Thank you for being here

Hi Friend

 

This is Nate, the founder and CEO of Felt+Fat. I'm writing today to wish you a happy Thanksgiving. Every year since starting this business in 2014 there has been some challenge to overcome, and 2025 has been no exception. That is why today more than ever I am grateful for those people in my life that help me push through, I am grateful for friends.

 

Felt+Fat itself began with a work connection that led to a great friendship. I was 27, trying to figure out what to do with a fine art degree and waiting tables when my boss, Chef Eli Kulp saw me in my off hours working on my art practice at The Clay Studio. Later that week, he took me aside and asked if I could design a plate for his new restaurant with Ellen Yin. That small connection led to something big and was the basis for a friendship with Eli that lasts to this day. Eli has been a mentor, a connector, an advocate and chiefly a friend, what a blessing.

 

Earlier this year I was in Chicago by myself for work. I was missing my wife Katherine and my daughter Willa, feeling overwhelmed in a sea of strangers at a packed hospitality event. I grabbed a small bite of food from a table and looked up to thank the chef when I saw the name card - Nando Chang from Itamae in Chicago. In the past year, we had sold Nando and his sister Valerie plates but we had never met. We exchanged numbers and the next morning Nando and I grabbed coffee. We shared our stories and struggles and had a chance to really connect. Itamae would go on to shutter later in the year but that week Nando won a James Beard award for Best Chef: South. We saw each other again in New York and again in Houston this year, each time in moments when I was feeling alone and a little overwhelmed and each time I felt grateful for this new friendship.

 

After over a decade building this business, a decade of struggling, grinding, making and selling, there are times when I wonder what it's all for - it's just plates and bowls right? I think maybe it's less about building a business and more about those connections and friendships that have been born within the process. 

 

That being said, it is convenient that we make things to help facilitate moments to stop, nourish and connect, things to facilitate friendship.

 

So, thank you for connecting with us, in ways big and small. Thank you to those people we have met IRL and those who write us nice notes and those who simply make a purchase that helps keep this thing alive.

 

Thanks for being a friend.

 

Nate Mell

Founder, Felt+Fat

 

 

 

 

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