Chess
night
Chess has long sat close to art. Marcel Duchamp stepped back from painting to spend much of his life at the board, and he saw the game as a creative act in its own right. A game asks for the same things a painting does: patience, nerve and an eye for how every piece relates to the rest.
On 12 April 2026 we lined the long counter at FOOD on Canal Street with boards, served waffles, put a DJ behind the bar and covered the tables in paper and markers. Strangers sat down opposite each other, played, lost, laughed and stayed for the next game. By the end of the night the tablecloth was full of drawings and signatures from everyone who passed through.
In memory of Lucien Smith
FOOD first opened in SoHo in 1971 as a restaurant run by artists, among them Gordon Matta-Clark. Lucien brought it back on Canal Street, with shared seating where artists, cooks and musicians eat side by side. We are grateful for everything he built for artists in this city, and our thoughts are with his family, his friends and the FOOD team.
