VENN CANTEEN

September 2023

Born of a mutual dedication to a healthier planet; restaurant tables, benches and bar tops created from salvaged oak headed for the landfill.

Reflection of a person in a window with green foliage overlapping, urban street view in the background.

Venn Canteen is a vegan restaurant creating food through a thoughtful, local lens. Our first project in Porto, respect for each others’ principles and focus around sustainability was of utmost importance.

A person stacking wooden planks in a warehouse with stacks of lumber and a pickup truck in the background, under a partially open roof with a view of trees and a blue sky.

Salvaging old oak from the sawmill

Hand-drawn blueprint for a banquette with measurements and sectional views on graph paper. Annotations indicate dimensions and construction notes, such as 'build in 2 sections.'

Installation, 2023

Sketch for built-in banquet

Person assembling wooden furniture, using a screwdriver, with only an arm visible.

Venn Canteen

As artists, we adhere to a strict no-petroleum process in the creation of all our work. Meaning no polymer or plastic based glues. We typically use hide glue— an animal byproduct. In order to honor our own as well as the restaurant’s values, all furniture was made without glue, only hardware.

Wood board with circular holes and wood shavings in a workshop setting.

Circles cut for pedestal legs

Person working on a wood lathe, shaping a cylindrical wooden piece.

Pedestal leg ready for turning

INSTALLATION

A wooden pedestal leg for a table hand turned on a lathe sitting on the floor in front of a white shelf.

Turned pedestal leg

Creating with only hardware caused a lot of challenges and problem solving along the way. These pedestal legs for the small cafe tables are one example of creating outside the norms of traditional furniture making in order to achieve the desired look without the use of glue.

Person kneeling under a table, holding a wooden table leg, with a tattoo of a bone inscribed with the word "CHATA" on their forearm.
Person using a hand saw to cut through a cork on a clamp

Cutting old wine bottle corks for shims and supports

Modern wooden house with mountain view, stone steps, and natural landscaping.