Table Manners

Last October, Gohar World, the “tableware universe” founded by Laila and Nadia Gohar, materialized as a Soho storefront. The sisters have built a brand on designing(?), art directing(?), alchemizing (?) fanciful tableaux out of food and other things normally found on eating surfaces for people who care more about the look of comestibles than their taste. A stock gimmick of the Gohars, “food by the foot” has resulted in, for example, a “tiramisu” fashioned from a single, six foot-long row of ladyfingers topped with a single layer of cream. Visually intriguing, but not exactly tempting.

The store, with its faux stone interior walls, swaths of flouncy white cotton, and whimsically arranged tchotchkes, gave physical shape to what Gohar World seems to promise: that you can have your cake without worrying about the eating. Silver lamé oven mitts and a hot pink dish scrubber with a fuzzy nipple at its center will aid you in your evasion. This winter, with little advance notice, Gohar World Soho closed. Perhaps it’s just as well to be deprived of something without much substance.