Beware the ides of march, 2010 + 2016 + (upcoming) 2020
notch actively interprets historical ephemera: ancient cookbooks, grocery lists, handwritten recipes, local archive research, menus of all kinds, found photographs, and repositions it in a meal exchanged between host and guest. Notch understands their own menus as event score, which are sometimes re-enacted.
BEWARE THE IDES OF MARCH is an evening-long animation of ancient Roman cookery as interpreted from the texts of Apicius. Hosted first in an emptied living room in Los Angeles by Alicia Lawhon and Zoe Crosher in 2012, it took place once more in Minneapolis at the restaurant The Third Bird in 2016. The next iteration is in March 2020. In the second iteration, the performance expanded to twenty-three courses –one for each time Caesar was stabbed by is assassins. A sixty-five pound suckling pig was carved by the chef in the center of the restaurant, as actors read deathbed secrets and wishes submitted by guests from a mezzanine stage.
Cavë Idüs! Idüs Martiis!, the thrid bird, minneapolis. 2016
PRESS RELEASE: In cautious celebration of the 15th day of March, The Third Bird invites you to Beware the Ides of March, an evening of lurid and lavish feasting inspired by dubious and forgetful representations of ancient Roman culture, cuisine, and hospitality. In three acts, the evening promises a slate of culinary speculation on Ancient worlds.
Inspired by Apicius: De re conquinaria, and the dinner party of Tramalchio in Patronius' Satyricon, the experience will unfold over an evening with at least 23 takes on ancient Roman documents, artifacts, cookery, and hospitality, to remind us that history is always contemporary. There will be accompanying performance and music.
Beware the Ides of March, is a collaboration between Artist Sarah Beadle, who is also Director of Service Development for Biltwell, and Brian Hauke, Executive Chef of Third Bird. Beware the Ides of March was initially hosted as a private performance in Los Angeles by Beadle, the artist collective notch, artist Zoe Crosher, designer Alicia Lawhon, and 50 guests in 2012. This is the first public iteration.
The Ides of March was once a celebratory day dedicated to the Roman god Mars. That is until 44 B.C., when Julius Caesar was stabbed in the back 23 times in the Roman Senate by a group of conspirators. The list of catastrophes occurring on the Ides of March goes on and on. The Third Bird would like to keep you safe from annual doom and disaster on that date with the first in a future of collaborative experiments in dining that will reimagine what a restaurant is and can be.
