The Curio Table

Curios — A living gallery

The things that
make us pause.

A rotating room of objects, art, methods and small stories from inside The Curio Table. Some pieces stay. Some quietly change. Visit often — this page does too.

Curio panel 1 at The Curio Table
Curio panel 2 at The Curio Table
Curio panel 3 at The Curio Table
Curio panel 4 at The Curio Table

On the wall, currently — four panels, one quiet conversation.

In focus

Two pieces, hanging
in the main room.

Both by Pompidou Moderne, on museum-grade canvas. Look up while you wait — they reward a second glance.

The Mayan Inspiration by Pompidou Moderne

Artwork · Pompidou Moderne

The Mayan Inspiration

One of the oldest civilisations the world has known — and quietly, one of the most modern. The Maya gave us the concept of zero, a 365-day calendar more accurate than the one Europe used for centuries, the foundations of astronomy, a full written script, and ingredients we still build menus around: cacao, corn, chilli, vanilla. This piece pulls all of that into one wall — symbol, geometry, glyph and colour — a reminder that a lot of what we call "modern" was thought of, drawn and eaten a very long time ago.

  • — Mathematics, astronomy, calendar systems & written language
  • — Cacao, corn, chilli, vanilla — still on plates worldwide
  • — Archival giclée by Pompidou Moderne, in the main room
The Aztec Way by Pompidou Moderne

Artwork · Pompidou Moderne

The Aztec Way

Look closely at the glyph blocks the Aztecs carved into stone — dense grids of symbol and meaning, machine-readable centuries before we had machines. Their codices anticipated what a QR code does today: a compact, visual language a trained eye can decode in an instant. Their pattern thinking, their obsession with cycles, classification and prediction reads — strangely — like an early sketch of how modern AI organises the world. The face at the centre of the piece watches the room the way an old idea watches a new one: quietly, with a small smile.

  • — Glyph-grids that prefigure QR codes & visual encoding
  • — Pattern, classification & prediction — early AI thinking
  • — Pairs intentionally with The Mayan Inspiration
The Curio Table emoji — the shape a mouth makes when smiling mid-thought, the curious happiness smile

House Symbol · The TCT Emoji

The curious happiness smile.

Look closely — it's the shape your lips and face actually make when you're smiling and thinking at the same time. Mouth tipped up at the corners, a soft glow above where the idea is still forming. Not quite a grin, not quite a frown of concentration: the in-between expression of I wonder… meeting oh, lovely. That's the feeling we chase at the table, so we drew it. You'll spot it on menus, in our notes, and on the wall by the bar — a small mark for a particular state of mind.

  • — The literal shape of a smile caught mid-thought
  • — Curiosity and happiness, held in one expression
  • — Our quiet bookmark across the room & the menu

Dispatches from the room

What's curious
right now.

Small notes on objects, methods and moments — written by the team, updated as things shift on the floor.

The Data Weave

Curio Object

The Data Weave

A hand-tufted tapestry where colour itself is the data. Every ribbon of orange, teal and ochre stands in for a flow we live inside today — search trends, signals, sentiment, the quiet hum of the modern web. The weave reads as one fluid surface, but look closer and it splits into thousands of small decisions, the way our feeds, dashboards and algorithms do. It's a reminder that data isn't grey or cold — when it lands in real lives, it adds colour, motion and a new direction. A textile version of the world we're now eating, drinking and thinking inside.

Cooking with sound

Method

Cooking with sound

We've started running short experiments where the same dish is plated with two soundscapes. Same salt, same fire — completely different memory.

The bird that watches the bar

Story

The bird that watches the bar

A wood-grain owl, rendered in pyrography, sits above the zero-proof bar. Guests keep asking what it represents. We're keeping the answer in the room.

New dispatches are added often. Bookmark the page or follow along on Instagram.

Rabbit holes

Every QR in the room
opens a small rabbit hole.

Each curio — an object, a dish, a wall — has a short, science-led reading attached to it. Scan, sip, scroll. Some of those pieces live on the home page; the longer threads collect here.

Browse by:ScienceCultureFoodMethodCuriosity

Frequently asked

About the curios.

What are the Curios at The Curio Table?
Curios are the rotating set of objects, artworks, methods and small stories on display inside the restaurant — a living gallery you walk through while you eat. Some pieces stay; others quietly change between visits.
Who made the artworks in the main room?
The two large pieces in the main room — 'The Mayan Inspiration' and 'The Aztec Way' — are by Pompidou Moderne, printed as archival giclées on museum-grade canvas.
What is The Data Weave?
A hand-tufted tapestry where colour is the data. Ribbons of orange, teal and ochre stand in for flows like search trends, signals and sentiment. From a distance it reads as one fluid surface; up close it splits into thousands of small decisions, the way feeds and algorithms do.
How often do the Curios change?
There's no fixed schedule. Anchor pieces stay for long stretches; smaller objects, methods and dispatches rotate as the team finds new things worth showing. This page is updated as the room is.
What do the QR codes around the room do?
Each QR opens a short, science-led 'rabbit hole' tied to the curio next to it — the story behind an object, the method behind a dish, or the idea behind a wall. Scan, sip, scroll.
Can I see the Curios without booking a meal?
The Curios live inside the restaurant and are best experienced as part of a meal or a Curio Lab workshop. Drop in during opening hours (11 AM to 11 PM) — if there's room, you're welcome to look around.

Come look closer

The curios are best
in person.

Photos do some of the work. The room does the rest. Reserve a table and spend an evening with the things we keep changing.

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