Taste of the Mint | Fiber Art

Art, food, and cocktails all in the same place for you to enjoy! Join us for this brand new version of Taste of the Mint that features a new collaboration with a longtime Mint partner– Evoke of Le Méridien Charlotte Hotel. You’ll enjoy crafted cocktails and dine on small bites designed by Chef Rodrigo Velazco, Pastry Chef Chelsea Ecdao, and the head bartender Stacy Jethroe– all inspired by the Schiff-Bresler Family Fiber Art Gallery at Mint Museum Uptown.

Inspired by the various fiber elements in the gallery, guests will work alongside the chefs to bring the menu to life. The menu includes a Summer Peach Cocktail that each guest will make alongside Chef Velazco, including a cornsilk garnish that will represent fiber and simultaneously chill the cocktail, Yellow Tomato Oyster Shooters, gazpacho, and a summer treat by Chef Ecdao.

Registration closes at 5 p.m. the day preceding the event. Bring your parking ticket stub to the front desk of the museum and receive a discount ticket for parking in the Levine Center Parking Garage. Please also note that the Mint Member discount will be deducted at the time of checkout. Please log in using your membership information and the discount will automatically apply. For additional information or to register over phone, please call Guest Services | 704.337.2100

CANCELLATION POLICY: Due to the need to give an advanced headcount to the restaurant, no refunds can be granted for cancellations within 24 hours of the event.

Image: Mi-Kyoung Lee. Korean (active United States), 1970–Dream Year: 2015. Knotted twist ties. Museum Purchase: Funds provided by the Board of Directors of the Mint Museum of Craft + Design in honor of Fleur Bresler. 2016.32

TASTE OF THE MINT | WILLIAM IVEY LONG COSTUME DESIGNS

Back by popular demand, join us for another collaboration with a longtime Mint partner– Evoke of Le Méridien Charlotte Hotel. You’ll enjoy crafted cocktails and dine on small bites designed by Chef Rodrigo Velazco, Pastry Chef Chelsea Ecdao, and the head bartender Stacy Jethroe– all inspired by the special exhibition. (more…)

TASTE OF THE MINT | GENDERED

Taste of the Mint combines forces with the YAMs this month to showcase their new pop-up art show on the Mint’s 5th floor expansion space, GENDERED: An Inclusive Art Show. The tour will be led by Adam Justice, Assistant Curator of Modern & Contemporary Art at the Mint with small plates and wine provided by Halcyon, Flavors from the Earth.

GENDERED seeks to create an inclusive arts forum for gender and its common intersectionalities with race, class, sexuality, and identity. The current divisive political climate finds people seeking a means to come together and find a common understanding. The YAMs believe in the unifying force of art and seek to create a safe space of expression and dialogue. GENDERED is a group exhibition featuring twenty-four artists from across the country and representing a variety of viewpoints through diverse mediums that invites viewers to join the conversation. The featured works of art were selected by a panel of esteemed jurors: Kelli Connell, Ryan James Caruthers, John Edmonds, & Carla Hanzal.

Interested in the YAMs? The Young Affiliates of the Mint Museum is the longest running young professional group and the premier social arts organization for young professionals in Charlotte, North Carolina. For twenty-seven years the YAMs have supported the Mint Museum through a variety of social, cultural, leadership and fundraising activities and events. The YAMs are committed to raising funds to offset the cost of free school tours of the Mint Museum for school-aged children in Charlotte-Mecklenburg schools. These tours inspire a new generation of artists and art enthusiasts who will make Charlotte a more vibrant community. To learn more, visit youngaffiliates.org/gendered

CANCELLATION POLICY: Due to the need to give an advanced headcount to the restaurant, no refunds can be granted for cancellations within 24 hours of the event.

Image: Robyn Day-Wo/men, Archival Pigment Print, 2015/2016

Special guests join the latest ‘Taste of the Mint’ tour

With a menu well-seasoned by salt, 22 people enjoyed the latest installment of the “Taste of the Mint” program on Wednesday evening – among them, the inspiration for the evening’s dining, artist Motoi Yamamoto of Japan.

“Taste of the Mint” allows participants to sample small plate and drink pairings at two world-class restaurants housed within Mint Museum Uptown: Halcyon, Flavors from the Earth restaurant and e2 emeril’s eatery. Then, the group heads inside the museum for a special tour. Future dates are scheduled for March 20, April 20, May 15, and June 26 and will be themed around the Mint’s upcoming F.O.O.D. (Food, Objects, Objectives, Design) exhibition. The series will resume monthly dates in fall 2013, and “Taste of the Mint” experiences are also available by appointment for groups of 10 to 25 people with at least 30 days’ notice. (Click here for details on group tours and click ‘Experiential tourism’).

In addition to Motoi Yamamoto, special guests during Wednesday evening included Brad Thomas, the Mint’s curator of Modern & Contemporary art; and Oscar Roldán-Alzate, organizing curator of the upcoming exhibition Sociales: Débora Arango Arrives Today, from Museo de Arte Moderno de Medellín, Colombia. After dining with guests, Motoi resumed work on his large-scale saltwork, Floating Garden, in the museum’s atrium and answered a few questions from participants.

The evening began inside Halcyon, where Chef Marc Jacksina led a presentation entitled “Interactive Tomatoes,” demonstrating the difference in taste between three varieties of salt. The same tomatoes tasted remarkably different when paired with lava salt from Hawaii, Jurassic salt from Utah, and fleur de sal from Portugal. The course was paired with a Tarragon Salty Dog cocktail (in a salt-rimmed glass, of course).

Next, Jacksina introduced cabbage fermented in kosher salt (resembling simplified sauerkraut) paired with salmon, and for dessert, guests lingered over a scoop of rich salted caramel ice cream. But the evening had just begun, because it was soon time to head downstairs to e2 emeril’s eatery.

There, manager Jeff Wakem led demonstrations including a lesson in how to shuck an oyster, and chefs explained the process for curing bacon (in salt, of course), and braising it to be served on top of crostini. The signature cocktail for the evening, Zydeco Punch, included a splash of South American pisco liquor. Finally, it was time for the evening’s second dessert – a chocolate ganache tart with a light sprinkling of grey salt on top. “Salt balances, and it’s very necessary in any form of cooking,” said Stephanie Nikolic, the restaurant’s pastry chef. A dry Zinfandel wine was the perfect pairing to bring out the chocolate taste.

Once inside the museum, guests marveled at both the atrium installation and the smaller one being installed on Level 4 to remain in place during the run of Motoi Yamamoto’s exhibition, through May 26. One guest asked how Motoi developed his process for applying salt to the floor. His response: His parents owned a motorcycle repair shop, and all his life he was accustomed to the small plastic bottles they filled to oil the machinery. Those same bottles are what he uses to create his works of art.