When I arrived at Eny Lee Parker ’s apartment building in Fort Greene last Friday, the ceramicist and designer had just returned from her studio, pushing two carts with matching conical sculptures atop each one. The cartoonishly scaled pieces are floor-standing candlestick holders, she explained, for the evening’s dinner party. Together we pushed the carts down the hallway to her apartment, where Woldy Reyes , Parker’s co-host and the evening’s chef, exuberantly greeted us with the accent of a British aristocrat’s butler.

It was a cute and playful welcome, but it turns out the accent is actually a funny affectation—a tic—he occasionally takes on when he’s anxious, said Reyes, who is American and first-generation Filipino. As someone who’s an infrequent, often self-conscious host, it w

See Full Page