Dinner with Strangers 3 was held this past weekend at the Design Firm, Chartreuse, which is owned by my friend and dinner guest, Charity Ewanko.  Her patio there is just lovely and worked out perfectly for the intimate dinner.

Just as dinner guests got comfortable and got to know those that were seated near them, I went and made half of them pick up their trays and move to a new seat! hahhaha! It is not called “dinner with the 3 closest strangers that are next to you” so, i wanted to encourage as many connections as possible.

The theme of this dinner was BBQ, so Chef Ryan Santos of PLEASE Catering cooked up a clever take on the traditional concept and I am shocked that I ate pigs feet and declared my love for them, BEFORE knowing what I had just eaten. ( I am still making up for years as a weird finicky eater)

ABOVE: new friends, Justin Gould and the location hostess, Charity Ewanko

The lovely Serena Harrigan of Gray’s Auctioneers, one of my favorite sources of antiques in town.

The next dinner will be August 29, so if you are interested in attending, please join the FB group HERE.

Tweet This Post 

Share/Save

So when I started my day today, I thought the only thing I would be doing before going into work would be helping out Ryan by picking him up where he was dropping his car off to get fixed…turns out immediately following that, I discover that I have my 4th flat tire in 3 months!

SOOOOO, change of plans!  No need to get bummed out, having road side assistance, and pretty much being on a first name basis with them at this point, Ryan and I pretty much decided to turn today into Tuesday Funday or SUPER TUESDAY!!!

Both with broken cars and broken bicycles we decided to explore on foot.  Perfect weather day, only being in the 70’s with a great breeze off the lake, we headed to The Harp for lunch.  See Ryan below using his legs to get him there and me giving the proverbial thumbs up to being comfortably seated yet again:

from there, we walked back to ROOM SERVICE where Jessica was holding the fort down so we decided to set out again on another adventure…this time, an adventure on Cleveland’s RTA bus system.

We picked up the #26, shown below in all of its glory, from the corner of W.65th and Detroit and headed to beautiful downtown Cleveland.

Along the way, I saw these guys and wondered if perhaps we shouldn’t have explored this as an option first:

Once downtown we walked around Euclid Ave and E.4th street for awhile, my favorite part of downtown, where we ran into Adam from Luxe:

After hanging out for a bit, we each got the call that our respective cars were repaired and ready for pick up so we headed back towards the bus, on the way we decided to stop in and check out the Soldiers and Sailors Monument in Public Square..Ryan loves Abe, (ask him about his abe tattoo) -his adoration clearly exemplified below:

Below you will find Ryan mocking me by intentionally thwarting my attempt at camera hijinx:

Upon leaving public square, we headed back to meet up with good ol’ #26, where me passed and met Johnny:

While, there are no more pictures past this point, I can say we went on to the Tremont Farmers Market where Ryan put in some orders for our upcoming DINNER WITH STRANGERS!

And now, back home, back to work!

Tweet This Post 

Share/Save

AGAIN, having lost the last 3 months of blog posts I am attempting to repost some of the more important ones…DINNER WITH STRANGERS is a big part of what I am doing these days, so here is a re-cap of that past post:

DINNER WITH STRANGERS:

DWS Two

So what is DINNER WITH STRANGERS?  Well, it an intimate dinner amongst, well…strangers!  At least theoretically.  Inspired by a DINNER AMONGST STRANGERS that I attended in Paris, hosted by American expat Jim Haynes, pictured below:

This version I co-host alongside my friend and very clever chef, Ryan Santos of Please Catering

HOW IT WORKS:

Ryan comes up with a theme or concept for the dinner and creates a very unique menu inspired by that theme.

And I come up with the decor and table settings around that theme AND I pick the guest list!

I pick 24 people, to keep it intimate, that I do not think know one another, or at least too well…as I do not know who actually knows who it is not fool proof, BUT it’s fun no less!

So each person pays for a 5 course meal and drinks are BYOB. It is held in a different venue each time, with a different set of guests and fresh new menu.

Essentially, it is a networking event, but to my mind, a less formal, more relaxed and intimate one.  As a result of past events, people have made new friends, gotten side work and expanded their own connection to Cleveland.

DWS One

CHECK OUT SOME REVIEWS FROM PAST DINNER WITH STRANGERS ATTENDEES:

CLEVELAND FOODIE

NORTHCOAST ZEITGEIST

SHARK & MINNOW

NORTHCOAST LIFESTYLE

IF YOU ARE INTERESTED IN ATTENDING ONE OF OUR DINNERS, EMAIL ME:

info@roomservicecleveland.com

JOIN OUR FACEBOOK GROUP HERE

Tweet This Post 

Share/Save