Dinner Party Atlanta Summer Line-up and News
The hiatus is over – we are gearing back up for the summer and fall.
The DP crew had to take a short break to get our new restaurant concept up and moving. Some of you already know we have signed a lease at 905 Juniper Street in midtown – I began receiving inquisitive emails within an hour of signing the lease! (Who’s the mole!?) We hope to open the Juniper spot in late summer. The rollout will be, in true Dinner Party tradition and style, unique. (If anyone knows how it is going to be executed, dammit, I give up!)
Now, to clear up some confusion… The question has been posed by some folks as to how Dinner Party can open up a restaurant – where the location is obviously disclosed, cuisine/menus will be known, pairings alluded to – when the whole Dinner Party concept and intrigue is centered around the element of surprise. (The question is appropriate. Our logic may seem convoluted, but there is sound reasoning and sense here! Promise.)
Ultimately, Dinner Party was started as a test kitchen/restaurant of sorts. We knew long before we began this project that our aim was to open a restaurant, which is a tricky proposition these days. The idea was conceived at 3am in the morning over a post-shift cocktail at TOP FLR. We wanted to put together a monthly food, wine & spirits “jam session” in the most avant garde locations possible. Those of you who have attended a dinner party didn’t know you were part of a culinary clinical trial. As it turns out – the medicine works.
We have garnered an invaluable wealth of knowledge over the last two years executing these dinners. Chef Devereux has created some amazing menus working with all sorts of ingredients and techniques. Our servers, cocktail director and sommelier have enjoyed the very rare opportunity to elevate their skills in very challenging circumstances (e.g., an airplane hangar, empty warehouse, Piedmont Park, and most recently, center court at the GA Tech Basketball coliseum). Believe me, more than once they have all looked at me with expressions that could only be interpreted as, “Are you kidding me???” But we always pulled it off…and we have all enjoyed seeing your reactions and hearing your genuine praise for the food, service and the experience. (Ok, ok…but where is the correlation??)
The menu, atmosphere, philosophy and ethic of our new venture will incorporate many things we have learned thus far from the Dinner Party “experiment,” but, no; the restaurant will not be called Dinner Party. It will be unique unto itself to be sure, but there will most definitely be a splash of Dinner Party character in the air, and it will be brought to you by the same folks…
Even with the addition of the new spot, Dinner Party, and the dinner parties we have been throwing for the last 2 years, will continue – as long as Chef Devereux, Darren and I are working together in the city. They are far, far too much fun to ever let them go by the wayside.
Dinner Party events are scheduled for June, July, August & September. Those of you on the waiting list will be emailed with dates before they are posted on the site…
Hoping to see ya’ll soon.
CHEERS,
Patrick
