’t believe it.” She was right – I walked in and my mouth dropped open. That same day I met Kevin. He and I started talking about the relative merits of second-tier 20th century artists, the beauty of local community, and the spiritual life of plants, all within the first 10 minutes of meeting each other. Insta-mancrush.

A week later the two of us were scheming our first art event at Commune, called “Eat Your Art.” I am a street artist and have always loved the ephemerality of that medium – something that’s there one minute, beautiful, and then gone. Ishiah White, our pastry chef made these incredible flatbread canvases as well as all of the ‘paints.’ She made these flatbreads from a cracker dough mixed from rye flour and some benne seeds and cut them to about 8×10” and baked them off. Then she puréed roasted golden beets, purple beets and kale for 3 different all-natural (!) colors. Kevin brought a heap of peach blossoms from the peach tree in his parent’s garden and then we harvested a shitload of edible blossoms from the garden out back. We laid everything out on the table for people

The effect was astonishing! People got so into it – some so much that the eventual eating of the artworks felt like a sacrifice! In fact, one of the participants had made this stunning mandala, carefully arranging the tiniest flower petals and drips of purée in a concentric circular pattern. When it came time to eat it he said “it’s like this exquisite, painful, rush – I’ve never experienced this feeling before.”

Here’s how to create your own Eat your Art event.

Step One: Get loose. Make a pitcher of your favorite cocktail to keep the libations (and the creativity) flowing.

Step Two: Make your own appetizers using Comune’s flatbread canvas and edible paint recipes (below). Don’t forget to provide heaps (literally!) of small herbs and edible flowers to use with the art-making, and be creative with your tablescape.

Step Three: Take some photos of your little beauties and then wash them down with more Step one.