Studio Ghibli

SETTING THE SCENE

We had attempted to do a themed dinner about a year ago for Princess Bride. It was a wonderful concept, but quite the challenge to pull off from our tiny kitchen with very limited appliances. Not to mention that our staff (and myself) were not trained chefs or servers. We did our best, and the guests didn’t notice how challenged we were. Yet, it scared me, and I didn’t want to attempt it again until I made friends with three local chefs who said we all could work together to do another themed dinner.

Meeting Alan, Angelika, and Christopher changed my life. I had never worked with others who shared my passion and creativity for pulling off something of this nature. There was a frenetic energy between all of us for the months leading up to the event. We each had our roles to play.

My online searches of all things Studio Ghibli didn’t yield much inspiration, so that’s one reason why I wanted to document everything we did so others can pull off something like this — even on a smaller scale with friends.

Angelika and Christopher of Flora & Fauna Provisions are seasoned catering pros and assured me that they’d worked in even smaller spaces than our kitchen. Most of the meal was prepped 90% of the way down in their restaurant kitchen just down the street. They brought everything over in catering boxes to finish at our space.

Because all of our foods were going to take inspiration from Studio Ghibli films, it was a no-brainer that I’d bring in local ramen expert, Alan Soto, for that course.

We immersed ourselves in Miyazaki Hayao films—reacquainting ourselves with films we hadn’t watched in a while or watched with an eye for decor and foods.

I was responsible for the design of the invitations, menus, placemats, and cafe decor. Go big or go home, I say. And by “big,” I made a 6-foot-tall Totoro in my backyard.

Our invitation for tickets was presented online, but we decided to mail a printed ticket to attendees, as the holidays were coming and we thought tickets would be a nice gift.

Angelika and Christopher fine-tuned the menu, and we held a practice dinner down at their place for staff so we all could figure out the process and fix anything that wasn’t working. After we finalized the courses, I created the printed menu as well as placemats. (Next time, we’ll laminate them because guests wanted to take them home — water stains and all.)

We were fortunate that we have three cafe staff members who are artists, one of whom paints windows. Zoe transformed the cafe windows to be specific Studio Ghibli films. I wanted the entrance to the cafe to be the marketplace from Spirited Away, so she painted that on the front windows.

Dining Windows

Transforming the cafe took all day, even with the amazing team we had. We hung red lanterns through the front space, which you can see below and in the videos below.

As you enter our dining area, you’re taken into My Neighbor Totoro with lots of foliage on the tables, pastel lanterns, and butterflies.

I wanted our alcove table area to represent Howl’s bedroom from Howl’s Moving Castle, so those colors leaned towards jewel tones, beads, and mountains.

VIDEOS

By Kristen N. Fuller (@Kaysandcrows)

Part 3

Part 5

CREDITS

Courses 1 through 3: Flora & Fauna Provisions (@florafaunaprovisions)
Course 4: Alan Soto (@gamer.ramen) & Mark Woodard (@mdsoutdoors)
Course 5: Heidi Rojek (@heidikrojek) & Abbey Rojek (@abbeynormal__)
Servers: Jasmine Casasus (@jazzycasassy), Perri Thaw, Abbey Rojek, Chanda Feldman, Sabrah Neely
Bar: Ross Rojek (@sacbookreviewer)
Piano: Christopher Chan (@chanman88)
Photos: Jose Lopez (@jlopez11062), Heidi Rojek & Kristen Fuller
Cafe windows: Zoe Cecil (@zoee.cecil)
Setup: Haileigh Pitts, Jasmine Casasus, Abbey Rojek, Heidi Rojek