Come on-a Hye House, Hye House a-come on: An interview with the new curators of Kef

If you happened to be walking around New York’s Nolita neighborhood on October 18 and heard the powerful stomp of a shoorch bar and the familiar melody of "Hey Jan Ghapama,” you might have been daydreaming… …or it might have been Hye House’s Debut Kef. Founded by event and marketing professionals Ara Bilazarian and Shant Tawilian, Hye House is New York City’s new center of Armenian music, art and community. Their inaugural event sold out almost immediately, had a 200+ person waitlist and generated FOMO among the Armenian diaspora at large — a Kef heard ‘round the world, if you will. We chatted with Bilazarian and Tawilian after the Kef to talk about the origins of Hye House, their nostalgia for old-school Kef and their vision for elevating Armenian culture and design. This interview has been edited for length and clarity. Rosie Nisanyan (R.N.): Let’s start with a tough one: what's your favorite Armenian song? Shant Tawilian (S.T.): This is a little biased because he's my great uncle, but I would say Ara Kekedjian — any of his songs. "Seta, Seta” and some of his other songs just got released by Rocky Hill Records and Habibi Funk. I love disco and funk, and this really taps into that same spirit. Ara Bilazarian (A.B.): For me, "Tesel em” by Tata Simonyan is a classic. My happiest moment at our Hye House Kef was when the song came on and the entire room burst out singing it, smiles everywhere. It’s a unique moment right now, with many Armenian diaspora producers and DJs, and some in Yerevan as well, remixing a lot of these Armenian instruments or old Armenian classics. There's an artist from Australia named KVISION who put out a "Tesel em” remix this summer and it’s one of my favorites. R.N.: How did you two meet and start working together? A.B.: Shant and I both work in music and we met at a concert that Shant produced in March 2024. We are both huge music lovers but wanted to do more for our Armenian community in NYC and realized we could do both at once. S.T.: Ara was at Dice and I was at Renegade, both doing creative marketing in our own ways. We had a lot of ideas, and we wanted to channel that into the Hye community. R.N.: Tell me more about what Hye House is. A.B.: Hye House is a modern revival of Armenian Kef culture. Hye House is a place where young Armenians can connect, celebrate and build community together. Older generations had Kef nights with music, dance and belonging. We built Hye House to bring this energy back in a new way that refreshes and elevates our heritage while building community in the city we live. We want to bring beautiful design, creativity and production, combined with the best of our traditions. We started with just an idea in New York City and, within a month, we’ve gotten hundreds of requests from our diaspora around the world to bring the Kef on the road. In the Armenian community, there are a ton of different groups: dance, young professionals, some art communities. I go to dance every week — there's an amazing group called Paraxumb and it’s grown a ton. We have things through church; we have happy hours. But we felt one thing that was lacking was bringing every piece of our culture together into one singular place. There's a backgammon night, but where's the music or the food? Or there's a food night, but where's the music and the dancing? So, we wanted to bring all those together. S.T.: It’s also a chance to educate our non-Armenian friends, because most Armenian events are created exclusively for Armenians. We have so many non-Armenian friends who are genuinely curious and excited to experience a new community. A lot of people who are even partly Armenian feel a deep pride in the culture and want to be more connected, but they don’t always know where to start. Hye House creates that entry point. It welcomes everyone — Armenians, part-Armenians, non-Armenians — anyone who wants to be part of it. And because Armenians come from everywhere, we’re inspired by the cultures that shaped us too, from French to Lebanese, Persian and beyond. R.N.: How was the Kef event on October 18th? A.B.: Shant and I had been working for months brainstorming the vision for Hye House and building a vision to create Little Armenia, NYC. Honestly, it was everything we hoped for and more. We had 200+ Armenians packed into a NoLita bar that had transformed to Yerevan, NYC. The mission was everything we've been talking about: pulling as many aspects of Armenian culture into a space and for as much time as we can — noon to 1 a.m. is what we ran. We sold out 200 tickets in two days. I had 270 people on my wait list. So, it was super well received even before the event. And then, Shant and I were just going crazy with all the details, big to small. We had a beautiful Land Rover donated and we covered it in Armenian rugs from Megerian Rugs. We had Armenian coffee from Henry's House of Coffee. Karoun Dairies sponsored the entire event, so we had string cheese, labne yogurt. We had Armenian DJs. We made stickers with tons of Armenian inside jokes. We made merch. We made Armenian cocktails — a tan cocktail. We wanted to make every single corner of the event full of our Armenian tradition and to make it as beautiful as we could. We had friends making TikToks that were going viral. People were just walking by the restaurant, staring in the window, looking in at us because it was so lively. Obviously, selling out an event was great. Everyone had a great time and were telling us they would have flown in from LA or how much fun they would have had if they made it. We had people training in from Boston. What made me so happy was really that people were walking by and staring in and hoping they could have been a part of it. In our next events, now that we know we can sell out, we can get a much bigger room. And as Shant said, we can bring in more of the SWANA community – there’s no reason we can't include Persians or our Coptic friends. Let’s get them in and then expand to anyone, while really still keeping true to our heritage. S.T.: The party was incredible. One of the DJs even played "Nour El Ein,” by Amr Diab and the whole room went crazy; everyone was locked in, dancing and having fun. A bunch of our odar friends showed up and genuinely loved it. What stood out the most was how many people left saying, "I had no idea Armenian culture was like this.” That’s exactly the reaction we hoped for, sharing the Armenian vibe through food, music and the atmosphere we created. R.N.: I have to know more about the tan cocktail! A.B.: Watching people sip the tan cocktail and laugh was really the whole mission of Hye House. It’s nostalgia, it's fun, it's funny. Sometimes it's like grandma's house, but it's also reimagined for us today to enjoy. It was like a joke drink and people were crushing them. S.T.: Even the bartenders at The Wooly were like, "Are you sure you guys want to do this, mixing these yogurt drinks with alcohol?” We crafted the cocktails and perfected it with them the night before, they tried it and by the end, they were like, "I would drink a bunch of these.” It was nice that we were bringing a new experience to them. To build on what Ara was saying, all the Armenian touches — the silly stuff, the stickers, the cocktails — people really noticed. They were like, "Okay, these guys went above and beyond.” But for us, one of the best parts of throwing this event was bringing back all those childhood memories we grew up with and reintroducing them through the party. It was a lot of fun. A.B.: Again, I don't want to be negative at all, we obviously love Armenian culture so, so much, but I don't know if it's the USSR/Eastern European thing, but Armenian design can sometimes be really lacking. The new Yerevan in the last five years is mind-blowingly beautiful and the things that people are doing are incredible and inspiring. That's a big piece of Hye House too, to shine a light on the incredible Armenian creators. Sometimes, I'll see posters and think we can do so much better. And it's not super hard, but if it's just not in someone's vocabulary to know how to do design, we don't get it. The stickers were pretty easy for Shant and I, and people were so excited. Maybe you have a pomegranate sticker, okay, but we wanted to make something special and beautiful as best as we can, so that someone's proud to put it on their laptop. There's something about Armenian design that just tickles me sometimes; it’s a couple generations behind. But yeah, design is a big piece of what we do. R.N.: It’s great to hear the vision you have for Hye House and how invested you are in scaling it. A.B.: The last value is collaboration. It’s not just Shant and I, but everyone that comes to our events. We will build a board; we want to bring the best of the best together to grow this and reach more people in deeper ways. We want everyone to be a part of Hye House. It's like a family dinner table; everybody's important at the table. And it's not about Shant and I just throwing an event and people coming and consuming what is built. We want people to ideate with us and be creative — all hands on deck. That's when Hye House gets to the next level that we're really excited about. S.T.: Yeah, we're definitely interested in going to more cities, putting on more events and different types of events. We put on this big Kef, but we want to do a lot of different events, as well. There are so many pieces and we’re so excited. One more really important piece is restoring or making a new version of what a Kef was and even what old Armenian communities were like. I think about the Watertowns back in the day or Worcester, Mass. – I still hear my great uncles and aunts and grandparents talk about the Kefs. It’s where they met their husbands and wives. It was the best night of their lives; it was so alive. They were going to Armenian stores and living in this Armenian community. And it's something that I grew up with. I went to a bunch of Kefs growing up, but once I got to be a young adult — and today — it isn't something that's living. R.N.: Can you tell me about your very first event — the precursor to Hye House? A.B.: We went to a DJ Habibeats concert with a bunch of Armenian friends, just so we could start getting some groundswell of content to hopefully sell out or at least put on a good event ourselves. He’s a Palestinian DJ and brings a really big Arab crowd out. It was hard to sell tickets to this first event. I put down, like, four grand to get our little section at this concert and I had it up a month ahead. Literally, no one bought tickets for the first three weeks. People were on Armenian time; I was like, "Am I going to eat four grand? Is Hye House going to be a failure?” But we ended up having a good night. Armenians absolutely ran that event — we had two Armenian flags that were literally getting held up the entirety of the concert, from midnight to 4 a.m. Armenians were there loud and proud, and it wasn't even just for us. He played "Mi Gna” a couple of years ago in SF, and even that was just enough to get tons of Armenians out loud and proud. We said Hye House is coming, we're going to bring big Armenian DJs, and we're going to build the Laylit for us. We used some of that video content and built new video content to put on a Kef, which was our first produced event. R.N.: What has surprised you about the NYC Armenian community? A.B.: I think how excited Armenians are to get together. It's something in our DNA that we are party people; we're Kef’jis. People are jumping at the opportunity to get together, so that's definitely been surprising. And then how much people care about the culture, as well. Shant and I were going crazy with all the little details, the names for cocktails. We talked about the stickers, the little jokes. And the Armenian community was just eating it up. They were so delighted, and delight is a really fun emotion to curate. I was surprised how much people noticed. I thought they would get a couple of the jokes and understand 20% of what Shant and I programmed, but it was, like, 100%. People were so excited about everything, so that's been really surprising and fulfilling for us. S.T.: We had a little donation-based merch booth, and there was a constant crowd around it. We were honestly surprised by how much people loved and appreciated those small details. Even the idea of getting rugs and laying them outside came from us walking through the space and asking, "What does every station look like? How do we elevate it? How do we showcase our partners? How do we decorate the DJ booth?” We were on Pinterest pulling references from Armenian, French, Lebanese, American experiences, and merging them into what felt like our point of view. I even had American friends who walked by the event without knowing it was ours. They saw the chaos, the rugs, the energy, took a ton of photos and only found out days later it was my event. Seeing people genuinely invested from the outside felt amazing. It was really validating to put something out into the world that reflected our creative minds and have people love it. We’re excited for the next one, because there’s still so much we haven’t tapped into yet, and the community keeps growing. People have been loving the content Ara’s been pumping out on the Hye House social channels — he’s been doing an incredible job — and the love overall has been unreal. R.N.: I've noticed a huge uptick of events for and by young Armenians in NYC, Hye House being one of them. What do you think is driving this — a post-COVID desire for events, maybe seeing Arab culture and music becoming more mainstream? A.B.: I think COVID is a big piece. A lot of people are still working remotely and are craving human interaction and fun. I remember we were going viral before our first event. We got 100,000 views on a video and were up 1,000 followers in a couple of days. I do think we've really hit a nerve, in the best way, with people wanting to get together and see something beautiful and do something fun together. S.T.: Think about warehouse parties or underground music culture; there are so many creative outlets out there. Armenians are incredibly creative, interesting and deeply rooted in culture, but there’s no real middle ground. Between a church, an AGBU event and a Kef or Barahantes, there’s nothing in-between for young people to go to and genuinely enjoy but also expand their creative interests. It just feels good to do these parties. But also, Ara and I have all this experience, and this is our way of giving back to the community. We’ve worked with a handful of major artists, so it only makes sense to put that same time, consideration and energy into our own people. We want to inspire others to be creative, to push our culture forward and to elevate Armenian art and expression. This is a format we both understand at a high, elevated level, and it felt natural to apply it here. I think a lot of people are searching for something, but they just don’t know exactly what it is. We put this together, and now people are eating it up. A.B.: A lot of Armenian events are not put on by or clearly catering to the Armenian creative class. I go to everything and I love everything. I'll go to AGBU, AYF, church events — I love NextGen — they all do an incredible job. But I think naturally in New York and among Armenians, there are a lot of corporate types — lawyers and accountants and finance professionals. We want to make a space that has a little bit extra focus on the creative aspects and the creative people in our community, too. So, we’re really excited to do more music, more food, more art nights — that's a piece that really is near and dear and a big opportunity for us. And of course, we'll bring the accountants and finance people into the fold at our events, but I think the hosting and programming have been missing there. R.N.: You mentioned wanting to expand to other cities. What else does the future hold for Hye House? S.T.: We want to host design clinics. It’s one thing to give a lecture about creativity, but it’s another to actually sit with people and show them how to do the work. Our goal is to bring this party and energy to Yerevan and other cities, throw an event, then spend real time with students and creative-minded people: producers, DJs, designers, architects, anyone hungry to learn. We want to say, "Here’s what the rest of the world is doing and here’s how you can make cool stuff, too.” It’s about giving our community access, exposure and a hands-on understanding of how to level up their creative crafts. R.N.: How can people support Hye House? A.B.: I would say first off is to follow and share our Instagram account as much as you can. We want to build, and that's really where we're launching and promoting our events. We hope people come to us with ways that they want to get involved, whether it’s a type of event they want to put on that we haven't seen before, or whatever they want to bring to the table. We love when people reach out to us. An Armenian dating app hit us up and said, "Hey, we want to do a singles party with you.” Of course! I'd love a Tatik to come and read fortunes in Armenian coffee grounds. I'd love for someone young who loves photography, but hasn't taken photos of an event before, to come shoot for an hour for us. So, the best way to support really is messaging us and letting us know how you want to get involved. The other piece is that putting on elevated events that are well-designed and beautiful takes a lot of time and money and effort to make it special. We could just rent out a crappy bar and host drinks, and just Armenians would still come. But for us to make it special for everyone, it does take some money. The last Kef was made possible by really generous Armenian brands — Karoun Dairies, Azat Mard, Henry’s House of Coffee, Storica Wines. They really upleveled the event in tons of ways that we couldn't do alone, and we tried to take care of them as well by promoting them. So, we do ask for generosity from Armenian brands to help sponsor, but we keep it all in the family and we support on our side, as well. But individuals: please reach out to us; let us know how you can help. Even if you want to check tickets for an hour, it's so, so useful. You'll meet a lot of people and we just want to grow our family. It's not Shant and Ara just putting on events; it's going city to city to build a synergy among the community. S.T.: As for future events, we’re planning something for early February. One thing we loved about the Kef at The Wooly was the inside–outside flow, but with winter approaching, we need to rethink the experience and find a space where we can bring all those elements into an indoor setting. We also want to layer in more intentional programming. Food is always a big part of what we do, so instead of just renting out a bar or restaurant, we want to push it further and make it feel elevated. Overall, everything we create has to offer a fresh, interesting experience, something unique that people can’t get anywhere else. Follow Hye House on Instagram @HyeHouse.NYC to get involved and find out about upcoming events. In the meantime, you can also listen to Hye House-curated playlists on Spotify. All photos are courtesy of Grant Svarre unless otherwise noted.

Come on-a Hye House, Hye House a-come on: An interview with the new curators of Kef

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Rosie (Toumanian) Nisanyan

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This story is FREE for you...

Rosie (Toumanian) Nisanyan

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