Earlier this month, I read a delightful post on Vanity Fair’s website detailing Miami’s problems with the Museum of Ice Cream’s pool of sprinkles. They’re plastic sprinkles, since real sprinkles melting against body heat would become unseemly, and their diminutive nature often finds them carried outside the museum where they’ll inevitably be eaten up by birds or fish. So actually, it was a pretty grim story, but it was written in that wonderfully whimsical Vanity Fair way so I promise it’s fine.
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And honestly, maybe I felt a slight bit of schadenfreude reading it because I’m jealous. Jealous that I likely don’t live in a city that will receive a Museum of Ice Cream. Jealous that I’ll never be able to perch myself on a diving board, casually dipping my feet into a pool of sprinkles while demanding that my friend taking a second picture of me in case the first one looks like I’m trying too hard. Jealous that this will never be me. We already don’t have that cool portrait selfie feature on the Google Arts & Culture app — life is hard for this region sometimes!
But then I received a crafty little press release yesterday. Inside a pompom covered pink box, there were macarons from Joy, a card from Read Between the Lines declaring “I Love You and Cake.” There was also a card promoting the Sweet Tooth Hotel, a “sugar-fueled art and retail pop-up” opening in Dallas on May 18.
Just three days until on sale. #sweettoothhotel
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Now, I’m not saying that the Sweet Tooth Hotel is some sort of Museum of Ice Cream wannabe, but it certainly seems influenced by it.
Exhibit A: The Instagram accounts. Compare the MOIC account to STH’s at your own risk of exposing your eyeballs to some extreme, saturated color.
Exhibit B: Bananas. While you’ve probably seen enough elements of the MOIC online to feel as though you’ve been there yourself, we know very little about STH. But what we do know is bananas. Bananas hanging from the ceiling here. People carelessly treading on cartoonish looking bananas there. They’re everywhere. Why? I don’t know. I’ve never been to either! Whatever.
Exhibit C: Dessert. Yes, both art pop-ups are inspired by dessert, but this is where the roads really diverge. While the MOIC focuses on ice cream (and bananas), STH appears to be tackling the world of cake. There was the “I Love You and Cake” card. Then there was the cake-shaped box in which the press release arrived. The macarons might be trying to throw me for a loop but I will not be thrown! Just scroll to the bottom of the STH Instagram account. It’s all cake all the time.
This is good news! Cake is an infinitely versatile dessert. Anyone who’s witnessed an episode of Cake Boss knows that! When STH is revealed on May 18, anything could be in there — even a pool of sprinkles. Here’s to hoping they invoke a “double shake” policy though, lest this joyful tale turn grim.
