Hi, I’m Benjamin Laufer
I’m a brother, son, partner, friend, and curious person endeavoring to do, and be, good in this world.
I believe friendship “is the greatest of worldly goods” and I’m interested in creating and studying spaces that support human flourishing.
I’ve spent the last 5 years working on urban social infrastructure projects. Now, I’m building a new social form of the restaurant in Brooklyn, NY. Through that, I’m exploring the dining table as a mechanism for rebuilding our social and civic fabric, and the storefront as a center of urban knowledge production.
Commensality – eating together – is the foundation for the development of civilization. The quality of our relationships and the number of neighbors we know are the greatest indicators of societal health. Yet, today we spend more time eating alone than ever before.
My primary aim: get more neighbors gathering around food → develop regional food culture, deep social ties and consideration for the places we live → positively transform our lives and our cities.
A bit about me I spent the first half of my upbringing in Brooklyn, NY and the second in Roxbury CT. I left university in my second year and spent a few years organizing and living in intentional living communities in the U.S. I spent the last year living in Northampton, MA and now live in Brooklyn near the Brooklyn Botanic Gardens.
Here are a few Influential Experiences and Spaces and some history on my Brief Professional Background.
Currently reading: Food and Faith, Letters of Oliver Sacks, and The Stranger
What I spend my time on:
- Building a social institution disguised as a restaurant
- Playing with flavor through fermentation, preservation, blackening, and other techniques. Working on a culinary r&d center, to support the restaurant in its efforts to develop regional food culture, in upstate NY.
- Gathering people, drinking tea, reading, taking in the sun, walking, admiring the beauty of Brooklyn’s buildings, green spaces, and people.
- I write and read everyday, write to think, and think in my obsidian. I have about 2,000 documents, most of which are evergreen thoughts.
Email: benjlaufer [at] gmail [dot] com