Restaurant Day – and I just missed it.

Restaurant Day – A food carnival when anyone can open a restaurant for a day

I am starting to get used to find out about great things and events just when they are done. I am trying to get better on this, and sometimes I realize just in time that I am about to lose one of those “you shouldn´t lose events”, like Mobilising Communities.

Unfortunately it was not the case with Restaurant Day, which happened this last saturday, 19th May. The next time it wont be missed and I will be holding one pop-up restaurant as well (I hope)!

“What’s it about?

Restaurant Day is a one-day carnival in favor of restaurant and food culture.

On Restaurant Day anyone can set up a restaurant, café or a bar for a day. It can be anywhere: at your home, at the office, on a street corner, in your garden or inner courtyard, at a park, or on the beach – only your imagination is the limit.

The quirkier the concept of your restaurant is, the better it attracts people. However oddities aren’t necessary. Good food and drinks at a nice place are enough – the most important is to create a restaurant that you’d like to visit yourself. After all, the idea of Restaurant Day is to have fun, share different restaurant experiences with other people and enjoy the our living environment together”.

There were two “restaurants” in Berlin, and I guess, if I could go back in time I would HAVE to go to both of them. One was “le vega”, which was an atelier space turned into a temporary restaurant, and at the other one, “Blick Burger“,  you could have a Burger (with meat or vegetarian) on a roof balcony!

:: facebook page ::

. Mobilising Communities .

Yesterday was the event Mobilising Communities. It took place at Betahaus, a co-working space in Berlin, and 6 projects were presented: Dawanda, Pfandtastisch helfen, wheelmap.org, Mundraub, Stadtgarten and the Craftivist Collective.

I found everything very inspirational and some key ideas discussed were: open-source, commons, the relation with others online but, more important, offline, the just do it atitude together with the diy, “small” changes, urban spaces, accessibility, and back to craft, this slow way of life, with much more quality.

I was very happy to hear from Justin, from Stadtgarten and Mundraub, that he had never gardening before the project   : ) Well, I still have chances. Also liked when Sarah Corbett, from Craftivist Collective said that she always wondered what to do, how to help, while being so introverted (although I muss say she was speaking pretty confident there). It was very interesting to see some of the history behind Craftivism (craft +activism), when she showed a picture made by women during Pinochet´s dictatorship (which reminded me the documentary Nostalgia de la Luz).

Unfortunately, I didn´t find anyplace in my hometown Belo Horizonte, Brazil at the Wheelmap, so… Amigos de Belo Horizonte, todo mundo contribuindo para o Wheelmap!

At the end, there were some delicious food and drinks, and I got to know, through a guy who was wearing a t-shirt with “hack human kindness”* (I guess it was it) about an event, also held at Betahaus, called Random Hacks of Kindness, which is “a global community of innovators building practical open technology to make the world a better place”. Cool! The next one will take place on June 2nd, at Betahaus and you can register here.

A lot of inputs!

* actually the t-shirt was saying “Hacking for humanity”. Thanks, Christoph!

Mobilising Communities