This summer, shelter magazines seem to be dominating the realm of public promotions, with expanded efforts from Country Living, Meredith Publishing's stable of home decorating titles, and now House Beautiful. The latter's endeavor is a fully functioning kitchen in Rockefeller Center that opened on Monday as an interactive showcase for the Hearst magazine's advertisers and a place for the "Tastes of Summer," a weeklong sampling of food and drink from the Midtown complex's restaurants. To boost the third incarnation of its Kitchen of the Year pop-up, House Beautiful brought in Jeff Lewis of the Bravo reality series Flipping Out, who designed the freestanding structure alongside the magazine's marketing and advertising team.
Open to the public, the 1,000-square-foot kitchen is outfitted with working appliances, furnishings, fixtures, and accessories, which serve a decorative purpose and offer a venue for daily cooking demonstrations, tastings, tours, and presentations from a number of partners, including Bertolli test kitchen chef Sarah Page, Destination Kohler group director of culinary arts Ulrich Koberstein, Benjamin Moore senior interior designer Sonu Mathew, and Mohawk spokesperson and HGTV host Chip Wade. There's also a 1,000-square-foot wraparound terrace that provides additional gathering space for the public events during the day and private events at night.
House Beautiful's Kitchen of the Year is open through Friday, July 23, after which it will be turned into Bar 30, a restaurant operated by the magazine and steak house AJ Maxwell's until Labor Day weekend. There's also a charity component to the effort: Funds raised will be donated to HIV/AIDS nonprofit the Alpha Workshops and select products will be given to Habitat for Humanity's ReStore shops.
