Dinner in the Gardens: 2019 • The Spirited Traveler

Dinner in the Gardens:

1k neighbors
7 courses
5 chefs
1 table

= a pretty good time had by all!

I had the pleasure of attending the inaugural Dinner in the Gardens this past weekend, and despite a few hiccups, had a really good time. Hosted by Edible Memphis and the Central Gardens Association, this neighborhood dinner featured a 7 course, farm to table meal served in one of Memphis’s most historic neighborhoods–Central Gardens. This creative concept was aimed at bringing people together from all over to city to encourage new connections, to showcase the beauty that is Central Gardens, and to (hopefully) inspire other neighborhoods to host their version of a neighborhood dinner party.

The Good:

My new friend, Biker Santa Claus (on vacation)

I love this concept! An outside event, fall weather, meeting new people, making new connections, and did I mention food & wine? I mean, what’s not to love! Good thing I’m not a food blogger, because I totally dropped the ball on capturing the courses and my thoughts on each individual one. What I do remember is the first bite, the Amuse, was delicious. I also remember a cider braised beef course with some type of veggie & apple topping that was truly wonderful.

And last, but not least, the party favor by Phillip Ashley was my most favorite bite of the night. The menu says it was a bourbon pecan praline, however, I remember it being more chocolaty than praline-y, but it was delicious whatever it was.

Seriously, it was a cool vibe, everyone was very nice and friendly. I made a new friend (I’ve since forgotten his name because you know my memory is absolute shite 😃) that I insisted on calling Biker Santa Claus. He was cool with it, so that was his name for the remainder of the evening.😂

The Bad:

Of course, with all inaugural events, there tend to be a few hiccups along way with logistics and execution. I experienced 1 or 2 hiccups during dinner. The first being that service was a tad slow between courses. Mind you, the serving staff did an excellent job and they set up each course and got the food out as fast as they could. However, there just were not enough of them on hand to handle the crowd in an expedient fashion. We missed out completely on 1 course (the veggies) and experienced delays of 10-15 mins between some courses.

Another hiccup happened with the beverage service. Again, the serving staff was AWESOME. They served up beverages as quickly as they could, with some dedicated to walking up and down the table offering refills. However, with over 500+ people in attendance, you can image the volume of wine & cocktails that were consumed over the course of 3 hours, or so. So while the wine didn’t run out, per se, there were some wait periods while additional wine deliveries were made. Thankfully, several of our table mates and neighbors had full bottles and they were more than happy to share their bounty.

Overall Impression:

Overall, I had a really good time. The weather was perfect, the wine ever flowing, and the food was pretty tasty. You can’t beat Central Gardens as a backdrop for an autumn dinner party. The people were super cool: very friendly and open for my version of dinner conversation. Which, if you’ve ever had the pleasure (or misfortune) of engaging me in a chat, you know is quite varied in its wide range of random topics-lol.

Even with the few hiccups I experienced, I still had an amazing time. And before I could even post this recap, the organizers had already sent an email expressing both their thanks and a list of logistical things they will improve on for next year.

Bottom line: Would I buy tickets to next year’s Dinner in the Gardens? Yes!

I managed to remember to record a bit of footage at varying points, so check out my video recap below to see the set up (the table decor was beautiful) and a small snippet of the conversation/debate I had with farmer, Richard Simmons (yes, that is his real name) over turning my ENTIRE yard (front & back mind you) into a mini farm. 😂