The Monogram Dinner by Design presented by Caesarstone has become a highlight of Toronto’s Design Week, and a chance for local firms to show off their most flamboyant selves. This year the settings were wildly ambitious, with each studio letting their creative juices flow in a friendly game of upping the ante.

Between January 21 and 24, DX’s main exhibition hall was transformed into a stage for the 12 dining tables, each shrouded within its own boxed-in platform that made them distinct, and as intimate as a dining room. Here are our favourite moments from the opening night, full of design and feasting.

Dinner guests at the architectsAlliance table.

 

All-white table made of Corian, by Gensler.

 

Table setting seen from above, by architectsAlliance.

 

Moriyama & Teshima Architects’ table, surrounded in steel-bead strands that had the look of falling rain.

 

Mirrored walls cranked up the bling factor at DesignAgency’s dining pavilion.

 

Guests at the table by Jenny Francis Design received a hardcover book of the architect’s own favourite recipes. Francis is also an accomplished chef.

 

Left: Guido Costantino’s setting shroud in white tubes. Right: Dining room by Commute Design. Its lean-to form is constructed out of black strips of drywall edging.

 

Detail of the Joel Loblaw setting, where a steel table doubled as a giant fern and moss planter, with raised resting stands for wine glasses and cups.

 

Soaking in the atmosphere.