What’s Happening: In creating The Menu, a new horror-satire that examines the dynamics at play in fine dining, the production team looked to the thorny and complicated world of high-end restaurants for inspiration. The film is another reminder that the line between truth and satire is often razor-thin.

The Download: It’s telling—or perhaps revealing—that Mark Mylod, the director of the new haute dining horror-satire The Menu has also directed 13 episodes of the hit HBO drama Succession since it premiered in 2018. The new film, which stars Ralph Fiennes, Anya Taylor-Joy, and Nicholas Hoult, explores what happens when the power dynamics between the absurdly privileged patrons of an exclusive restaurant and the staff who cook for and serve them are flipped.

The film is set at Hawthorne, a remote restaurant on an island with a self-contained agricultural ecosystem: scallop beds, produce fields, and a “Nordic-style smokehouse,” all tended by employees who answer to the simmering rage of chef Julian Slowik (Fiennes). The restaurant may be fictional, but it’s a composite of many real-life cult-favorite spots, the clientele they draw, and, in some cases, the ignominious scandals the industry has finally begun to take seriously.

“We were reading the exposé as we were shooting,” Mylod told the New York Times of the newspaper’s own reporting on allegations of wage theft, sexual harassment, and faking of ingredients at the Willows, a seemingly idyllic island restaurant and inn off the coast of Washington state. Noma, Blue Hill at Stone Barns, Eleven Madison Park, and Atelier Crenn were among the other fine-dining spots alluded to by the fictional Hawthorne in some way.

After his experience filming on location for Succession, which has featured revered haunts such as Le Coucou, Quality Italian, and the erstwhile Del Posto’s in New York City, Mylod upped the ante with The Menu’s set design, enlisting decorated chef Dominique Crenn to design and style the courses of the unhinged tasting menu (the breadless bread plate, a single scallop plated with “flakes of seawater,” whatever that means) in the film. She also schooled Mylod and Fiennes on how to make “the world’s best fucking cheeseburger,” the director recounted to British GQ.

Even in the costuming, the boundary between fiction and the reality it references is thin. For the wardrobe of Taylor-Joy, who plays the film’s heroine and is tasked with outwitting the prodigal chef Slowik, costume designer Amy Westcott worked closely with Jennifer Zuccarini, the founder of lingerie and ready-to-wear brand Fleur du Mal. Taylor-Joy is a real-life fan of the brand (“We adore her, she’s a Fleur fan and customer,” Zuccarini told Surface).

In doing so, Westcott flouted an industry norm of avoiding recognizable or buyable fashion in costuming. “Sometimes contemporary buyable fashion is the only way to go for certain characters to make them realistic and make them relatable,” she says. “Fleur du Mal is an exception because it feels artisanal in its approach. The look of the dress is so unique and the gorgeous lilac and shine permitted Anya’s character to stand out in the environment.”

Zuccarini and Westcott took the collaboration a step further and launched a limited-run of the Margot dress—so named for Taylor-Joy’s character. “I had no idea what the movie was about, other than it involved food,” Zuccarini says of the unorthodox alliance. For all its similarities to the real world—from mining Crenn’s culinary prowess to outfitting Taylor-Joy in one of her fashion labels of choice—The Menu is an action-packed thriller that’ll leave audiences on the edge of their seats. And, unlike the real world, in this one the scandals and misbehavior come to an end.

In Their Own Words: “I’ve always felt awkward with fine dining,” Mylod told British GQ. “[Game of Thrones writers] David Benioff and DB Weiss are big foodies, so I’d always hit them up for some fancy restaurant in Spain or wherever we were shooting and we’d go to these lovely multi-Michelin star restaurants. I’d love their company but always felt kind of uncomfortable, and never really appreciative of the food. What I came away with from the movie was respect for the people that practice it, that almost madness-inducing work ethic. I didn’t come away thinking ‘Oh, I want to eat you know, a Michelin-starred dinner’ anymore. I’ll still have a pasty.”

Surface Says: If a breadless bread plate sounds ridiculous, just consider that actual Michelin stars are serving dishes like frozen air and edible paper.

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At Miami Art Week, Surface is partnering with Polygon—a web3 platform building technology to create opportunity for generational impact—on a multi-day experiential activation at the W South Beach. In addition to serving as an immersive hub for creative discovery, the Surface x Polygon Bungalow will host a series of intimate, salon-style panels focused on the power of web3.

On Thursday, Dec. 1, pioneering leaders of creative spaces—Neil Hamamoto of WORTHLESSSTUDIOS, Fairchain co-founder Max Kendrick, and Spatial.io head of partnerships Gianna Valintina—will discuss breaking down the boundary between the physical and digital worlds with an emphasis on inclusivity. Viewers may find that collectives and DAOs have more in common than meets the eye.

This is an intimate gathering and space is limited. Get on the list here.

When Harry Styles first teased the artwork for his highly anticipated third album, Harry’s House, the design industry was set abuzz by its upside-down setting. The record pictures the British superstar looking perplexed in a sparsely furnished room that set designers Patience Harding and Molly Hawkins outfitted with Modernist pieces recalling Marcel Breuer’s Laccio table and the 109 Spaghetti lounge chair by Giandomenico Belotti.

Furniture lovers quickly focused on the room’s mysterious Bauhaus-inspired sofa that eluded immediate identification, with some speculating it was a Milo Baughman piece digitally altered to remove imperfections. Harry’s publicist naturally kept mum, but the internet soon spotted the now-famous sofa at prop furniture purveyor Superhire. One problem: it’s only available for rent.

That’s changing thanks to a group of Portland-based designers who happen to be big Harry Styles fans. “After reading several articles last spring about the mysterious sofa, we decided to challenge ourselves and recreate it,” Leland Duck told Surface in an email. Teaming up with fellow designer Helen Helfand and expert craftspeople in the Pacific Northwest, the group is soon introducing a limited run of 500 sofas under the name of Your House Couch. The $4,995 sofa is largely a faithful reproduction, though its rusty velvet cushions are tufted in a slightly different style and appear plusher. A portion of sales will support Crafting the Future, which helps connect BIPOC artists with career opportunities.

Jacob and Chelsie Starley’s disparate interests in design and photography, respectively, find harmony in Astraeus Clarke, their Queens-based studio whose clean-lined lighting fixtures pay homage to simple geometries, human connection, and the wilderness in their home state of Utah. The duo’s sleek debut collection creates moments of joy and exploration through interactivity—the Tinge lamps are dimmed by spinning tinted glass while the Roebling series can be pivoted for directional light—to reveal unexpected functionalities and newfound appreciation for the objects around us.

When creating his new Serengeti collection for Janus et Cie, Philippe Starck found inspiration in Tanzania’s eponymous savanna. The collection marks the French architect and industrial designer’s first collaboration with the furniture brand and merges his known affinity for natural materials with textiles engineered to weather the great outdoors.

The canopied two-seater sofa is the star of the collection. Its solid teak frame gives way to punchy sherbet-hued upholstery and an upright seating pitch channels the comfort of a wingback chair, with an undeniably timeless elegance. The retractable canopy is lined in Janus et Cie’s outdoor-ready canvas mesh, while plush cushions outfitted in customizable performance textiles round out the sofa’s aesthetic form with the practicality demanded by exposure to nature.

When: Nov. 29–Dec. 3

Where: Miami Beach

What: The annual contemporary art fair returns to the sands of Miami Beach for its most international edition yet, with more than 140 galleries and nonprofits focusing on themes of collaboration across the global art landscape. Spearheaded by artistic director Omar López-Chahoud, this year’s expanded curation sees the return of Nest, a physical and VR section that supports emerging galleries like Daniela Elbahara, Jupiter Contemporary, and Ochi, as well as the launch of six new prizes.

California is suffering from extreme homelessness and overcrowding. In particular, Los Angeles recently counted 15,000 chronically unsheltered individuals—a figure forecasted to double over the next two years. In 2017, to help combat the issue, the state enacted legislation that overhauled barriers to residential permits that have long contributed to the state’s drastic housing shortage. The program legalized the creation of accessory dwelling units—known as ADUs—that are small-scale, standalone residences built on properties zoned for single-family homes.

Now, a new startup launched by Airbnb founder Joe Gebbia is getting involved. The venture, named Samara, plans to sell factory-produced prefab units to homeowners with extra space. Starting prices for Samara’s initial range of ADUs, called Backyard, range from $299,000 for 430-square-foot studios to $339,000 for 550-square-foot one-bedroom units in the Bay Area, with lower prices in Southern California.

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Allied Maker is a New York–based design and manufacturing studio. Its mission is to deliver expertly crafted, highly engineered, sophisticated yet simple lighting design solutions. The studio’s inspiration is fueled by an obsession with natural materials including brass, glass, and hardwoods, along with a love for craftsmanship.

Surface Says: Allied Maker creates lighting fixtures from reliable standards such as metal and glass, along with a few unexpected dashes of alabaster or dark wood for lampshades. It champions a hands-on approach to manufacturing, resulting in visually arresting pieces that will stand the test of time.

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