Summer Solstice Farm Dinner

Orlando's new job gave him the opportunity to help our on an annual Summer Solstice Farm Dinner offered by one of the company's sister restaurants. The dinner isn't cheap, $160 per person, but still drew 120 people more than 1 hour from downtown, for a four course dinner with paired wines.



They left DC at 10:00 am, and got started getting set up. Dinner was scheduled for 6:30, with guests arriving at 4:00. So they had just a couple of hours to get things set up and the rain was definitely working against them. There was a rain plan, but the forecast said the rain would stop, so they set up in the pasture as planned. To ensure that everyone had dry seats, they kept the seats leaned up against the table, and waited as long as possible to set the table.



The dinner was to incorporate ingredients from the farm, and put the talents of the chefs to the test, particularly with raw crabcakes, and no saute pans to cook them. But nevermind the behind the scenes, the real beauty of the event was the location.





Once it got down to cooking, the menu was the following:

• Salad of chicoree with deviled egg
• Family style crab case and parma ham wrapped scallops
• Family style mixed grill with rabbit terrine, bison skirt, beef ribeye and beef striploin, with potato salad and spring onions
• Goat cheese cheesecake with black pepper and strawberry puree with creme chantilly
• House made cookies with chilled espresso shots

The cooking was the fun part of the meal. It was the set up and break down of all the tents, chairs, makeshift kitchen, etc. that put everyone to the test.





The next morning (I was asleep when he finally made it home), was Father's Day, and all Orlando really wanted, was to sleep in and rest is sore muscles. So, we left him to rest while Myney, Annie and I visited Sidamo, the local small coffee shop with a super cute courtyard in the back (pictures next time).