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Highly Stylized Parties Get a Sustainable Makeover
Silkstone Bespoke Events takes catering to the next level, vows to offset carbon footstep in the process
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Longtime friends Ben Towill and Phil Winser are proving that when brilliant minds come together anything is possible, even in this economy. Only one year after launching Silkstone Events, a catering company with a green initiative, the duo has brought on a young creative team and is relaunching as Silkstone Bespoke Events next month. Employing the strengths of Towill’s cheffing background with Winser’s production design skill set, the newly refocused and expanded events company is creating “fantasy-come-true” high-end conceptual parties that serve Farmer’s Market inspired seasonal cuisine.
Facilitating this evolution was the takeover of 17 Orchard Street on the corner of Canal Street. The ground floor will be a market-inspired restaurant to open this spring, which will have “British elements in its design” plus “a little shop in the front” selling mostly prepared foods. With all aspects of Silkstone operating under one roof, “The production side will be the focus of the event and the catering will be an add-on to the restaurant instead of just being a catering company, which we were,” Towill explains. Recent events exemplifying this new direction included a Moroccan themed wedding party and 50’s Rat Pack inspired birthday set in Chinese laundry/Speakeasy. Offering a fresh approach to high-end catering is changing what it means to throw a party when the entire event is produced in an environmentally friendly manner—carefully chosen locale, decorations, purchasing organic and Farmer’s Market ingredients, recycling, donating leftovers to City Harvest and organic waste to LES’s Ecology Centers.
Towill and Winser thrive on the challenges that are brought about when creating a sustainable event from start to finish. From a food standpoint, “Instead of thinking in the realms of tuna, swordfish and marlin you think in terms of seasons and realize your limitations, which makes your life a bit easier,” Towill explains. Because organic food is always more expensive they don’t use prime cuts of meat. “And 70% of our food is probably vegetarian,” adding that “balsamic roasted beets and cumin-roasted carrots make delicious canapés.”
The excitement of implementing the design aspect with impeccable food comes when, “People actually talk about the food and why they’re at the event instead of talking about their house in the Hamptons!” Although bigger and more challenging opportunities are on the horizon, they’re maintaining their integrity and sense of humor and will always welcome quaint dinner parties!
Check out the newly designed website at www.silkstoneevents.com.