If your gourmet kitchen is outfitted with Gaggenau appliances, you may never need to eat out. But if you do, the German company is putting on one of the world’s most celebrated pop-up dining experiences. Gaggenau will reprise its Restaurant 1683 in Los Angeles this May—and there won’t be a harder ticket in a city known for exclusivity for exclusivity’s sake.
In the fall of 2016, Gaggenau debuted the concept—created in recognition of its 333rd anniversary—in New York City’s Chelsea neighborhood, when it converted an art gallery into a few hundred square feet of Germany’s Black Forest. The room, painted black and lit to suggest the misty light of a forest sunset, was stuffed with tree trunks and an understory of moss and ferns, with an ambient soundtrack of bird calls and running water. Models in traditional dress marched through the room in a live version of cuckoo-clock automata, and a blacksmith hammered at one end to celebrate the luxury appliance maker’s origins as a manufacturer of nails (even then, they were luxury nails). The installation, which included a bar made from a tree trunk shipped over from the Black Forest, won several design awards. And while design is one of Gaggenau’s hallmarks, food is always the star.
To that end, the cuisine was created and served by chef Daniel Humm (of Eleven Madison Park and the NoMad, and three Michelin stars and seven James Beard Foundation Awards besides), along with a staff of almost-as-credentialed culinary notables. Seated at six stations, 48 very lucky individuals (broadly defined as “influencers,” gathered on an invite-only basis) watched as the crew prepared drinks and dinner just inches from their noses, as in some Bavarian Benihana.
Details of the Los Angeles incarnation aren’t yet available to the public, although we know that Humm will again don his toque for the dinner. If you don’t happen to be a big enough shot to garner an invitation, a certain number of tickets will be available in a charitable auction. Sign up for updates, and have your charitable checkbook at hand.
The kitchen at Restaurant 1683 will take its direction from chef Daniel Humm of NYC’s Eleven Madison Park.
Courtesy of Gaggenau
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