Standing at the corner of Front and Palmer Streets on a Friday night, you’ll be crushed by the rhythm-stuck-in-repeat of the El rushing back and forth over your head and surrounded by a mostly open vista of abandoned lots and empty curbs. But with a number of popular area bars to give you shelter, it might be difficult to imagine why a reclaimed barrel factory should be your destination for the weekend.
On Friday, February 22, the aptly-named Front & Palmer hosted a dinner salon presented by Feast Your Eyes Catering in partnership with InLiquid and curated by Chessia Kelley. Guests entering the space were greeted with a fairyland spectacle of light and flame, where mock silhouettes of trees danced across wood paneling and rope chandeliers snaked their way across the ceiling.
Sweeping around walls were the stunning photographs of Colette Fu, whose capture of color lends a touch of Kansas-to-Oz magic to the everyday. One could just as easily get lost in the mathematical wonderlands of Jacque Liu, whose installations take pastel shades and bend them into geometrical treats, sweetening the walls like candy delicacies stuck to paper. His graphite drawings map the surface of a storm with constellation-like contours, blending the intricacy of medieval-style cartography with ageless nature.
When the feast for the eyes was finished, the real feast was laid out: three courses of Asian cuisine. As diners piled their plates with edamame dumplings and char siu duck bao buns, jazz musicians rounded out the evening’s sensory delights. Halfway through the meal, a lion dance performed by the Philadelphia Suns brought the overwhelming audiovisual delights of the space into sharp focus: a harmony of movement, rhythm, and iridescence.
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