#destination dining

Historic restaurant expansion is the strategic growth of a dining business into larger or more capable premises while strengthening customer experience, operational efficiency, and brand identity. Increasingly, heritage buildings are chosen because they combine functional improvements with cultural significance, creating memorable destination dining experiences. The decision to expand a…

Destination Dining y S. Pellegrino vuelve a los ciclos culinarios

Los comensales disfrutarán de una propuesta única. Un menú que propone los platos más emblemáticos de cada restó. El programa Destination Dining de S.Pellegrino® Sparkling Natural Mineral Water regresa este invierno expandiendo su ciclo culinario que permite conectar más comunidades a través de la inmersión en la cultura gourmet, un plato a la vez. S.Pellegrino se ha asociado con reconocidos…

I heard about destination dining with the Pretty Fork through some friends and then got to join them for an event.  It was a mystery from start to finish what we were going to do… except we all knew there was a seaplane flight involved.  But then the destination and then the food… and then we headed to yet another place for the next part…  Check it:

What is the Pretty Fork

Seattle is a city that’s whole culture centers around food.  Well, maybe not completely, but each neighborhood you visit is going to have oodles of restaurants to choose from.  The Pretty Fork brings small groups of diners to one of these neighborhoods and then takes them from spot to spot, hitting a few different places and getting a feel of the food scene, as well as tasting some great bites (meals).

Guests of the Pretty Fork don’t know where they’re headed, but are up for trying new places and probably some new foods.  I like control and sticking to my old faves, so heading out with the Pretty Fork was a bit of a stretch for me, but it was awesome.  Progressive dining is a great way to get a little out of your comfort zone and have a new type of fun.

How does Destination Dining work

So, destination dining takes the same concept of progressive dining and moves it to an unknown locale.  If you’re doing an event with the Pretty Fork in Seattle, you’ll know where to meet and then will visit three or so restaurants in the area.  Same idea with destination dining… but you only know when you have to check in for your seaplane flight.  You only know what time you’re supposed to return.  Where you’ll land and what you’ll eat you have no clue of.

Where did WE go?

Flying out of Seattle on Kenmore Air, there are a number of places you could end up via seaplane, including all of the way up in Victoria, BC.  Since we didn’t have instructions to bring passports, it was pretty solid that we were staying in the USA, but anywhere in the Puget Sound area was an option.  Port Ludlow?  San Juan Islands?  Olympia?  No idea where we were heading.

Well, it turned out that our Kenmore Air pilot knew and he landed us in front of the Rosario Resort on Orcas Island.  If you’re looking from way above, Orcas Island is north of Victoria and South of Vancouver, but still within the USA.  Rosario is on the East Sound, which is a perfect island bay surrounded by madrona trees and wooded cabins.  It was the perfect setting for an amazing destination dining experience.

Destination #1:  champagne and appetizers at Rosario

Since our Kenmore Air seaplane brought us into the harbor right by the Rosario Resort on Orcas Island, it was only fitting that this be our first stop on our destination dining afternoon.  We were told to walk out of the marina and into the lobby of the beautiful hotel.  Here we had champagne poured for us as we exited to the lawn.  

This sealed the deal for me.  Flying on a seaplane is always an adventure with an incredible view and, well, it’s just so very PNW, which is my favorite type of experience, but champagne in the sunshine while we watched sailboats and seaplanes?  Yes, please.  Oh, and we were also served fresh local oysters with a variety of accoutrements:  horseradish, cocktail sauce, and red onion mignonette.

Tip:  this was my second time ever trying oysters and they were actually surprisingly good.  I found that the smaller oysters weren’t weird at all and really had a great flavor, but the one large oyster I tried was a bit too much and I couldn’t talk myself into enjoying it.  Thank goodness for champagne.

Destination #2:  a perfect farm on a perfect cove

When we’d all had our fill of oysters and champagne overlooking the water (the fanciest hour of my life) we then were whisked away to another unknown destination.  If you’ve not been to Orcas Island, know that it’s like most fault-line islands in that it’s hilly and wild.  When we left the Rosario Resort we wound our way along the East Sound and turned into the Inn at Ship Bay.  It is the most perfect farm you could picture.

While the chef prepared our first courses, we got to wander around the property, through an orchard, around the gardens (which supplied most of our upcoming meal) and to the cliffs.  The whole destination dining experience could’ve been considered complete after we were treated to a pair of bald eagles and a deer just hanging out with us while we watched kayakers in the crystal clear cove below.  Seriously perfect.

Tip:  if you’re not from the Pacific Northwest really look around and appreciate the amazing place you’re in.  From the colorful and unusual trees to tropical-looking waters, it’s really beyond beautiful.  This makes a dining experience even better.

The six course meal of amazingness

When you say it out loud, “six course meal,” it sounds like a ridiculous amount of food, but it’s just dinner deconstructed and with bonuses.  Oh, and with each course was a perfectly paired wine.  With the pour and delivery of each dish, our chef gave us the details of the course and answered questions.  It was unlike any dining I’d done before.  Bravo, Pretty Fork, for creating such a cool and different activity!

Dinner

We started with locally raised Wagyu beef served with fresh yellow watermelon and nasturtium leaves.  I don’t do beef, let alone tartare, but this was really eye-opening.  The thinly sliced piece was tender and not what I would’ve expected of any beef dish.  That was the general consensus at the table, as the watermelon/beef combo surprised everyone.

Note:  I would never ever have ordered this on my own.  Doing destination dining with the Pretty Fork sold me on two new things (oysters and raw beef) before we were even a third of the way through dinner.

Following our first course came the prettiest soup I ever did saw:  a cold melon soup with shaved cucumber and smoked salmon.  And it was more than pretty, it was delicious.  If you’ve read any of our other food articles you know that we love to call out regional stereotypes.  In the Pacific Northwest, we’re all about salmon and can fit it into any meal, any time of year.  Destination dining fit in salmon too.  Totally PNW.

Next up on our table were perfect heirloom tomato salads created with fruits all grown at the Inn at Ship Bay.  Each type of tomato offered a different taste and texture.  It was wonderful to try them all side by side and get to understand how amazing Washington State’s locally grown produce is.

And here’s where I looked to my fellow diners and told them that I cannot cook my standard meals at home again:  house-made gnocchi with oyster mushrooms, artichokes and zucchini.  My gnocchi is blah in comparison… and I always thought it was my strong suit.  Oh well, I’m not the professional but was wowed by one.

Idea:  if the chef is approachable and you really love a dish, ask about its preparation and maybe you can attempt it at home… Sometimes it works…

For the meat course the local Wagyu beef showed back up, but this time in the form of a wonderfully glazed and braised short rib.  Since I don’t cook beef I don’t understand how to create amazing flavors with it.  Was it sherry and thyme with something else rather?  Who knows, but it was the perfect end to a beautiful meal.

Wait!  There was dessert!  As we were wrapping up and trying to make it back to our seaplane on time our final course was brought to us:  an olive oil matcha cake served with fruits from the orchard at the Inn at Ship Bay.  Dense but perfectly balanced, it was the ideal way to end our destination dining experience, especially when paired with a mellow dessert wine.

Tip:  if you have food allergies and you’re dining out, tell the server or chef and they may set you up with an alternative option that’s pretty great.  I’m allergic to stone fruits and the chef had prepared poached pears to accompany my dessert instead of plums.  Thoughtful and delicious!

Ending my Pretty Fork destination dining experience

Nobody likes a good thing to end.  Nobody.  And certainly not any of us.  If we had been staying on Orcas Island, perhaps at the Inn at Ship Bay, I know that we all would’ve kept on going with the amazing experience all evening long, but alas we had to leave since seaplanes can’t fly at night.  

Something I really appreciated about the destination dining experience with the Pretty Fork was spending several hours trying new foods and talking to people that I’d never tried or met before.  Since I’m typically traveling with kids and husband in tow, it was really refreshing to get to chat it up with other adults from a variety of walks that I might never have crossed paths with.  The situation of nobody knowing anything about the plan really created a common bond and made for an incredible time.

  Would I do destination dining with the Pretty Fork again?  Ohemgeeyes!!  When I got home Chris asked how it was and if I enjoyed it, and my response was that the two of us need to do a dining event together, and then I couldn’t stop blabbing about the food, flight and fun.

Whether you’re local to the Seattle area or visiting for a few days, check out the Pretty Fork to see if you can jump on a destination dining event or one of their progressive dinners.  What better way to experience Pacific Northwest culture, food and hospitality than by trusting a local with your meals?!

Let me start by saying that this dinner has been in the works for nearly a year.  You don’t get reservations at this restaurant; you buy tickets.  And these tickets go on sale about three months ahead of time and they usually sell out within the first week, if not the first day.  That being said, we were very excited to get tickets for the weekend we were going to be in Chicago for my cousin's wedding.

The menu changes regularly and you don’t get a choice of meal.  They contact you a week before regarding any dietary restrictions or food preferences so when you arrive you just sit back and enjoy the ride.

We enjoyed a 14-course dinner and with each course we had no idea what to expect until our team of waiters arrived to serve us and explain the ingredients, and most importantly how to eat each course because nothing that was served to us was ordinary.  It’s like the kitchen was run by chemists instead of chefs.

So here’s what we had the privilege to taste.

Osetra caviar, egg yolk, and a ball of melted butter.  All served on a spoon and meant to be taken in one bite.  The ball of liquid butter exploded in the mouth and combined all the ingredients. Amazing!

What they describe as “scallop with citrus aroma and fourteen textures.”  This dish came out in a large shell with smoke from dry ice billowing everywhere.  Another one of the ones they had to teach us how to eat for safety reasons.

Tomato with cana de cabra, cucumber, and charentals.  The tomatoes that they served us were actually our table’s centerpiece.  They poured it over cantaloupe and cucumber mousses that were sprinkled with dried ham crumbles.

Dungeness crab with squash blossom.  I had never eaten a squash blossom and had no idea it could be prepared in so many ways.  We had a fried leaf, fried blossom, squash custard, and a few other preparations that I can’t recall.

Tokyo inspiration.  A flaming piece of slate was brought to each of us and it had a bite sized piece of each seared tuna, wagyu beef, pork belly, and the head of some crustacean. That little piece of steak was my favorite part of dinner.

Veal cheeks with lapsang souchong, pine, and blackberry

Hot potato, cold potato.  A tiny wax bowl full of hot potato soup has a cold potato and black truffle suspended over it with a pin.  We were instructed to pull the pin out so the ingredients would drop into the soup and then take it all in one mouthful.  One of the coolest and most interesting dishes.

Duck.  Each diner received four preparations of duck and we all shared a tray that contained 60 ingredients that could pair with any of the duck reparations.  The scary part was that you had no idea what any of the ingredients were.  Katlyn went for all the fruit and vegetable items first to stay on the safe side.  Alex on the other hand intentionally went for everything that he had never seen before.

Black truffle explosion.  A single ravioli filled with black truffle, romaine, and parmesan.  We were instructed to keep our mouths shut when eating this one.  At first I thought our server was kind of rude but after the ravioli exploded in my mouth, it made sense.

Ginger.  We were given 5 miniscule pieces of ginger to cleanse our palates.  They all tasted insanely different…I had no idea there were so many types of ginger.

The BALLOON!!  This is where it started to feel like Willy Wonka.  Our first dessert course was an apple taffy balloon full of helium that floated at your table.  The string was made of fruit leather so even that was edible.

So here’s where things get a little fuzzy.  I know I enjoyed three more delicious courses but my wine pairings caused me to get “surprise drunk” and I will not do them justice so Stan is going to take over the descriptions from here :-)

12. Strawberry, sassafras, pines nuts, and long pepper.  This was basically strawberry’s dipped in dry ice. Cold and refreshing…definitely not something you’ll have lying around the house. 

13.Raspberry infused with rose – a few dishes beforehand they placed a centerpiece of glass straws in the middle of the table and I was like that’s a nice center piece. After a while, one of the waiters asked us to take them out to enjoy our delicious fuzz soda. Bonus! Another detonation of flavors.

14.Milk chocolate pâte sucrée with violet and hazelnut – this one required you to move your seat over and have a chef, I mean chemist, swing on over to your table and start the magic. The entire table becomes the plate…yes please! The chef brings over a bunch of random dishes that are either in liquid form, solid, or on dry ice. The next 5 minutes are simply magical as all these ingredients come together and you get an amazing chocolate tart…see below.

  At this point we’re all stuffed and Steph is trying not to pass out because of her “surprise drunk.” As we begin to walk out, Steph realized that that hallway is laid down with grass so at this moment it made all the sense in the world for her to take off her shoes and enjoy the soft green grass…that’s my classy gal!

Overall, the meal was an amazing experience that everybody should try if planning a trip to Chicago.