Mission Is Offering a Special Menu, Served With a Side of Telfar, Collina Strada, and More

by Sean Mitchell · Published September 14, 2020 · Updated September 14, 2020

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Ever since it opened in 2012, Danny Bowien’s Lower East Side Mission restaurant has been a home for local artists and designers. Nationwide, Bowien is well-known for his bold, eclectic food, but locally he’s a friend, mentor, and muse to those who consider Mission their watering hole, designers Sandy Liang, Susan Alexandra, Telfar Clemens, Carly Mark of Puppets and Puppets, and Hillary Taymour of Collina Strada, included. Bowien has done for art and food in New York a similar thing to what Carol Gooden and Gordon Matta-Clark did with their Soho restaurant FOOD in the early 1970s: He’s cultivated a tight-knit community of wildly cool creators.

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But things are different for Bowien and his friends these days. During and just after quarantine, his restaurants (there is an additional location in Brooklyn) were closed for indoor dining and only offered takeout and delivery. Now, Mission is offering outdoor seating on a first-come, first-served basis and hopes to open indoors soon. This weekend, the restaurant is also offering up something designed to bring back that inspiring mash-up of community and creativity.

Beginning tomorrow and lasting through Sunday, which is the official start of New York Fashion Week, Mission will be offering a special menu, “Mission à la Mode.” Bowien has partnered with local fashion labels Puppets and Puppets, Collina Strada, Telfar, Susan Alexandra, Lou Dallas, and Sandy Liang on a “pop-in” attached to various charitable organizations. Each designer has donated several exclusive items that will be available to purchase at Mission’s takeout window for prices ranging between $68 and $500.

The exclusive pieces include a “Bushwick Birkin” shopping bag signed by Telfar Clemens, a Mission-themed T-shirt designed by Sandy Liang, hand-painted socks from Collina Strada, and a bedazzled NYC hoodie from Puppets and Puppets. Each designer has chosen a charity to which a portion of the proceeds will be donated at sale. The organizations include G.L.I.T.S., Beit el Baraka, the Slow Factory Foundation, and 5 Gyres. On top of the fashion, every purchase will come with a newly launched Mission chili oil. There will also be a special dish on the menu from the local collective food project Hunnei, helmed by Covey Gong and Andi Lu. It’s a dish they’re calling “Sis, Chill,” which is an ice cream made with roasted fig, fresh thyme, pink Himalayan sea salt, and Calpico soda.

“We think it’s important to let people know that despite these times, New York designers are still here, still working, and that we still believe in our city and each other,” Mark explains. “Our priorities have just shifted. We are not attempting to go back to the business-as-usual fashion calendar.” She adds, “We love and believe in New York and we want to encourage the support of local restaurants and emphasize a new fashion model.” As Mark points out, things are changing; indeed, they need to. “What better way to express this than intersecting local business, creating an opportunity for donation, and minimizing packaging and shipping through a new kind of consumer method?”

Bowien echoes this sentiment and points out that right now, “big clothing stores, big restaurants, big opportunities for waste are shutting down. It’s in the hands of young brands who are surviving and leading the way.” He adds, “This is a celebration of our fashion, food, and culture. We feel like New York has never been better. People are out in the streets wearing masks, supporting GoFundMe profiles, contributing to community refrigerators, and experiencing the unique outdoor dining situations we currently have in place. New York has never been less dead. It feels like we’re finally awake.”

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