Manhattan’s Meatpacking District is the inaugural location for Dean & DeLuca’s high-end fast casual concept Stage. Designed by visionary architect Ole Scheeren, Stage is “a highly engineered yet very simple object that acts as a social interactive tool,” Scheeren says of the performative space. “The idea was to create something that is easily repeatable and recognizable, at the same time, would never be the same.” The architect’s initial strategy includes plans for a potential global rollout of the structure that could quite literally be placed in nearly any location around the world, due in part to its minimal design, which is made up of three distinct elements: mirrored stainless steel on the façade, an uninterrupted swath of kitchen-grade Corian as the topography, and 34,000 diodes of undiffused LED lights that act as a single, soft beam of shadowless energy between the two flats. The overall illumination (including down lighting that highlights the food along the perimeter) allows everyone and everything underneath to be put on display in a way that is welcoming rather than overwhelming, proving that “fast food can be a fun, beautiful, and positive experience,” Scheeren says. “Food is such a social part of our lives, but fast food is the most unsocial end of the spectrum. Here, we are allowing everyone to participate through the beauty of the design.”