From concept
to opening day.
ShipShape was our hospitality consulting company while we raised funds for our own restaurant concepts. We helped other teams open, refine their food, train their people, and welcome guests.
Original Sutcliff & Brammer identity and website
Herald Cafe.
A concept put to work.
We helped open Herald Cafe at Market by Macy’s in Southlake, a concept store Leslie Brenner helped program. ShipShape helped launch the café concept, tune the recipes, and provided management and training.
The work extended from the food on the plate to the routines behind it: preparation, organization, and service.
Leslie Brenner — concept-store programming
ShipShape — café launch, recipe refinement, management, and training
Counter Culture Coffee.
Opening the tasting room.
We worked on the local Counter Culture Coffee tasting-room opening. The camera archive follows the preparation and service, with guests gathering around the kitchen as the evening takes shape.
In the kitchen.
At El Centro.
The El Centro class brought the work into a teaching kitchen: demonstration, hands-on preparation, and a shared service. The original footage documents the class on February 4, 2020.
Skin Contact.
A weekend around wine.
Skin Contact was part of our ShipShape work: a three-day natural wine bar in the courtyard at The Wild Detectives in April 2019. Jeffrey Gregory and I created the concept; I developed the identity and campaign and produced the weekend.
Jeffrey and Julie Buckner Lane selected and sourced the wines, and Josh Sutcliff provided the food.
Explore Skin Contact →A place for
the conversation.
The Food Talk and Marination Live brought people together around food and ideas. We worked with Leslie Brenner and FestEvents Group on the gatherings. FestEvents Group handled event production, including door operations.
The Food Talk & Marination Media →Dinners, menus,
and the people behind them.
Our own dinner programming sat alongside the consulting work. The Vetiver residency at một hai ba connected food and drink with the farmers, artists, and musicians contributing to the evening.
Original June 2019 menu and provenance card. The residency menu credits artwork by Minji Kang-Watrous and music by Salomón Bautista with Mark Landson.
Putting a chef
in the spotlight.
Building Josh Sutcliff’s identity as a farm-to-table chef was part of ShipShape’s work. We promoted him as an emerging voice in that space while developing our restaurant concepts and raising funds.
The archive includes portrait studies and a dedicated filmed interview—materials that put a face and a voice to the chef behind the food.
Chef identity, positioning, and promotion · Josh Sutcliff
Our own
restaurant ideas.
Alongside the consulting work, we developed and sought funding for our own restaurant concepts. The selected pages below show the names, menus, and beverage ideas behind them; interior photographs served as references for proposed spaces.
For Vetiver, the concept took physical form in a presentation box: a sequence of printed pieces introducing the restaurant.
Explore Vetiver →bananabread
A proposed neighborhood café centered on brunch, coffee, local food, and art. Seth: operations; Josh Sutcliff: food. Selected concept and menu pages.
Gentian / Bar GT
A proposed Bishop Arts restaurant with a coastal dining room and patio, and an experimental cocktail bar upstairs. Developed with Josh Sutcliff.
Workshop
A proposed base for ShipShape: a media studio and event space for programming and education.
Victory Commons
A proposed gathering place built around late-night food, drinks, and a weekend brunch. Selected concept and menu pages from the original Quick Look.
Marketside Tavern
Another restaurant concept developed through ShipShape alongside our fundraising work.
Our first dinner.
The Greenhouse dinner was Josh’s and my first dinner together—the beginning of this work.
The Greenhouse dinner →