Indoor Graffiti
JBF LTD countdown

What started as a ploy has become an iconic ritual:

As part of the JBF LTD countdown calendar (an "Advent calendar for Gastronauts" as Oliver Strand described it) every night the chef de la maison crosses off that day and signs the day's numeral. When Laurent Gras began with #1 he needed a bit of coaxing. By his fifth night he was tweeting:

"Last night of the @beardfoundation pop up #jbfltd. My favorite part is spray painting the red x on the table. Tonight 5 goes down."

This addictive coda for each night's service has become a ritual performance. Wednesday night Jon Shook and Vinny Dotolo tagged the number in an increasingly baroque display of exuberance. Tuesday night Michelle Bernstein's love letter to food set a new high water mark...until Shook and Dotolo.

The first communal table was completed by the architects James Biber and Emaan Farhoud, in a fairly traditional set of X's. But the rest are proving to be even more fun.

And the waiters t-shirts, each with a mini-calendar that they are responsible for marking, are becoming signature expressions as well.

All of this needs to be recorded as a series and turned into a flip book or photo essay. And we will do our best to make that happen. In the mean time, thanks to all the chefs and others who have so enthusiastically embraced the spirit of the pop up!

Spray paint is the new amuse bouche