To fête its new Beats Pill XL portable speaker, Beats by Dre hosted an all-out dinner at The Monarch Room that touched on the relationship between music, emotions and food, exploring, “how the emotion of sound delights, evokes and excites the palette.” To heighten the experience, Beats by Dre called upon four New York-based tastemakers — DJ Mia Moretti, Public School fashion designer Dao-Yi Chow, fashion maven Jenne Lombardo, and creative consultant/designer/director/filmmaker/DJ Vashtie Kola — who were each assigned a different emotion: joy, regret, anger and hope. Chef Michael Citarella worked with Beats by Dre to conceive a dish for each emotion. For joy, he made sweet corn chowder, for regret, he made an indulgent foie gras for anger he made steak, and for hope, he made a delicious dessert of cherries.
Before each course was served, each person would discuss the song they chose and why. Moretti went for the always appropriate, especially now since his biopic just came out, “I Got You (I Feel Good)” by the legendary James Brown for joy. Chow, who seemed to be far from feeling any regret, considering that he, along with his design partner Maxwell Osborne, was fresh off the win for the Woolmark Award for American menswear designer selected a song that’s full of regret — “Pictures of you” by The Cure. Lombardo went a little gangsta and chose a vintage West Coast gangster rap track, “Fuck the Police,” by NWA. Finally, Kola opted for “January” by Disclosure to represent hope. It was a wonderful evening indeed, and we have to tell you, that speaker managed to drench an entire dining room in clear, crisp sound.
The Beats Pill XL, $299.95 at beatsbydre.com.
