Client: Café y Chocolate, a beloved Mexican restaurant in Philadelphia, PA
Role: DJ / Event Creative
Disciplines: Direction, Photo
The Problem
Cinco de Mayo is one of the most competitive nights on the Philadelphia restaurant calendar, and Café y Chocolate needed their celebration to feel like a genuine cultural event rather than just another promotion. As someone who had eaten there for eight years and considered the staff family, I wasn’t brought in as a vendor — I was part of the community, and that came with a responsibility to honor that authentically. The creative challenge was translating a deeply personal relationship into work that could communicate the warmth and spirit of the restaurant to a wider audience.
The Process
Over the course of three consecutive Cinco de Mayo events, I wore multiple hats: DJing the room, directing the visual atmosphere, shooting photography that captured the energy in real time, and designing event collateral that felt alive rather than templated. Every flyer and photograph was made with the understanding that these images would represent real people and a real place that meant something to the neighborhood. I approached the photography the way I approach all event work — looking for the moments between moments, where genuine feeling shows up.
The Results
The work produced a library of photography and event materials that Café y Chocolate could use across social media and in-house promotion, giving the restaurant a visual identity around the holiday that felt earned and personal. More than any deliverable, the collaboration deepened a relationship built over years — the kind of client trust that only comes from showing up as a full human being, not just a creative for hire.
