Short, Savory & Sweet

Lena Iacobucci, maker of Shorts Movie Theater’s ceramic plates, and Natalie Cappellini, chef of The Suggestion Box, Shorts’s restaurant, met up at the theater to chat about their collaboration in celebration of the restaurant’s opening.

11.04.2026 

---

Natalie Cappellini: Lena, it's so good to see you.

Lena Iacobucci: It's so good to see you too, Natalie.

[Disclosure to the reader: these two saw each other at a Halloween party the previous evening.]

Natalie: We met acting in a show that took place in a restaurant. Yes, it was at Dinner Party, it was dinner theater, and now here we are.

Lena: Opening a restaurant in real life.

Natalie: Obviously I know that you're an incredibly talented actor. But how did you start doing ceramics? I don't know much about your ceramics past.

Lena: It was the post-undergrad time where I wasn't really sure what I was doing besides auditioning and working. I wanted to find something new because college had taken a little bit of my passion for acting away. I find that if I spread myself out more and have a lot of different things that I love, then I enjoy all of them immensely.

It took me a long time to decide to invest in a ceramics class. It's expensive, very expensive. But after that one class, it was off to the races. I love it so much. Working at the studio puts you in such a nice headspace. You can only think about the clay.

Natalie: It makes you really present.

Lena: When did you fall in love with cooking?

Natalie: Well, I was kind of a latchkey kid, so I would make myself so much food at home after school. I would obsessively watch the Food Network.

I love Giada De Laurentiis. Her big smile. I was obsessed with her, and I loved her recipes. Everyday Italian.

I grew up experimenting in the kitchen. In college I studied art and political science, but after I graduated, I worked in production. I was making lamps, also doing something physical with my hands. But as an outlet, I was throwing these astrology dinner parties. And that turned into throwing more consistent dinner parties and events with my creative partner, Jamie, who I run Edible Affairs with.

We really love to make thematic menus that are responsive to other artists. For us, what's most amazing about food is how it touches so many other things.

Because we all have to be musical. Food can be anything and everywhere. I'm really excited about building a restaurant here at Shorts because it's already a dynamic environment. The movies are changing all the time. They are all really different, and I can make a menu that's equally dynamic to the environment.

Lena: I'm so happy you said that because I've recently been getting very excited by the prospect of talking to a chef before I make plates for their food. When I was talking to Karma [Shorts Movie Theater founder] about how we were going to serve the meals at this theater, we collaborated on a very specific idea for the menu’s signature appetizer, The Artist Palette, that I don't think I could have thought of alone. It was very conversational. We went through a couple mock-ups before we finalized the true shape and size of these little guys. And once we did, it was thrilling to make multiple pieces that looked almost the same. I got to experiment with trying out so many different glazes.

Natalie: Yeah, what you're describing is like working within creative restriction. I find a lot of excitement in that. The Suggestion Box, the restaurant at Shorts, is serving 100% gluten free food and is largely vegetarian, and I always find so much possibility in restriction.

With a short film too, there's a constraint on the time. You don't necessarily have the ability to make a feature, and there’s the economy of the line, the economy of the word, just like the economy of food…

Lena: You create with something that—

Natalie: —that seems like less! But so much abundance is created from that. I think that is a really exciting part of our process here in creating The Suggestion Box.

Lena: On the note of prompts and restrictions, for the restaurant's menu, how are you going about your process so far?

Natalie: I feel very inspired by cravings.

Lena: Wait, tell me more.

Natalie: I think that’s how I began cooking and largely how I like to find a recipe or a menu item.

I think cravings are based on context, and a craving at a movie theater is very specific to the experience of being there. I'm thinking about how to translate what you crave at a movie into something that is a full meal at a restaurant: food that feels fun and whimsical and inspired by snacks, but is still ultimately filling and leaves you excited, and is as interesting as the films themselves. The Artist Palette dish is obviously named after your plates, but with the titles for our entrees, I was thinking a lot about classic film genres, like The Black Comedy, The Spaghetti Western, stuff like that.

Lena: My first experience watching a movie at Shorts, I was lucky enough to get to sit on one of the few couches that are in the back of the theater. I felt so at home in a way that I actually didn't think that I would. It was very cozy and intimate, and I wonder if that will play into your menu.

Natalie: Well, I think part of the coziness and the intimacy is hopefully going to come from your ceramics because they add a beautiful, handmade touch. Our process is about making everything feel bespoke and picked for you. I think the ultimate sign of care is making something for someone. That's what I want people to feel when they eat here at Shorts: that they’re taken care of, and that there's a lot of thought put into the experience. Ultimately, you're an artist and I'm an artist, and we’re making something with this space that is for other artists as well.

Lena: I love the feeling that everything that I get to touch and experience was touched and created by someone else.

Natalie: We're getting so wistful.

Lena: I'm feeling it. I'm feeling it hard.

Natalie: You're just tired.

[a bell goes off]

Lena: I think that bell means the theater is open for the next movie.