Louise—the New Café at the Everson Museum of Art

The Everson Museum of Art is excited to announce their partnership with well-known Syracuse-based restaurateurs Drēmer Restaurant Group, who will be operating its new café Louise—a unique and interactive dining experience inside the Museum. Louise is scheduled to open in late spring 2024.

Drēmer Restaurant Group, the owners of LaLaLu, Lobster Babe, Loded, and Rise N Shine have gained popularity in the Syracuse area over the past several years for their wildly creative and photo-worthy menu items.

“I consider food to be art—you can be creative in its flavor. You can be creative in its presentation. You can even be creative in how it is represented. I see this opportunity to join forces in both the literal art world and unconventional ones,” says Danielle Mercuri Campolito, CEO of Drēmer Restaurant Group.

Louise is the brainchild of Everson Director and CEO Elizabeth Dunbar and Dallas-based Everson Trustee Louise Rosenfield, who launched the project in 2020 with an international design competition that was won by the Los Angeles-based architectural firm, MILLIØNS. Of the 3,300 pieces in the Rosenfield Collection, approximately 1,500 will be available for use in the café, where diners are invited to not only enjoy the pieces but use them as part of their dining experience. Louise will be the only café in existence where cuisine is served on actual collection pieces. These pieces will be tagged, offering diners the opportunity to learn more about the objects and the artists who created them by scanning them with their smartphone.

Rosenfield’s ambition for the collection has always been clear—instead of donating work to a museum, she preferred to donate it to a café, where diners could enjoy the work as intended. Another 500+ objects will be dramatically displayed in two towers within the café.

The Everson will use the new café, the Rosenfield Collection of functional ceramics, and the expertise and creativity of the team from Drēmer Restaurant Group to explore the intersection of food, art, and community, engaging visitors of all ages in new and exciting ways.

About the Everson Museum of Art 

The Everson is a museum of firsts. It was the first museum to dedicate itself to the collection of American art, to create a permanent collection of ceramics, to collect video art, and to create a docent program. The Everson was designed by internationally known architect I.M. Pei, and the building is a sculptural work of art. Located in Syracuse, NY, the Everson is home to more than 10,000 works of art: American paintings, sculpture, drawings, video, graphics and one of the largest holdings of studio ceramics in the nation.

For all media inquiries, please contact Jeff Macharyas, Director of Communications, Everson Museum of Art at [email protected].

Photos by Nicola Rinaldo