What does Thursdays at Worth Street Look Like?

We have an amazing video that our dear and talented friend Raul Mandru put together, it introduces the idea of Thursdays at Worth Street in such an amazing way. Here it is in case you want a refresher.  

The question roaming through our heads now is how else would the Thursdays at Worth Street experience look like? How about the characters, our guests? What would their stories look like on camera? What about Felipe and I? What is our story on film? So many questions and the good news is, we are beginning to get some of the answers.  

For dinner #26, we had the chance to create a Saturday special edition with a talented producer and now friend, Evita Douropoulou. She used Worth Kitchen as the setting to her pilot show "Wanna Be a NYer" a story about students on their quest to find a US visa. For the first time, our dinner had real characters! While the show is reality based, it does have four set characters whose stories develop certain ways and into certain directions. The experience for us was a bit surreal. The one thing we try to do at all our dinners is to make our guests feel 100% comfortable. I think in this case, Felipe and I were the ones to feel a bit out of place, almost as if we were staged characters ourselves, not us in our own flesh and bone. If there is a word we try to maintain intact during our dinners is the word AUTHENTICITY. We always allow (if not aim at) getting people's true colors to come out, including mine and Felipe's. In fact, the nights where these colors come out the strongest end up being our most memorable and rich dinners. I have to admit that having a camera aiming at you throughout the dinner experience makes for a "staged" you, no matter how honest you would like to appear. I almost felt as if I was cheating on myself by not being genuine. While the "real" Tamy would greet us with short appearances, as soon as she got a glimpse of that camera, she would go back to hiding. And well, as far as the staged Tamy goes, maybe she isn't so bad, we will have to wait and see. 

The one thing that held true during this filmed Saturday edition is the amazing people we met and who now form a special part of our lives. During the dessert, we turned the cameras off, sat down, and opened up yet another bottle of wine. We all talked about our dreams, what drives us, where we want to go. The characters talked about their very real struggle to get a visa and Felipe and I talked about our very real Worth Kitchen project. Whether on or off camera, it was amazing to see so many live projects cross paths: A producer chasing an idea, a student chasing a visa and a couple chasing the dream of a restaurant. Thank you Evita for such great opportunity and for allowing us to see ourselves through a new lens.