Cedric Pasarbre plucks a toothpick from a passing waiter’s tray. “When we started designing cell towers that mimic trees, people said it was farcical. Heck, I gave us one chance in forty they’d be any good. And, between you and me, they weren’t. At least not at first.

“We churned out these robotic, pine-ish imitations you could spot from miles away. And I have. I’ve been on treks where it was impossible not to see the giant pipe cleaner across the river, twice as tall as its nearest neighbor. After two years of fiascos, I spearheaded a project to replicate the palm tree; the result could have come out of a Lego set.

“I had my first big innovation after road tripping with my partner along California’s Pacific Coast Highway. We drove north from Big Sur to Mendocino. And the trees we saw: craggy cypresses clinging impossibly to cliffs and monumental sequoias reaching to the sky. The breadth of possibilities was staggering. But the setting, the setting is everything! We cut back on scaling the manufacturing and doubled down on design. We went boutique. Every job we took was custom. We’d send two designers with a Leica camera and a sketch book to the prospective site and they’d do portraits of the tree community and sketches of how our arbor ware would fit in. They had to the sketches there—en plein air—to be suffused with the æsthetics. It costs more but it’s worth it. If you care enough to hide a tower, you don’t want to just have a different sort of eyesore.

“But even then after a few years we got stuck in a rut. I could tell the team needed a change of venue, of perspective. We closed up shop and took a two week sabbatical in Japan. We spent time with bonsai, of course, but also looking at how they melded the architecture with the parkitecture, if you will. I found it harmonious. We’re back now at work, saturated with brio. I’ve been experimenting using computers to add that vital fractal aspect. You’ll forgive me if I say our field is about to turn a new leaf.”

Another waiter comes near and Cedric wraps hit toothpick in a napkin and places it on the tray. He asks, “what is on the menu tonight?”

“Hearts of palm salad.”

“Ah, yes.” He closes his eyes. “Palm. One day I’ll come back to you.”