Esmé Partners with Pop Artist Ashley Longshore for Multi-Sensory Dining Experience

Esmé, the mission-driven restaurant from husband-wife team Chef Jenner Tomaska and Katrina Bravo has partnered with Southern-born, self-taught painter, sculptor and entrepreneur, Ashley Longshore, for their newest menu and multi-sensory dining experience.

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The menu features favorite dishes offered throughout the last five years at Esmé – such as Mother of Pearls, with Japanese white sweet potato and kombu ice cream served within a custom Mother of Pearl bowl, crafted by Chicago’s DTK Ceramics; and Clay, featuring squab with foie sausage, morels, fermented barley jus, huckleberry puree, salsify, and ramps, presented in clay which is cracked tableside – reimagined through Longshore’s artistic sensibility and singular point of view.

The tasting menu is showcased alongside Longshore’s distinctive works of pop art, which line the walls of Esmé’s dining room and transform the restaurant into an immersive, pop-up gallery space. Launching timed to Women’s History Month, portraits on display feature luminaries across a wide range of fields – such as Malala Yousafzai, Oprah Winfrey, Greta Thunberg, and Chicago’s own former First Lady of the U.S., Michelle Obama.

The experience begins by immersing guests within this partnership between food and art, with the evening’s first three courses served on a custom piece of plateware, handmade by the Esmé team and inspired by Longshore’s Audrey Hepburn collection. When guests first arrive, the animated pieces of artwork that inspired the plate’s design are projected onto the walls of Esmé.

Esmé serves dinner every Wednesday through Sunday from 5-10 PM ($265pp Wednesday-Thursday and Sunday; $295pp Friday-Saturday), and reservations can be made via OpenTable.