TRADE SHOWS
Shop & Dine 2019
Trade shows can mean high pressure for retailers as the research and buying decisions they make can spell success for a season or mean a mad dash to replace a line that isn’t performing well. But even those on fast-paced buying trips need to take some time to eat and relax.
Within the trade-show cities that are most relevant to the apparel industry, there are opportunities for culinary and retail therapy that allow buyers to recharge. From time-honored eateries and bricks-and-mortar shops to newcomers who are making names for themselves, California Apparel News reveals the spots that provide respite from the trade-show floor.
LOS ANGELES
Cota by Skingraft
767 S. Alameda St., Ste. 158
(213) 315-0505
www.skingraftdesigns.com/collections/shop-cota
After a decade of running a boutique for their leather jacket–focused brand, Skingraft, in downtown Los Angeles’ Fashion District, brothers Jonny and Chris Cota charted a new path with a concept store. In July, they opened Cota by Skingraft at the Row DTLA campus of boutique retail, restaurants and creative-office spaces near downtown’s Arts District.
Chris Cota, Skingraft’s chief executive officer, said that the creative spirit for their new venture is the same as the long-running Skingraft boutique. But they expanded the scope of this boutique to include new brands.
“Our aim is to feature the kind of items that would not be found in almost any other store. Much of the store is filled with one-of-a-kind items,” he said. “The others are very small-batch items.”
The Cotas also hope to provide their customers with new experiences. “We’ve essentially created an ever-evolving pop-up. We swap out designers and artists each month,” he said. “It presents a fun challenge for us—creating a space that is constantly changing yet maintaining a consistency that customers come to appreciate and trust.”
The new brands are welcomed with a reception in which the designers discuss their lines and their art ventures. Independent California brands offered at the shop include Ito, Bel Kazan, Seeker, Blamo and Skingraft. Average retail price points range from $100 to $300, Chris Cota said.
The change in store concept also resulted in a new experience for the Skingraft crew. At its former store, the clientele was 65 percent men, but the clientele at Cota by Skingraft has shifted to 65 percent women.
“It was a shock to us,” Chris Cota said. “We expected the gender difference to balance out but not totally reverse. We needed to adjust artists and brands to cater to a new customer base.”
The new clientele is reflected in the fresh approach to design inside the store. Unlike the former space, the interior has shifted from dark colors to lighter hues. “It softened Skingraft,” Chris Cota said.
Joey DTLA
700 W. 7th St.
(213) 372-5335
joeyrestaurants.com/location/joey-dtla
There’s a certain joie de vivreto alfresco dining. Joey DTLA aimed to add to the romance of dining outside when it opened its downtown Los Angeles location in July. The 8,870-square-foot space overlooks the street parade on 7th Street in downtown Los Angeles and is located at the edge of pedestrian center The Bloc.
Part of the experience of this restaurant starts when guests are offered glasses of wine upon arrival. Once seated, they are handed menus featuring globally inspired dishes, said Matthew Stone, a Joey chef.
“We’re excited to cater to Los Angeles’ cosmopolitan palate,” he said. “Joey DTLA will naturally become a hub for a global tribe of patrons who are keen to experience a variety of dishes from all corners of the world while at the same time utilizing ingredients from the local farmer’s markets.”
Dishes include a Korean fried cauliflower bowl, lobster grilled cheese and steak-and-lobster ravioli. Other dishes include sake-glazed Chilean sea bass, a 20-ounce bone-in rib eye, miso ramen, a sushi cone and katsu chicken salad. Prices range from $5 for a sushi cone to $41 for a filet mignon.
Joey’s restaurants are a good destination for night owls as they stay open until 1 a.m. A full bar includes offerings that range from wine and mezcal-based cocktails to draft and bottled beers. The Joey restaurants are part of a chain of 22 locations headquartered in Vancouver, British Columbia. The first Los Angeles location opened in 2015 at The Village at Westfield Topanga in the Woodland Hills area.
SAN FRANCISCO
Veronica Beard
2241 Fillmore St.
(415) 796-6445
Once the main hub for jazz clubs in San Francisco, the Fillmore District has become the address for boutiques carrying such contemporary women’s brands as Margaret O’Leary, Alice + Olivia and Marc by Marc Jacobs.
The newest entry onto this scene is a boutique from the New York–headquartered Veronica Beard brand. It opened in May in a 1,983-square-foot space outfitted with vintage furniture. Co-founder Veronica Swanson Beard called the new shop something of a homecoming.
“It has been a dream of mine to open a store in my hometown for quite some time,” Swanson Beard said. “All of our stores have different design elements based on the location, so we’re excited to welcome the San Francisco shopper to this unique space that we curated on Fillmore Street to capture the energy of the city.”
Like other Veronica Beard shops, the Fillmore boutique offers the brand’s ready-to-wear collections, jeans and shoe offerings. Also in the merchandise mix are limited-edition collections such as Veronica Beard x Bandier, Veronica Beard x Kassatex and other brands. Retail price points range from $88 for a crew-neck T-shirt to $995 for a Phillips Dickey coat.
The San Francisco shop is one of the latest stops along the brand’s retail expansion. On April 30, it opened a boutique in Palisades Village in Los Angeles’ exclusive Pacific Palisades neighborhood. In October, it opened a location in South Florida’s Bar Harbour shops. The brand runs nine shops across the United States.
Elda
3198 16th St.
(415) 829-8468
San Francisco’s Mission District is best known for Mexican food, but the district also appeals to a diversity of tastes. The Mission hosts Burmese restaurants, Turkish spots and, since June, a restaurant inspired by tastes from the Caribbean and regions all over Mexico, said Jay De Natale, who co-owns and operates Elda with Alvaro Rojas and Eric Ochoa.
“We’re sitting in a culinary mecca,” De Natale said of the Mission. “We want to honor it yet keep it different. Our foods are seasonal and delicious.”
José Flores, Elda’s chef, has put together a menu with Caribbean and Latin tastes. Think a Jamaican beef patty paired with a plantain dip or a milk-bread fried chicken sandwich with Mexican-style chamoy sauce. There are also chicken tostadas with black-sesame mole and a Mayan pumpkin-seed dip known as sikil pak that is served with crudités. Prices range from $8 to $16.
Food is only part of the story at Elda. Latin-inspired cocktails are a big deal. There’s the Hot Stepper, a concoction of rye, grapefruit, spicy honey and an IPA, and there’s the Vampiros, with mezcal, vampire sage shrub, lemon and cinnamon.
Elda also specializes in natural wines made from organic grapes and fermented without additives or processing aids. Cocktails are typically priced around $14, and beers range from $4 to $12.
Elda relies on an alternative approach to interior design, a concept that was created by the Roy design group.
“There’s a lot of very sophisticated, man-cave-y dive bars in San Francisco, so we wanted to do something different,” he said. “It’s a 1970s, airy, breezy Baja California look.”
The exterior of Elda also hosts a mural of musicians painted by percussionist Brijean Murphy, who has performed with bands such as Poolside and Toro Y Moi.
LAS VEGAS
Downtown Container Park
707 Fremont St.
(702) 359-9982
For decades, Las Vegas has been known for The Strip, but there’s another entertainment and shopping scene coming up. It’s Fremont Street in downtown Las Vegas. Once a blighted area, Fremont has received kudos for supporting offbeat and independent businesses. The area’s renovation was guided by Zappos founder Tony Hsieh’s Downtown Project. Hsieh notably put up $350 million of his own money to build the area.
Technology companies are part of the area’s mix of businesses. There are also restaurants, shops and a 19,000-square-foot site called Downtown Container Park. This open-air center features shops, dining, art galleries, a kids’ playground and concert venues, all of which are housed in a compound of 30 repurposed shipping containers and 41 multifunctional modular cubes.
The container park’s shopping attractions include spaces occupied by clothing boutiques that offer brands such as Live At Your Own Pace and a multi-vendor shop named Third & Arrow. Other shops include Gimme 5, a gift shop where every item is under $5.
Since opening in 2013, more than 5 million people have visited the place. One of the big attractions is the Dome. It’s a 25-recliner-seat theater that gives Ultra High Definition screenings of light shows accompanied by classic rock music, as well as kids’ nature movies such as “Perfect Little Planet.”
Las Vegas residents said that Downtown Container Park offers an alternative to the glitz of the strip. “It’s a community of artisans where family and friends can enjoy Vegas’s original neighborhood,” Roxy Starr said of downtown Vegas.
Rod Rockoff, a Las Vegas resident and an investor in a downtown Las Vegas pizzeria called Good Pie, agreed and said that Downtown Container Park offers an alternative to Las Vegas. Since there’s a children’s playground, it attracts families with young children. While music stars such as Sheryl Crow have performed there, the main musical fare consists of independent bands, many of whom reside in Las Vegas.
“Having the playground in the middle is unique,” Rockoff said. If the building blocks of shipping containers are not already interesting enough, the place also puts together a Burning Man–style entertainment. At the park entrance is a giant metallic statue of a praying mantis, which appeared at past Burning Man festivals, and shoots six-story-high flames of liquid propane from its antennae.
Ambra Italian Kitchen + Bar
3799 S. Las Vegas Blvd.
(702) 891-7600
mgmgrand.mgmresorts.com/en/restaurants/ambra.html
Since August, Ambra Italian Kitchen + Bar has joined MGM’s restaurant mix in a 7,500-square-foot space once occupied by the Italian restaurant Fiamma. Ambra features popular Italian dishes and a speakeasy-style bar, said Ari Kastrati, MGM Resorts’ international senior vice president of food and beverage.
“Ambra will be a restaurant that offers the very best of Italy—world-classic Italian dishes and a dynamic cocktail program inspired by the country’s rich history, all presented in true Vegas fashion,” according to Kastrati.
Ambra specialties include meatballs made out of Japanese Wagyu beef. There’s also dishes such as the Ambra Tower, which includes King Crab, lobster, Wild Gulf Shrimp and oysters. Other specialties include Tagliatelle Bolognese and Dry-Aged Bone-In Tomahawk Ribeye Steak that is aged for 45 days. For dessert, there’s lemon meringue tart, Ambra cake, bomboloni, tiramisu, housemade gelato and sorbets. Salads start at $13, and specialties start at $57.
Named after the Italian word for amber, the restaurant’s interiors are bathed in a light, smoky amber hue. The place also hosts two bars. The entry to the Speakeasy is a door with a sign that reads Privata and leads into a space with a fireplace and a bar that specializes in Italian cocktails such as Negroni 1919, which features Beefeater London Dry Gin, Carpano Antica Vermouth and Campari . It also features the iconic New Orleans cocktail 1850 Sazerac, which includes Remy Martin VSOP Cognac, Demerara sugar, dashes of Peychaud’s Bitters and Pernod Absinthe Rinse.
Ambra’s main bar features drinks such as The Devil Is in the Details, prepared with MGM’s single-barrel Cruzan rum and Pineau des Charente, spiced Demerara syrup, coconut water, and Angostura bitters.
DALLAS
The Conservatory
4 Highland Park Village
(972) 913-4667
theconservatorynyc.com/pages/dallas-store
There’s the slogan “Everything Is Bigger in Texas,” but an exception could be the new location for luxe concept store The Conservatory.
In September, a 400-square-foot Conservatory opened at Dallas’s Highland Park Village. Neighbors include stores for top-tier brands such as Alexander McQueen, Dior, Chanel, as well as California-headquartered brands James Perse, St. John Knits and Trina Turk.
Call the Dallas store the jewel-box version of the 6,900-square foot Conservatory that opened in New York City’s Hudson Yards in March and features an art gallery, a tearoom, and a café intended for meditation and quiet conversation, said Brian Bolke, The Conservatory’s founder.
One also could consider the Dallas store a homecoming for Bolke. He opened his first retail venture, a flower shop, in the same Highland Park Village storefront in 1995.
Bolke said that the Dallas store keeps a minimalist ethos in mind, where less is more. “The concept is the same as New York City, just much smaller,” he explained. “[It’s a] highly curated assortment of edited brands. The space is the window into the brand, our NYC flagship and our digital home, the theconservatorynyc.com.”
Designers include Jil Sander, Hiro Clark, Metier London, Marc Jacobs, Anna Sui, Michael Kors Collection, Jeremy Scott and Misha Nonoo. Price points range from a $70 Ron Dorff T-shirt to $2,490 for an Salle Privee Eero suede bomber jacket.
The Conservatory’s initial plan was to serve as something of a showroom. Consumers would visit the store, make purchases and the goods would be delivered to their home. Bolke said that plan was adjusted to make way for instant gratification, allowing shoppers to take home inventory from the store.
In a prior statement made to California Apparel News, Bolke said that The Conservatory was meant to be a space to try new ideas and to serve as a refuge from the noise of a big urban area. “The name is a ‘triple entendre,’” Bolke said of The Conservatory. “It’s a place of study and discovery, a place that brings nature indoors and a place that suggests the idea of conservation, of respect for resources and time.”
Meddlesome Moth
1621 Oak Lawn Ave.
(214) 628-7900
Meddlesome Moth has been daring diners to be adventurous since opening in 2010, said Jennifer “Suki” Otsuki. She started working at the small plate–focused restaurant as a sous chef when the restaurant opened and then went on to serve and direct kitchens at venues such as Dallas’s House of Blues and Mudhen Meat & Greens in the Dallas Farmers Market.
In September, she returned to Meddlesome Moth to serve as its executive chef. She wants to guarantee that the restaurant will offer something for every palate.
“We pepper the menu with solid basics,” she said. “We have a great rib-eye steak and delicious hummus, but we push the adventurous side.”
Signature dishes include Nueske’s Bacon, which was made with state-fair food in mind. Smoky bacon is placed on a skewer with a funnel cake. “It’s breakfast meets decadence,” Otsuki said.
Another entrée is a grass-fed steak with kimchi that is fermented for one week by the Meddlesome Moth crew. Another dish, named Moth Balls, is a seasoned ricotta cheese wrapped in semolina flour. “It’s a ravioli, but it is not as pasta heavy,” Otsuki explained.
Meddlesome Moth aims to source much of its food locally. Its meats are purchased from local ranchers while mushrooms and micro-greens are sourced from local farmers, and coffee is provided by Dallas coffee roasters.
The lunch menu offers more-standard fare and is focused on a business crowd that is looking for a quick bite to eat, such as the soup-and-salad combo. Also on the menu, Homestead Gristmill Grits, which feature a jalapeño gravy that Otsuki says adds a hint of spice to balance the richness of the gravy.
The Meddlesome Moth also features a wide array of cocktails, wines and unique beers. Plates range from $10 to $26.
The restaurant’s décor also plays a big role in the Meddlesome Moth experience. The interior includes stained-glass windows depicting Elvis Presley. The windows were originally made for the now-defunct Hard Rock Café Dallas.
ATLANTA
River Mint Finery
2339 Peachtree Rd.
(678) 705-9297
River Mint Finery began with the inspirations of jewelry and home décor, which were the respective backgrounds of friends Cindy Joffe and Kat Hammill. Joffe was working on projects such as Avindy, a jewelry line that she started with her mother, Avril. She had sought out Hammill’s design expertise, and they started a boutique at the Peachtree Battle retail center. With a focus on jewelry, it also developed as a place for women’s clothing.
Brands sold at River Mint Finery include Elaine Kim, Claire V, Penelope Chilvers, Zoe Chico and Ulla Johnson. Looks range from bohemian-style dresses to knits with an avant-garde edge to distressed denim and faux-leather leggings and even overalls from the Ulla Johnson brand. Price points range from $102 for a Spanx faux-leather legging to a $694 satin cold military parka and an $895 Costantine dress from Ulla Johnson. Price points for goods from other brands range from $128 for a Levi’s Ex BF sherpa trucker jacket to $694 for a Kes-brand satin parka.
River Mint Finery is on the move. On Nov. 7, it opened a location in the Hudson River Valley town of Kingston, New York, which is Hammill’s primary residence.
Dos Bocas
275 Baker St. NW
(404) 704-8078
Tex-Mex and Cajun cuisines have inspired chefs over the past two decades as specialties such as fajitas have become popular at restaurants far beyond the border. Brian Bullock of the Atlanta restaurant group Legacy Ventures worked with other executives in his company to mix Louisiana Cajun cuisine and Tex-Mex styles along the border areas of Texas. Legacy Venture’s version of Cajun/Tex-Mex was named Dos Bocas and opened in Atlanta Sept. 17, across from the Georgia Aquarium.
The Dos Bocas menu features everything from po’ boys, muffulettas and chicken zydeco to fajitas, enchiladas and tacos filled with chicken tinga and beef picadillo. Appetizers include bayou shrimp or fried gulf shrimp cooked in a tabasco aioli. Other dishes include Nachos Picadillo, which is made from seasoned ground beef, beans, sour cream and pico de gallo, as well as tacos that come with a choice of hard or soft shell. Prices range from $8 for a shrimp appetizer to $28 for a steak deluxe.
The space also specializes in cocktails inspired by Louisiana and Tex-Mex traditions. The Get Jeff, a Sazerac cocktail, is inspired by a venerable New Orleans cocktail that features bitters from the New Orleans area. There’s also a Lonestar margarita.
Legacy Ventures worked with ASD|SKY on the design for the 8,000-square-foot restaurant. The space has two levels, including a second-story patio and balcony with views of the surrounding Atlanta skyline.
NEW YORK
Forty Five Ten
20 Hudson Yards, Ste. 512
(917) 970-4510
The press greeted Forty Five Ten with high accolades on March 15 when it opened a 16,000-square-foot shop in New York City’s Hudson Yards. With a reputation that has left an impression across industries, Forty Five Ten has enjoyed stellar reviews from veteran travel outlets such as Lonely Planet, which noted it has “managed to garner everyone’s attention.”
Kristen Cole, Forty Five Ten’s president and chief creative officer, said that the store was meant to make a statement and offer a sense of occasion.
“Forty Five Ten’s two Dallas stores and its locations in Aspen, Colo.; Napa, Calif.; and Miami were meant to be bold and modern,” she said “But we took it to another level in New York.”
Forty Five Ten received praise for its merchandising mix, which includes clothing from fashion houses such as Marc Jacobs, Dries Van Noten, Prismatic and Paco Rabanne. Prices range from $295 for a Caitlin Keough x Whitney Art T-shirt to $980 for a Lorod cropped flight jacket. It also got kudos for its store design, featuring accents such as a glass-brick storefront designed by Snarkitecture.
Inside there are four separate environments, which include a women’s section, a men’s section and the store’s vintage section. There’s also a housewares section called 4510/SIX. It has roots in Cole’s former project, Ten Over Six, which once ran boutiques in Los Angeles and Miami. Forty Five Ten’s parent company, Headington Company, acquired Ten Over Six in 2014 and renamed it 4510/SIX.
Electric Lemon
33 Hudson Yards, 24th Fl.
(212) 812-9202
Electric Lemon opened on Aug. 2 as the restaurant for the Equinox Hotel, the first hotel built by the luxe fitness club of the same name. Located on the 24th floor, Electric Lemon aims to serve cuisine that is healthy and flavorful to Equinox members, hotel guests and shoppers who visit Hudson Yards.
The restaurant’s menu was created to fit the hotel’s aspirations of wellness, said Chef Kyle Knall.
“In the development process, we wanted to help reinvent the lifestyle of a traveler,” according to Knall. “This means serving items that are comforting, soulful and incorporate high-quality ingredients. Our aim is to serve dishes that are nourishing but also executed on a high level.”
Many ingredients are sourced from farmer’s markets such as the Union Square Greenmarket. Seafood is sourced from Hudson Valley Fisheries and Island Creek Oysters.
Signature dishes include the marinated razor clams with pickled carrot and cilantro broth as well as beef tartare with a smoked-oyster sauce. There’s also the Somewhat Simple Salad, which features seven different vegetables, sunflower seeds and a lemon vinaigrette. Mains include hay-roasted oysters; chickpea pasta; a roasted chicken breast and thigh with spigarello, roasted Brussels sprouts and pickled apple; and a Contramar-inspired black bass with poblano, salsa verde and warm, fresh tortillas. Prices range from $14 for a Hudson Valley steelhead trout crudo to $44 for a Long Island crescent duck.
Designed by David Rockwell and the Rockwell Group, the restaurant overlooks the Hudson River. The interior features couches, a fireplace and an 8,000-square-foot terrace that includes an herb garden.
MIAMI
Clnrs
151 NE 41st St., Ste. 225 (786) 409 6980
After making a splash with the South Florida–based fast-casual food chain Pincho, Nizar Ahmad decided to try fashion.
In early October, he opened the men’s clothing store Clnrs in the Miami Design District, which is a hub of the annual Art Basel fine-arts festival. The Miami Design District also is the address of luxe flagships for companies such as Burberry, Bulgari and Balenciaga. The store opened with a minimalistic look featuring white walls and concrete floors.
Los Angeles brands have a strong presence at Clnrs. The brand mix includes The Hundreds, Daniel Patrick, Madeworn, Homme Femme, Serenede, For Those Who Sin and Honor the Gift, the brand that was launched by NBA star Russell Westbrook in 2019. Other brands sold at the store include British/Danish designer Astrid Andersen and New York–headquartered Profound Aesthetic. Price points range from $35 to $358.
Papi Steak
736 1st St.
(305) 800-7274
Nightclub impresario David Grutman gained fame for opening the LIV nightclub at the Fontainebleau Miami Beach hotel in 2008. His Groot Hospitality company later opened a handful of splashy clubs and restaurants in the South Florida megalopolis.
In 2018, he received a number of headlines for opening the Miami boîte Bar Bevy, where pop star and fashion influencer Pharrell Williams is a partner. Venturing further into dining in September 2019, he opened the high-end steakhouse Papi Steak in Miami’s South Beach neighborhood.
Partnering with David “Papi” Einhorn, Grutman put together a space that created a fusion of tastes that wouldn’t necessarily go together. High-end kosher food mixes with the glitz of music and nightclub A-listers. Spotted at Papi Steak in its first weeks were Jennifer Lopez and Drake.
Specialties at the restaurant include kosher chicken schnitzel covered with horseradish, lemon and parsley. There’s also a Glatt kosher rib-eye steak. Seafood includes grilled branzino topped with a salsa verde. For side dishes, guests can choose from charred broccolini, grilled asparagus, and mac and cheese topped with Gruyère. Desserts include roasted pineapple topped with bourbon toffee–and–cinnamon ice cream. Prices for appetizers run from $15 to $30; prices for most steaks range from $70 to $90.
Papi Steak’s bar also offers a host of drinks named after Rat Pack–era entertainers, Jazz Age pop-culture references and Americana. There’s the Frank Sinatra, which features blueberry-infused Jack Daniels, Velvet Falernum and lemon. For the fashion obsessed, there is the Koko Chanel, which features Tanqueray gin, Lillet blanc, strawberry, coconut, rose and prosecco.
