Pictured (From L to R): Kristina Stanicova-Middleton, Pinched; James Morgan, Smoking J’s BBQ; Lynda McCormack and Joe Strazzeri, La Barraca; Sarah Harrison, Cressy Mustard Co.; Aravind Selvaraj, Arvys Street Eats (Photo: Christine Reid Photography)
At the center of the reimagined Base is the Commissary, a spectacular open-air food and beverage market designed by Wild Child Regeneration and slated to open the first week of June.
Like everything else here, it is grand in scale. Vivid turquoise and purple, it combines a huge quonset hut, a pergola-covered terrace, a Mixology Garden, and private cabins, all circling an outdoor stage.
Five different food vendors, a combination of emerging and established, from Arvys Street Eats, to Cressy Mustard, to La Baracca’s Italian fare, Pinched, and Smoking J’s BBQ are at the center.
Six or seven different gathering areas create enough space for 500 people.
“This will be a cornerstone of Base31 from now on,” says Mr. Weisz. “It will be reason in itself to visit.”
“The focus is on evenings in summer,” adds Mr. Jones. He imagines family nights, food themes, après beach afternoons, and late-night DJ’d parties on weekends. Justin Rutledge is helping to create the programming.
Looking to fill gaps in what is on offer in the County means, as Mr. Jones puts it, “leaning into the night-time.”
To that end, the Base’s renowned Night Watch installation, created by Department of Illumination, has been completely re-imagined. Last year’s two-kilometre, winding walk is now centered on 8 acres of “wanderable grounds” with a speakeasy bar in the center, surrounded by large open-installation artworks.
The grounds will give on to a pedestrian-only corridor that connects the Drill and Lecture Halls at one end of the site with the Sergeants Mess, Sensory Garden, and Commissary on the other.
See it in the newspaper
-6° Light Snow
