When we came up with the vision for Sourdough, we designed it to serve three purposes. First and most importantly, it’s envisioned as a platform for people to connect over food and drink. We named this series Sourdough because breaking bread is a universal and timeless symbol for gathering, connecting and sharing. Second, it’s a platform to showcase up and coming chefs. Finally, it was a platform for Create Dinners to grow. It marked a lot of big milestones for us. Our first multi-night event. Our largest dinner to date. Our first dinner that was open to both women and men. We’re happy to report… we did it!
For those of you who haven’t been following along on social, Sourdough is a pop-up dining experience designed for guests to connect over a five-course meal and meaningful questions served alongside each course. Guests sit around a long communal table, where they feast and share stories. Our first Sourdough took place over three nights in September, and what memorable nights they were!
We kicked off the night with a special cocktail hour, courtesy of Barr Hill Gin.
As our guests strolled into our beautiful loft tucked away in a warehouse, they were greeted with hors d'oeuvres and served Barr Hill’s famous Bee’s Knees cocktail. For every photo that was tagged, they planted 10 Square feet of bee pollinator habitat! How cool is that?! #savethebees For those who weren’t drinking, we had these delicious Pomegranate Peace mocktails, created by Chef Lay Alston. Speaking of…
Dinner was prepared by Chef Lay Alston of Soul and Wheel and her amazing team.
For Chef Lay, food has always been a vessel for her perseverance - Soul & Wheel being a manifestation of that. Throughout life's ups and downs, her passion for feeding people has always remained. As she develops an accessible mobile restaurant concept, she creates pop-up experiences for food lovers to enjoy all while connecting deeper through her craft. When creating she pulls knowledge from her culinary schooling, cooking competitions, and her experience working in some of NYC’s top restaurants. As she has been cooking professionally for over 10 years, she aspires to create more inclusivity and accessibility in the food & beverage/hospitality industry.
As cocktail hour winded down, guests found their seat along our communal table. The beautiful serveware was provided by Soluca Collections, and the flowers for each night were arranged by the wonderful Molly Ford of Flowers by Ford. I gave a quick welcome toast, and dinner began!
Chef Lay served up an insane menu for us! Apologies in advance for giving you an instant craving, but it went as follows:
first course: sourdough meze babaganoush, hummus, and apt 2 sourdough bread
The one thing that will always happen at Sourdough is that we’ll begin by breaking bread. This first installment featured sourdough by Apt.2 Bread, which was to die for and was served with dips and olive oil courtesy of Brightland.
Bread was followed up by…
second course: medi.soul salad little gem, cucumbers, kalamata, feta and eggplant crisps
third course: seafood skewer lobster, scallop, red shrimp and chimichurri
fourth course: zucchini rigatoni rigatoni pasta, heirloom tomatoes, castelvetrano olives, and pecorino
dessert: baklava buddies flaky phyllo. pistachio praline, buddies coffee ice cream
take home favor: yaya’s crib sweet potato cornbread (this was unreal!)
On top of that, we had unbelievable wine pairings throughout the dinner, curated by Spencer & Lynn Wine Merchants.
We began with a Domaine Christophe Mittnacht Alsace Pinot Blanc Terre d'etoiles, followed by Vincent Caille “La Part du Colibri” Gamay for the second and third courses, and finished off the night with Combel La Serre “L’Antidote” Rosé 2021. It’s hard to describe how good these were!
In typical Create Dinners style, we served a conversation question alongside each dish. These were designed to allow guests to connect on a deeper level through guided conversation. We were so thrilled to see people so deep in conversation. Some only got to questions two or three and went on their own journey – that was the whole point.
We often mark the success of our events by how long guests linger. Keeping things on schedule, delicious food, and a beautifully styled table matter, but if no one is phased or moves after the lights go on because they're so deep in conversation with someone else around the table, we know we did our job as the host. Thank you to the ones who stuck around for so long.
We’ve had multiple reports of great times had, new friends made and continued connection after the event. That’s honestly all we can ask for and the reason we do this. Thank you so much to everyone who came out, and especially to my wonderful team: Leah, Talya, Marissa and Clare. An extra special thanks and shoutout to Leandra Creative Co. for documenting such a special night so well!
If you’re interested in joining the next Sourdough, we have a few more in the works so please follow along!