local flavor: coterie & tie dinners
Editor’s Note: I always said I was going to get to Athens for one of The Four Coursemen dinners and just never did- timing was never right, etc etc. No more! Today’s post from Eleta has made me swear to get to Athens for Coterie & Tie- read on to see why….
Molly
This past weekend, Alex and I had the pleasure of attended our third chefs’ dinner from a group of talented Athens chefs. Once known as The Four Coursemen, this group of Classic City chefs split off to work on several creative projects. Next, a few of them continued the tradition under the name Shotgun Dinners, named particularly for the shotgun house on Pulaski Street where they formerly hosted events. Now, a couple of these people have rebranded under the name Coterie & Tie and have continued the tradition of a five course tasting menu with wine pairings.
Here’s the deal: you get on their e-mail list and they let you know the week of the event that they’re hosting a dinner. The seats are limited to around 20, so respond with your reservation quickly to ensure that you and your party have seats. The dinner is not at a restaurant; rather, it’s in a lovely unit in Whitehall Lofts alongside the North Oconee River. Because it’s not at a restaurant, many typical restaurant rules and routines are suspended: you can ask the chefs questions as you watch them cook, you can walk up to the cooking area and snoop around, and you get impeccable table service with wine pairings by a skilled sommelier.
Because it’s not a restaurant, they give a suggested donation amount that you pay per person at the end. For this dinner, we had five tasting courses with wine pairings with each and the total was $75/person. While this is certainly a splurge, it is well worth it–the personal attention from the chefs, the detailed explanation of the food sourcing and preparation, and the creativity and passion put into the evening made this well worth the expense. Plus, if you purchased all of these items a la carte at a restaurant, I think the total would be over the suggested amount.
So let me set the scene for you…
Get the whole story at:
http://bungalowkitchen.wordpress.com/2014/08/05/local-flavor-coterie-tie-dinner-in-athens/
Hey Molly,
Rachel Bailey here, the photographer whose photo you used with this story. I do media stuff with Coterie & Tie and Five & Ten as well. I’m the girl who was out on the front lawn taking pictures a few weeks ago while you were having a coffee or something on the porch with Jason.
Anyway, I’ve been meaning to say that I (and the organizations I work for) appreciate the love you’ve been throwing our collective way on your blog. If you ever need press assets (including high-res photos, chefs bios, info on news-related stuff, etc), feel free to email me at rachelbscribbles@gmail.com. And please let me know if you ever decide to follow Bungalow Kitchen’s lead and attend one of Coterie’s dinners yourself. I’ll be sure to be there to introduce myself properly.
Also, being the photographer whose image you culled for this post, I really appreciate that you attributed it properly with a reference to where people can find other work. I feel like I spend so much time finding my pictures online and tracking down the people who posted them to ask for attribution. It’s nice when someone just does it right in the first place.
Best wishes,
Rachel
OMG- you are so sweet!! Thank you for taking the time to write me this note. I will email you for sure so you can have my contact information, and yes I do plan to come to a dinner at some point so I will let you know for sure.
And yes I totally get it, I do photography for some concert venues around town and having images stolen is always a concern. You might be happy to know that I have a feature on this blog which prevents people from right-clicking and downloading photos 😉 And I’d be happy to let you know what plugin that is as well.
Looking forward to chatting soon!!
Molly