Artsper x Spoak Dinner

December, 2022

We set the table for the final time in 2022 last night for @artsper_ and @spoak at @bws.gallery!

Artists came together for a Parisian inspired evening draped in greenery and pops of color provided by @misettetable and @madrelinen, and artwork by @_brandontellez. All guests, lots of them interior designers, chose a color swatch upon arrival that they felt represented them and talked about it in our round table introductions. We sipped on pink peppercorn gimlets made with @lascaliforniasgin, dined on an insanely delicious 4-course meal by @rachelsnydernyc and @feedmenoona, and watched new connections be made between cool artsy women across NYC. The cherry on top? Everyone got to take home prints by @gabrielle.rul, one of Artsper’s artists.


We’ll see you all in the new year… joyeuses fêtes! ❤️

Little Shoppe, Big Impact Holiday Market

Earlier this month, Create Dinners joined Blank Studio for their annual fundraiser and holiday party. To say that it was a privilege and success is an understatement.

This was an all weekend event!

We opened the doors on Friday for a holiday party and market opening. As guests arrived, they were greeted by a foraged display of logs, mushrooms, greenery, and bittersweet designed by Ashley Ziemer. All this beauty surrounded an inspiration wall that everyone could add to, answering the questions, “What are you most proud of from 2022?” and “What are you most looking forward to in 2023?” Through the doors, there were candles, good music and drinks, the raffle station, and an abundance of scrumptious food. On their way out, they were able to grab a gift bag!

Photos below are from the talented Vonecia Carswell and Kate Pauley.

The market doors reopened on Saturday morning and went into the evening.

Guests popped in and out all day, escaping the winter rain and cold. Raffle jars and spirits filled up all day and there was not a single moment you couldn’t look around the room to see smiling faces. We even hosted two hands-on activations — Candle Making with Moods by Yemmie and Natural Silk Ribbon Dyeing with Liz Chick.

On Sunday, raffle winners were drawn and emails were sent out to the lucky ones! We kind of felt like Santa, sliding into inboxes (metaphorical chimneys) with good news and gifts.

The Little Shoppe, Big Impact Holiday Market is easily the biggest event Create Dinners has ever been a part of. With over 300 guests and $2,786 raised for City Harvest NYC, combating food waste and serving New York’s growing hungry population, we were overwhelmed with gratitude.

We are so grateful to everyone who donated their money, time, and energy. Thank you to everyone who shopped and to everyone who asked how they could help. We couldn’t have done any of this without Blank Studio and Talya Benjamin who spearheaded things on our Create Dinners team. Thank you again to all of our incredible collaborators who set up booths, donated products/food/beverages and raffle items!

Raffle Donors:

Vendors:

Sponsors:

We're already so excited for next year's market and couldn't have asked for a better way to end 2022. Cheers, everyone!

Holiday Gift Exchange at Yellow Studio

We’re bringing you all the cozy vibes today with a recap from last week’s Holiday Gift Exchange.

First, a huge thank you to our co-hosts, Yellow Studio and Anchor & Fade! Yellow Studio is an old house turned co-working space and it’s so charming it hurts. We foraged lots of fall / winter foliage for this event, making the most of what upstate NY had to offer us. An abundance of taper candles brought the cozy feels home.

We had 20 incredible women in attendance.

Each of them brought a wrapped locally made or women owned business gift, and wrote a prompt on the outside using a handmade paper tag by Yuko Nishikawa to give the receiver a clue to what was inside. Yuko also created the stunning hanging installation pictured below.

After mingling, munching on delicious provisions prepared by Fairchild's Fromage, and sipping on a variety of tasty wines from Mt. Cisco’s Pour, we gathered around and opened gifts white elephant style.

Everyone answered questions to share a bit more about themselves — their accomplishments, the hardships they overcame throughout the year, and what they’re looking forward to in 2023. To close our time out, we did a drawing where two winners won jars of Hudson Valley Hemp Honey to make their holidays even sweeter.

The season officially feels “kicked off” and we can’t wait to host another one of these soon! See a list of some of our favorite gifts brought below.

Gift Roundup:
- Salt Point Farm subtle and delicious peppermint lip balm and herbal soap bars 
- Kahlo Shower steamer and artisan made carryall bag
- Beam travel paint sampler, brush and sketchbook from Katonah Reading Room
- Bedford Sourdough loaf and almond butter from LMNOP Bakery in Katonah 
- Bergamot & tobacco scented candle by CBD company Parson Brown, available at Odette Outpost in Bedford and Rivertown General in Dobbs Ferry
- Small ceramic bowls made by Annie Raife 
- Beeswax Candle/White Birch - LoMar Farms, (Palisades, NY)
- Candle by Alissa Leigh Art
- CBD Chocolate Bar available at local shop: Porch, Mount Kisco, New York

Sourdough with Chef Emily Swaine

Hi! Kate here, Chief Bread Officer.

Where to start?! Sourdough number two is a wrap, and it was insane in the best possible way! We really went for it this time with 65 guests - by far our biggest seating to date. I’m blown away by how beautifully everything came together thanks to the all-star team we assembled for this one. I’m going to walk you through the night and showcase all the amazing people and brands who came together to make this dream a reality.

First, the Create Dinners team spent weeks leading up to this behind the scenes. Leah, Talya, Breanna, Adie, Meg and Isabel made sure everything came together, and then followed it up by being the most gracious hosts during the event while also nailing my not-at-all-absurd* request of “dress like a cool piece of bread”. Thank you!

The calm before…

We kicked off the night with a happy hour in the beautiful courtyard of 99 Scott’s Innerspace, with the string lights turning on just as the sun was setting and guests flowing in.

Matchbox Distilling Co. provided us with their Elsewhere Aperitivo for our “Elsewhere Spritz” and Land of The Muses Gin for our “Concord Muse” while Feel Good Booch served up two delicious kombuchas: Turmeric & Ginger and Habanada & Pineapple. They were the perfect evening refreshers, brewed with so much intention. I gave my welcome address, and officially commenced the night by ringing my favorite new purchase - a dinner bell! 

A full house!

Yes, please.

As you probably know, Sourdough is the Create Dinners’ pop-up dining experience and is in large part a platform to showcase up-and-coming chefs. This dinner featured the amazing Chef Emily Swaine, Executive Chef at Forsythia in LES, and her team, Sena and Pruitt. Serving 65 guests is no small feat, but they did it flawlessly!

Carla from Apt. 2  Bread delivered with 12 sourdough loaves that Chef Emily and her team transformed into breadcrumbs for pasta and crostinis that kicked off the night together! From there, things got wild… I mean just read this menu.

first course: roasted pumpkin | treiber farms pumpkin, apple butter, crispy sunchokes , served with Gini 'Vigne Vecchie Contrada Salvarenza', Soave Classico, Italy 2018

second course: poached local fish  | seasonal fish and mushroom , served with La Visciola 'Vicinale', Cesanese del Piglio, Italy 2020

third course: tortellini in brodo | ricotta, dashi, kelp oil 

fourth course: sycamore sungold bucatini   | sungold tomato sauce, onion jam, apt 2 breadcrumbs , served with COS Cerasulo di Vittoria, Sicily, Italy 2018

fifth course: riso buono  | broken risotto pudding, preserved fruit, meringue 

Tableware was curated by Soluca Collections and Wine pairings were provided by One Kourt Studio and took us on a little tour of Italy. A special thank you to Kimberly Cavoores for such incredible selections, and graciously filling our glasses and sharing her knowledge with all of us!

All of the amazing plates were provided by Soluca Collections!

We capped off the night with a pour of Day Trip Strawberry Amaro from Matchbook Distilling, and on the way out everyone grabbed a special take home treat courtesy of L'Appartement 4F. Let’s be real though, they probably didn’t even make it home because their chocolate chip cookies are impossible not to devour immediately!

Cheers!

Looking back through all of these amazing photos by the unbelievably talented Ellie Patterson, I feel so grateful for everyone who contributed to this, as a guest or as a partner.

It’s unreal to see our vision of the Sourdough events coming together like this, and to see our guests genuinely connect with each other over a meal. Sourdough is really just about breaking bread with one another, and getting to share these with everyone is really what fills our heart!

The star of the show.

We’re taking a break for the holidays, so we can break bread with our families, but we’ll be back with more Sourdough dates in early 2023. In the meantime, follow along. We can’t wait to see you around the table!

Sourdough with Chef Lay Alston

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!