Connected: New York + London

At OpenTable, we believe that one of the best ways to connect with a city and its culture is through its cuisine. Putting lens and pen at two cultures on either side of the Atlantic, we commissioned British photographer Emma Hardy with New York writer Ian Frisch to document the life of New York City restaurant Hundred Acres and its relationships to family, farm, and purveyor. In London, we teamed New York-born photographer Daniel Shea with native London writer Tom Morris, and together they experienced Grain Store and its many connections to city, land, and sea. Through these pairings between a local and a traveller, we sample a compelling contrast between these sister cities – one person encountering a place for the first time and another developing a profound appreciation for their home.

The results are documented in Connected, a quarterly journal from OpenTable that shares visual and written stories that go beyond the restaurant table. In celebration of the journal’s launch, on July 12^th, we held our “TransAtlantic Tables: As cultures converge, new perspectives emerge” event nearly simultaneously in New York and London at the restaurants chronicled in the journal. We invited local writers in attendance at each event to pen an open letter to the people of the sister city about their love for restaurants in their native city for an opportunity to win a trip across the pond for a dining spree recommended by a savvy local in the Connected community. The winning entries are Kayla’s Five Things entry on New York and The Bearded Bakery on London. Click on over for their unique takes on their respective cities.

Read the first edition of Connected here, and stay tuned for more Connected experiences in the future.