Food & Wine USA - (03)March 2019

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9

70

THE

ARTIST

YARDY

NEW YORK CITY

DEVONN

N FRANCIS

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CO

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Y

FROM START-UP CAPITAL, labor,

and marketing costs to more

intangible things like cultivat-

ing an audience, the barriers to

entry for the restaurant industry

are very real and very steep. It’s

a reality that has made food an

often homogeneous and inequi-

table world.

But there’s a movement of

food entrepreneurs who are

seeing those hurdles and clear-

ing them—by running full speed

in the opposite direction. “I

want to consider the benefits of

borderlessness,” says DeVonn

Francis, creator of the New York

City–based food-event company

Yardy. “Not being tied to one

brick-and-mortar location means

we are able to reach into differ-

ent cultures and communicate

with people on their own terms,

in their own spaces. It means

we can resist stagnation, resist

‘business as usual.’”

Yardy’s roving pop-ups inter-

rogate notions of migration and

identity, blending elements of

art with food. Francis, the queer

son of Jamaican immigrants,

looks to his heritage to inform

the menus—you might taste

Jamaican run down, a stew rich

with coconut milk, or dhalpuri

roti, a Caribbean flatbread.

Along the way, you might hear

from poet Pamela Sneed;

drag performer and hot sauce

bottler Andre Springer (aka

Shaquanda Coco Mulatta); or

Arielle Johnson, a flavor scientist

and MIT fellow.

It’s a complete picture, a

moveable feast not limited to the

space between four walls. If this

is the future of restaurants, we’re

along for the ride. —JORDANA

ROTHMAN

CLICK IT Visit yardy.nyc for news

on upcoming events and booking

information.

“I WANT TO THINK ABOUT

NOT JUST DINNER BUT

HOLISTIC PROGRAMMING—

USING FOOD TO ENGAGE

IN OTHER PEOPLE’S

STORIES AND IDENTITIES.”

— DEVONN FRANCIS

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