A Vintage Alfa Romeo, a Tuscan Feast, & the Future of Event Design, All Parked on Fifth Avenue

On a June evening outside Felice Flatiron, dinner climbed onto the roof of a dark green Alfa Romeo Giulia Super. White linen poured over the windshield and through its open doors; great loaves of bread rose between silver candelabra, tomatoes sat on trays beside citrus and wine, and New York traffic carried on a few feet away. There were no chairs to pull up and no dining room enclosing the scene. The table, in effect, had gone public.

 

The beauty of this scene is how difficult it is to pass without wondering what, exactly, is going on. The meal looks interrupted rather than arranged: doors left open, glasses half finished, bread broken, the whole affair apparently abandoned at its most generous and celebratory point. No Reservations sits somewhere between sculpture, living dinner party and invitation, using that little mystery to give people a reason to come closer. And once they do, the installation has another life entirely. It can tell the story of a celebration, become the place guests congregate between drinks, or make someone who was never invited stop on the sidewalk long enough to feel, for a minute, that they feel like they’ve found the unofficial entrance. In an event world with no shortage of things made to be looked at, Plant Passenger is making art that gets more interesting when people gather around it.

 

Photography by Sam Keeler Photography + Julio Nuño (bottom)

 

From Botanical to Banquet: Plant Passenger’s New Dinner Party Concept with Horsepower
 

Plant Passenger began with Keith Martine using vintage vehicles as the bones of living sculpture: greenery climbing through windows, spilling from trunks and taking over machines that were never designed to sit still. The studio now creates permanent works for private residences and hotels, along with temporary installations for brands, but the car has remained its most recognizable canvas. 
 

No Reservations grew from that same instinct when a 2025 editorial commission about intimacy and food gave Keith a reason to replace the plants with dinner. The original shoot was rained out twice, then revived months later as a live installation with set designer Rae Godin, where crusty baguettes, crystal glass, candles and crudités turned the vehicle into something closer to a dinner party with an engine. What began as an extension of Plant Passenger has since developed its own identity, but the family resemblance is uncanny: both take an object people already know, overwhelm it with something alive, and trust curiosity to bring the crowd the rest of the way.

 

Photography by Keith Martine for Nöen Magazine and Felice Flatiron

 

Aperitivo Comes to Fifth Avenue

Felice Flatiron marked its opening at 220 Fifth Avenue by putting the party where New York could see it. For the celebration, Felice teamed up with No Reservations and Rae Godin to turn the Alfa into an outsized aperitivo table, an apt introduction to a restaurant whose name translates to happy and whose roots go back to the Tuscan countryside, where its own wines are produced at Fattoria Sardi. The installation handled the arrival; Felice supplied the actual dinner.
 

No FOMO required: the Alfa may have left the curb, but the olives, pasta and permission to over-order are permanent. The Flatiron location is available for private and semi-private dining and full buyouts, part of a Felice events program that accommodates groups from two to 200. I’d take a page from No Reservations and make the party, large or small, a little more old-Italian in spirit: order too much, pass everything around, and stay awhile.
 

An Editor’s Optimal Summer Dinner Party at Felice
 

• Start: Il Toscano (salami, Pecorino, artichokes + chicken liver crostini) + all necessary olives
• Aperitivo: Negroni + Arancini**
• For passing: Ricotta (spicy honey, figs + almonds)
• Add to the table: Nduja Pizza (San Marzano tomato, smoked Scamorza + spicy salami) + Caesar (Bibb lettuce + Pecorino Romano)
• Pasta order: Summer Spaghetti (fresh tomato, confit garlic, lemon + Pecorino) + Pappardelle Salsiccia (sausage, porcini + truffle)
• From the sea: Gamberi, Vongole e Fagioli (shrimp, clams, butter beans + rosemary toast) + Salmone (roasted salmon skewers + grilled vegetables)
• Second round: Martini + Fries**
• Obviously: Tiramisù + Tortino al Cioccolato

**Felice Flatiron considers this pairing a “perfectly Italian evening.”

 

Photography by Julio Nuño + Sam Keeler Photography 

 

Beep Beep, Your Centerpiece Has Arrived

Picture a vintage car buried in flowers at a wedding entrance, dessert served from the back seat after dinner, or an anniversary party announced by an open trunk heaped with figs, silver trays and bottles on ice. Plant Passenger’s No Reservations concept seems to be the conception of  a new visual anchor for events. The vintage car and dinner table combo is an arresting divergence from another floral arch or freestanding photo wall. A car can become the florist, the bar, the dessert table or the invitation before anyone has read a menu. If No Reservations is any indication, the next wave of event installations may be less about building something guests pose in front of and more about giving them something they can actually gather around and spend some time. 

 

 

You’re Invited to 🍝 Dinner in New York 🗽
 

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