Dinner Plans: A Mexican collaboration at Isaiah Zagar's warehouse

A series of communal dinners, starting with a Mexican feast, is coming to Isaiah Zagar's South Philly warehouse.

WAREHOUSE PARTY: Ben Miller, Isaiah Zagar and Lucio Palazzo.
Neal Santos

"The name of the event is Isaiah and Julia Are Throwing a Dinner Party,” explains Lucio Palazzo, chef of Taqueria Feliz. The people Palazzo is referring to are Isaiah Zagar — the artist responsible for covering a good portion of South Street in rainbow-colored swaths of mosaic made from pieces of glass, mirror, china and tile — and his wife, Julia, proprietor of the Eye’s Gallery. 

“The idea is,” Palazzo continues, “Isaiah wants to do a series of dinners here. Correct me if I’m wrong, Isaiah. Almost like cultural events?” 

“Soirees,” Zagar jumps in. “I like it, I like it — soirees.”

The first in the series, a ticketed event open to the public, will be held on Monday, Dec. 15, at Zagar’s warehouse at 10th and Watkins streets. The dinner is a collaboration between Palazzo, Justino Jimenez of the Vetri Family restaurants and Cristina Martinez and Benjamin Miller of South Philly Barbacoa, a well-loved taco truck that pops up on weekends at Eighth and Watkins streets.  

So how did these four chefs end up hosting a dinner at Zagar’s breathtaking, bi-level work space? The backstory is as multifaceted as one of Zagar’s mosaics. 

“Ben, I met through Cristina,” Zagar says. “And Cristina, I met when she first came to this country. She was delivering a meal by bicycle from a restaurant on Girard Avenue ...  to the men who were doing masonry work in this building. Then I forgot about her completely. Later, I tried to get in touch with her because I thought Cristina is a very special person.”

Zagar reconnected with Cristina a few years later when she and Ben were working at Kanella, the Cypriot restaurant at 10th and Spruce. Just about a year ago, they approached Zagar, proposing to open a restaurant in a part of his Watkins Street warehouse.

Before telling the rest of the story, Zagar explains that the whole thing was off the wall from the get-go. He had been fighting a bout of depression for the previous year and when Cristina and Ben came to him with their idea, he went with it. Zagar knew the neighborhood was never going to go for the idea, but he went to the zoning meeting, where the plan was, indeed, shut down. Cristina and Ben were predictably disappointed, but Zagar saw what happened instead as a foreshadowing, an introduction of Ben and Cristina to the neighborhood that helped pave the way for the weekend food cart that they rolled into the corner of Eighth and Watkins shortly afterward. 

Cristina and Ben have been selling showstopping lamb barbacoa out of their food cart on weekends for nearly a year now and that’s were Palazzo comes in. South Philly Barbacoa is within stumbling distance of Palazzo’s home. He became fast friends with Ben and Cristina, sharing their passion for Mexican cuisine. 

Palazzo had been experimenting with single varietal corn for a while and wanted to push it further. 

“I told Ben that I was working with this maize and I was really into it and that I might want to build a project around it. Ben was like, ‘Hey, we should throw a dinner.’ Ben got in touch with Isaiah and now we’re doing this dinner.” 

Palazzo is bringing in heirloom corn from Brooklyn importer Masienda for two corn-focused dishes on the menu.

And while opening a permanent restaurant in Zagar’s warehouse didn’t work out, Ben is thrilled that “we’re finally going to be able to cook some food in here.”

He and Cristina will be serving their slow-roasted lamb barbacoa, and lamb consommé for the third and fourth courses of the night. Justino Jimenez is creating an amuse-bouche and frying churros for dessert. Entertainment will be provided by a jazz combo put together by trombonist Ernest Stuart, founder of the Center City Jazz Festival. 

Maggpie, a vintage furniture-rental specialist, is going to set up vintage farm tables and chairs on the second floor of the warehouse, which will be lit by candle. Victory is supplying the beer. 

For Zagar, the soiree series is an opportunity for him to “share my craziness. I want to share my openness,” he said. 

And he’s hoping the floor-to-ceiling mosaics that cover most of the interior of the warehouse will be inspiring.

“The space, the food, the walls may or may not trigger conversation,” Zagar says. “Well, I saw that movie, My Dinner with André. I liked the whole idea of a dinner and a discussion that was more than just about the weather. You want to set a space where it happens. Hopefully, we can make this space warm enough so that it can be magical.”

Dinner at Isaiah's | $95, Mon., Dec. 15, 6 and 8:30 p.m. 1002-1012 Watkins St. dinner-at-isaiahs.ticketleap.com.

Tickets to the dinner are available here.