NYC Day 8 Eve: Florent

Poster for the movie:
Owner Florent Morellet in fabulous Marie Antoinette garb on Bastille Day

The Marquee sign at Cinema Village


The sign outside florent during the last 5 weeks. Removing the L to make F ORENT = so clever.

Some great Florent graphics


The menu board during the last 5 weeks.
The restaurant celebrated the 5 stages of loss. Too smart/ adorable -no?
In the film David Rakof's "Anger" monologue was priceless. Love him.

On the eve of NYC Day 8 Scott + I went to see the documentary Florent: Queen of the Meat Market by David Sigal.
For 23 years this all night diner in the Meat Packing District was prime stomping ground for an electric mix of A list celebrities, everyday new yorkers, club kids + transvestities and played an important role in LGBT activism. The documentary chronicled the history + final days of this new york institution.

I came away from the film with a huge respect for the owner Florent Morellet who demonstrated an incredible combo of creativity, business saavy, courage, sense o' humour + HUGE joie de vivre. A definite role model!

I had long admired florent's gutsy + hilarious graphics so another highlight of the film was to learn that they were done by design giant Tibor Kalman + his company M + Co. (in exchange for a catered lunch delivered to the designers 4 days a week!) How great!

You can read an article by Jennifer Kabat on the design aspects of florent here.
Her essay + this doc are both are highly recommended.

ps. Right after the film I ran to the Strand to find any books I could on Tibor Kalman. I predict he will become my "new favourite thing" that I can't stop thinking about.