After spending so much time out of the City last year, (6 months in total!) I decided when we came back to the City in December that I was going to make my best effort to get out and enjoy all that NYC has to offer. This upgrade in activity falls nicely into my 2010 happiness manifesto as well. The way I see it – it’s what they call a win-win situation. The highlight on Tuesday night was hearing Patrick Jouin speak about working in industrial and interior design on both sides of the Atlantic. Besides being completely adorable in both presentation and mannerism – his take on designing to incorporate the whole experience of the consumer is fascinating. He will design the interior of a restaurant from concept to lighting. The project is all-encompassing. Patrick will also design the comfortable chairs you will sit in and the plates and silverware you eat off of.Carefully considering each element, layering the sensual experiences – not to overwhelm the consumer, but to accentuate how they feel about the food, service and their overall dining hour. He has a personal exhibition of his work at the Pompidou Center right now – what I wouldn’t do for a quick trip to Paris to see it?!!Last May, I had the delightful opportunity to meet Tobi Fairley at the All The Best Blog + Vicente Wolf event at V.W. Home. Since then, we’ve kept up-to-date with one another on Twitter. She truly is a joy to interact with – after much back and forth, she was even kind enough to indulge me with her very favorite spaghetti carbonara recipe! A few days ago the beautiful and incredibly talented Tobi alerted me that she would be in town and asked if I’d like to grab lunch. Yes please! I am so flattered that she wanted to spend some of her precious time in the City with me ~ xoxo!She was staying on the Upper East side, so I suggested we meet at Amaranth. It’s an old favorite of mine. On nice days they open up the front of the restaurant and there is a wonderful indoor/outdoor feel. We were half way through eating the most fluffy, delicious, fontina and spinach omelette (EVER!) when this guy entered with his posse to have a working power-lunch. What a fun sighting- Oh, how I love New York!I absolutely need to do an entire post on the beautiful interior design that Tobi Fairley creates. I won’t do it in this post today because it deserves to be placed on a pedestal all it’s own. Her work is simply gorgeous. It’s sophisticated and traditional, yet there is a modern flair to it that makes you think about Hollywood glamour.

Posted by Amy Beth Cupp Dragoo / ABCD Design Inspiration and Design and Uncategorized and What's on?