I'll be honest - today's post ventures dangerously close to the three's a crowd border, but for my own sake I maintain that it resides in a three's company-esque territory. When you get a duet as good as House of Lilac (premier gifting company specializing in high-end, curated gift boxes and bouquets) and Mandolin Aegean Bistro (you know, that little piece of the Aegean tucked away in the Miami Design District that serves the yummiest Greek & Turkish cuisine), how's a girl supposed to hold back from weaseling her way into that duet to make it a trio (even if said trio only exists in said girl's mind)?
Mandolin is one of my favorite restaurants in Miami (it's where I had my bridal lunch!) because as it rightly points out, it's a place to "feed your body and soul." Combine that with my favorite soul-enriching activity made easy and fabulous by House of Lilac - gift giving - and you have one of the most prized collaborations to date.
The product of the collab between HOL & Mandolin are the Mandolin Market gift boxes (peep all four below). Resembling the likes of something you would see on the glossy pages of a Mykonos-inspired Condé Nast Traveler spread, the beautiful boxes are filled with gourmet goodies from the Mandolin Market, a bodega of sorts where owner Anastasia Koutsioukis (Mrs. Mandolin) sells specialty items imported from Greece and Turkey. The best of these have been selected for the HOL gift boxes, which offer different varieties of artisanal food products (Greek olive oils, herbs and spices, homemade hot sauce, etc.), cookbooks and handcrafted ceramics.
The byproduct of the collaboration is where I come (forced myself) in: two looks to make you look like a Grecian princess and Mandolin regular, a yearning to move to Miami to take advantage of the HOL pantry-makeovers-in-a-box, and a burning desire to go to Greece and live out my Mamma Mia! destiny.
