When Danya Landis and her business partners opened Machina Kitchen and Art Bar, a farm-to-table restaurant and artistic space in Keene, they went in aware of the risk they were taking.

“As industries go, the restaurant industry is not an easy one to get into,” Landis said. “It was definitely something that was going to be a learning curve in the first place.”

Despite that, they thought that they could make it work. Landis and her business partner Rebecca Hamilton had already been running events in the greater Keene area. When they crossed paths with Jordan Scott, their third active business partner, they saw how they could build a space dedicated to connecting people through art and food.