These days many beverage brands are courting consumers with exclusive clubs and private events, and over the weekend Stella Artois brought 450 guests from its members-only La Société to Casa Lever for what "Feast on Film," a series of private screenings with a menu crafted by chef Jonathan Waxman. To make the four showings of the Catch Me If You Can (a movie choice kept secret from attendees until the event's start) more interesting than the regular dinner-and-a-movie outing, the Belgian beer brand turned the restaurant into a 1960s airport lounge and plane, complete with flight attendants, air tickets, and vintage magazines.
Working with creative agency Mother New York on the concept and production, Stella Artois took advantage of venue's retro-style architecture and added a handful of key visuals to round out the experience. Staring with a check-in desk, where female staffers dressed as flight attendants handed each guest a plane ticket with their seat number, and a brief reception in a lounge, attendees were then ushered into the restaurant where the bar was stocked with vintage '60s copies of magazines like Life, Newsweek, Esquire, and Time, as well as Stella Artois and wine.
These tongue-in-cheek nods to the film didn't end when the film began. Each table was given a cabin-service menu, a pilot made announcements, and at one point the lights flickered as a play on turbulence.
However, the selection from Waxman, noted for his West Village restaurant Barbuto, wasn't the fare you'd typically see on flights. The menu included an amuse bouche of autumn vegetable crudites with blue cheese dip, a special Caesar salad, a main course of roast Chateaubriand with sauce espagnole, pommes rissole, carrots, and wilted spinach, and Stella Artois beer ice cream served with caramel popcorn balls for dessert.
