What happens when Pittsburgh chefs, fashion designers, and drag artists are told to make everything black?
Dinner, apparently. But make it queer philanthropy.
O’Noir: The Experience returns to the Grand Hall at The Priory on Friday, November 6, bringing together five Pittsburgh chefs and five designers and drag artists for an immersive evening where the runway and the dinner table become one.
The concept is deliciously dramatic. Five courses. All black.
Each dish is inspired by a fashion piece created for the evening. As the courses arrive, models move through the room wearing the looks that inspired what guests are eating, transforming dinner into part tasting menu, part runway show, and part queer performance.
This year’s culinary lineup features Kate Romane of Black Radish Kitchen, Alan Call of One by Spork, Michael Godlewski of EYV Restaurant, Matthew McClelland of Cala Lily Restaurant & Bar, and Ginger Baldwin of Balvanera.
On the fashion and drag side are Luna Skye, Tyler Kirkland, Catty Wampus, Nikki O’Brien, and Kaydence McQueen.
But underneath all that black fabric, black food, wine, and fabulousness is a much more serious purpose.
“The food and fashion bring people into the room, but the purpose of the night goes further,” Christina Stein, co-founder and vice president of The O’Noir Foundation, said in announcing this year’s event. “We’re here to support local organizations providing shelter, resources and essential services for the LGBTQIA+ community.”
This year’s beneficiary is Proud Haven, bringing O’Noir back to an organization with which it has a long history.
Proud Haven works with LGBTQIA+ young people ages 18 to 25 experiencing homelessness and housing instability in Pittsburgh. The organization currently helps young people connect with housing programs and provides necessities including food and toiletries alongside other resources and support.
The need behind that work is particularly acute for queer and trans young people. Proud Haven was founded specifically in response to the disproportionate number of LGBTQIA+ youth experiencing homelessness and the barriers they can encounter in traditional systems.
And O’Noir has been fundraising around that need almost from the beginning.
When QBurgh spoke with O’Noir co-founders Sidney Sokoloff and Christina Stein in 2023, the event had grown from raising $5,000 in its first year to $15,000 in its second year for Proud Haven.
Stein told QBurgh at the time that fashion had helped her explore her identity after coming out as bisexual, particularly when that identity wasn’t always accepted or taken seriously by the people around her.
“Through fashion, though, I was able to express myself and find acceptance at the same time,” Stein said then. “That’s a special feeling I want to share with the world, and that’s a big part of why I do what I do.”
Three years later, the little black dinner has become considerably bigger.
The O’Noir Foundation says it has now raised more than $90,000 for Pittsburgh LGBTQIA+ organizations.
At last year’s O’Noir, the Foundation raised more than $28,000 for Proud Haven and TransYOUniting, with QBurgh there to capture an evening full of elaborate fashion, drag, and plates that proved “all black” doesn’t have to mean monochromatic creativity.
This November, they’re doing it all over again.
And in a city where queer organizations are doing the unglamorous, essential work of getting people fed, housed, supplied, and connected to resources, there is something wonderfully queer about turning spectacle into material support.
Come for the drag. Come for the fashion. Come because you desperately need to know what five courses of black food actually look like.
And remember what all that fabulousness is supporting.
O’Noir: The Experience takes place Friday, November 6, at the Grand Hall at The Priory, 614 Pressley Street on Pittsburgh’s North Side. The VIP experience begins before the main dinner and includes an open bar, hors d’oeuvres, and seating near the stage.