We’re a creative culinary agency that builds bridges between business and emerging food culture.
We help our clients get to where they need to go: to drive innovation, develop food & beverage strategies and bring culinary programming to life.
What We Do
We uncover today’s emerging food culture, identify unique growth opportunities and build actionable strategies & programming to optimize and drive new business.
Innovation
Bringing our clients into the wild – whether leading a custom insight journey or building a panel of emerging tastemakers – we offer an insider framework for today’s culinary & cultural landscape, unlocking trends and market undercurrents, brokering new business relationships and inspiring new thinking to drive new products, practices and possibilities.
Insight Immersions
Innovation Councils
Strategic Ideation
Cultural Landscape Analysis
Strategy
Putting practical insights to action, we work with our clients to translate unique growth opportunities into comprehensive business strategies and marketing campaigns, from ideation to execution and market launch.
F&B Business Audits
Product & Concept Development
New Business Propositions
Marketing Campaigns
Placemaking Strategies
Programming
Tapping into our robust network of industry leaders and changemakers – chefs, operators, retailers, food tech entrepreneurs and more – we forge strategic partnerships on behalf of our clients and build creative programming with the goal of elevating, expanding and reinventing brand reach, business channels and customer experiences.
Strategic Partnerships
Culinary Activations
Experience Design
Event Management
A Taste of Past Projects
Strategic Partnerships
As a way of activating underleveraged real estate for a movie theater client, we brokered a strategic partnership with a national café brand to create a new retail experience, building a new revenue channel, optimizing a service model and attracting new customers.
F&B Strategy
After conducting an F&B Business Audit and identifying an unmet customer need, we built and executed a new service model strategy that introduced a new menu offering and branded customer experience.
New Product Proposition
Working with a global CPG brand, we built a custom council of emerging industry leaders to identify key growth opportunities and developed strategic recommendations for a new product and innovation framework.
Experience Design
Partnering with a luxury hotel brand, we custom designed a signature event that offered the client an operational framework and strategic partnerships to repurpose as a new branded experience for corporate event sales.
Interested in learning more about some of our past projects? Email us
Ivy is a dynamic, creative and strategic leader who is on the pulse of trends that are shaping consumption, culture and community. She gets us to think differently, inspires us by reframing opportunities and provides actionable solutions.
Nancy Rooney, Vice President Marketing – Global Customers, PepsiCo
Clients We’ve Proudly Worked With
Ivy is both a creative and a problem solver, using strategy and innovation to drive revenue growth. She works so hard, is so connected, and magically makes things happen that you never thought were possible.
Vincent J. Szwajkowski, Chief Marketing Officer, Blaze Pizza
Formerly CMO, ArcLight Cinemas and VP, Lifestyle Concepts at Hilton
Who We Are
We’re a dynamic group of trend experts, culinary strategists and food entrepreneurs working collaboratively to connect business with emerging food culture. The people, brands, concepts and movements shaping the why and how we experience food today and what we’ll be craving tomorrow.
Together, we provide a fully integrated suite of capabilities to take any project from concept to launch.
We also happen to have some awesome restaurant recommendations…
Ivy Ackerman Founder
It began as all good stories do, in a restaurant in Paris. A solo evening in 2011, where dining at the bar morphed into a lively dinner party. First bar mates, once strangers, banded together. Then the manager joined, followed by the chef sending out off-menu dishes, the sommelier opening new bottles, and so on.
Five hours later, as an epic multi-course feast came to a close, an unexpected feeling emerged: a profound sense of belonging attributed to what could only be regarded as a transformative experience. A food experience, that extending beyond food, had the power to break down barriers, broker new conversations and create a deeper connection to a place and its people.
Drawing from this pivotal moment, in 2012, after years of working in performing arts management and entertainment sponsorships, Ivy launched Butter and Egg Road. At the time, a membership-based culinary events company, custom-designing experiences and activations for corporate clients and luxury brands, from Morgan Stanley to Alexander McQueen.
In 2016, Ivy grew the NYC-based company into a culinary consultancy, and today, a boutique agency, working with global food & beverage, hospitality, real estate and sports & entertainment companies such as PepsiCo, W Hotels, Westfield and Pacers Sports & Entertainment, forging new ways to connect with food culture to drive new ideas, innovation and business.
FAVORITE ROAD FOR A MOVEABLE FEAST
In and around Doyers Street, NYC, with stops at Nom Wah Tea Parlor, Apotheke, Chinese Tuxedo and Chinatown Ice Cream Factory… popping in to Golden Diner not too far away for a tuna melt to-go.
The Collective
With decades of combined boots on the ground insight and industry experience, extensive culinary networks and ever-present creative spirit, we work together as independent voices, perspectives and expertise who share a single passion: inspiring and creating within today’s food culture.
Marissa Lippert
Recipe & Menu Development
Chef, nutritionist, and culinary-wellness entrepreneur, passionate about intentional food that supports a broader community of local purveyors and a regenerative ecosystem.
FAVORITE ROAD FOR A MOVEABLE FEAST
Columbia Road, London, with visits to the Columbia Road Flower Market, Marksman Public House, Campania, Brawn and finishing with a glass of natural wine at Sager + Wilde.
Chloe Vichot
Sustainability
Founding one of the most sustainable restaurants in NYC in 2016, Ancolie, and co-founding Fresh Bowl in 2018, the first plastic-free vending machine, a seasoned F&B entrepreneur passionate about building a more sustainable culinary ecosystem that supports reusable packaging and repurposing food waste.
FAVORITE ROAD FOR A MOVEABLE FEAST
Rue de la Soif (The “Thirst” Road), Val d’Isere, France, where everything is delicious, but most specially at La Baraque, Restaurant La Luge and Cocorico.
Alexis Halejian
Integrative Marketing
F&B marketing strategist with 12+ years experience in the hospitality industry on both coasts with a focus on digital, business development and culinary talent relations.
FAVORITE ROAD FOR A MOVEABLE FEAST
N Figueroa Street, Highland Park, Los Angeles, hitting up Mikkeller Beer in the unofficial back bar tasting room of Highland Park Wines, Hippo, Gold Bar, Good Housekeeping and grabbing a Triple Beam pizza to-go for tomorrow.
Nico Fonseca
Experience Design
A visionary creative, building participatory, layered experiences and environments that focus on the senses and use food as a way to fully engage audiences.
FAVORITE ROAD FOR A MOVEABLE FEAST
St-Laurent Boulevard, Montreal, for its hodgepodge mix of restaurants and bars, with visits to My Canh, Majestique, Patati Patata, Lawrence and Caffè Italia.
Ali Krupnik
Event Management
Experienced virtual & live event producer, project and campaign manager with 10+ years experience in building meaningful and memorable brand connections.
FAVORITE ROAD FOR A MOVEABLE FEAST
In and around Abbot Kinney Blvd, Los Angeles, strolling into Erewhon, Moon Juice and Butchers Daughter…essentially the LA wellness trifecta!
Christine Nebiar
Retail & Placemaking
Retail advisor and marketing + placemaking strategist, combining her 8+ years working in real estate development with her passion for branding.
FAVORITE ROAD FOR A MOVEABLE FEAST
In and around Canal Street, NYC, kicking things off at Mel's Bakery, followed by visits to Scarr’s, Dimes, Kiki’s, Cervo’s, with fun drinks at Clandestino or ForgetMeNot.
Rachel Waynberg
Market Trends And Insights
Culinary trends and consumer insight expert, building scalable menu, meal and product innovation & strategy, for in the home, restaurants and beyond.
FAVORITE ROAD FOR A MOVEABLE FEAST
Rothschild Blvd, Tel Aviv, Israel, a very long street that runs through the city with can’t miss stops at Milgo & Milbar and Buxa…with a nightcap at the Montefiore Hotel lobby bar.
Partners We Love to Collaborate With
The Drexel Food Lab is a student-driven faculty-mentored good food product design and culinary innovation lab growing the next generation of food industry professionals and developing products that are sustainable, health promoting, and accessible.
FAVORITE ROAD FOR A MOVEABLE FEAST
Race Street, Philadelphia, starting with dim sum at Ocean Harbor, followed by soup dumplings at Dim Sum Garden, pastries at Bread Top House and a drink at Hop Sing (but make sure to go with someone who knows the rules!)
LookLook is a dynamic insights platform designed for person to person conversations, uncovering key consumer trends with no boring focus groups, boards, or bots.
FAVORITE ROAD FOR A MOVEABLE FEAST
Rue de l’Université, Paris, with many delicious destinations to choose from, but these standouts are musts: Les Deux Abeilles, Au Bon Accueil and Le Jules Verne.
Playlists
At a time when our industry is fast evolving, we have the chance to reevaluate and reinvent the role food and restaurants will play in our homes, communities and culture.
We launched Spinning Plates, a mixed-media playlist series on Spotify, as a way to recognize and celebrate independent restaurants across the country. Featuring podcast interviews with owners, in combination with curated song sets that bring a place’s unique story and sound to life, what emerged was a new way to experience restaurants – through music!
We invite you to subscribe to our newsletter, The Road Ahead, for thoughtful musings on today’s emerging food culture and tomorrow’s opportunities.
Want something customized for your insight and business needs? Email us