Luxury Entertaining: The Ecosystem is evolving.
For years, an impressive celebration could only have meant a private dining room, booking a fancy restaurant, or another fancy event venue. But many hosts are playing a third card these days. Rather than whisking their guests off to another place, they are bringing special significance to ordinary spaces.
Home is hard to define anymore, now it encompasses a curated, combination food/design/entertainment/self-expression experience in the backyard, on the roof-deck, the patio, the vacation rental or her or his private home. What you’ll find is a whole new way of entertaining that goes beyond the food and drinks themselves to the actual experience as well.
From Formal Luxury to Personal Luxury
Luxury has been conventionally thought about in terms of formality.
Consider white tablecloths, shiny dining rooms, neatly-staged dinnerware and highly choreographed service. It’s important details – but in today’s day and age, there’s more personal to modern entertainment.
Planning for atmosphere rather than undue formality. Hosts want a memorable time without having to bother with all the logistics. Most importantly people place great value on experiences that are unique or somewhat more than the standard of pricey experience.
A wonderfully crafted meal in the comfort of one’s home can provide just that. Room with room but the experience without equal. This terrace can be an intimate eating den. A backyard can be an entertaining area. Even an estate rental can be a dinner party that guests speak about long after the night has passed.
Food Is Becoming Part of the Entertainment
The presentation of food has been one of the biggest shifts in entertainment in today’s modern society. Typically, in the kitchen in a traditional dinner. After a complete plate is prepared, guests only receive the finished plate.
Experience dining does that turn up the heat. The preparation can be a part of the event itself. You could see the preparation of dishes, meet a chef, see ingredients being transformed just as they happen or be surrounded by a live cooking station.
This engenders inaction, dialogue, anticipation. Food is not intruding on the entertainment, it is being an entertainment. That is particularly significant for occasions when guests might be from diverse social circles. The whole group will have something to watch and talk about, leading to easier conversations.
Presentation Matters More Than Ever
Putting on a show is always a hallmark of fashion.
Different looks, lighting, location and context can evoke completely different meanings from the same piece. Eating is increasingly done in a similar manner. The food setting is attracting attention.
Colouring of the tableware, utensils, flower arrangements, lighting, outdoor furniture, glassware and food could play a role in setting the tone. It’s not like every event has to emulate a professional editorial shoot.
Indeed, some of the most inviting meet-ups are said to have a coordinated detail and a rough and tumble sense. An informal outdoor table, inviting lighting, cohesive linens and an entertaining cooking scenario can add texture over an elaborate dining room.
Don’t aim to achieve perfection! It is cohesion.
Interactive Dining Makes the Evening More Memorable
This is generally the case for the strongest events, which offer the guests something to do.
It could be a tasting menu accompanied by a story, live cooking a course directly in front of the audience, cocktails drawn tableside or a meal around a cooking style that is visual. At home experiences are especially suited to this trend.
The at-home hibachi experience blends into the private dinner experience with live cooking and interaction from the dinner guests, making the chef and cooking a part of the party instead of under the radar. This is because things are always doing something.
Not everyone is sitting around waiting for dinner to come to them. They are observing, responding, commenting, taking photos, enjoying the experience and sharing it with others. It’s just a normal meal until it becomes an experience.
Celebrations Are Becoming More Individual
The need for personalization is another big driver of experiential entertaining’s continued growth.
There will usually be a format in place. Space limitations, time restrictions, menu restrictions, and/or seating restrictions may apply. Staying in a private establishment is a way to have control.
What really goes right for a birthday is not necessarily what works for an anniversary. Items can be thrilling and lighthearted at the soiree for that one special day or it may be cozy and heartfelt in the course of a family dinner.
People being celebrated could impact the environment more than the rules of the venue. This also gives fashion and personal style more of a say.
Hosts could decide on a colour theme for the event, have a garden-party meal, or a resort-style dinner by the pool or simply let the evening be a simple backyard party with string lights.
It is just not a random “food, fashion, décor and entertainment” event when all elements are functioning together.
The Rise of the Camera-Ready Dinner
Social media has also impacted people’s perspectives on events.
Of course, guests will take pictures of stunning cuisine, whimsical arrangements, show-stopping moments, and pretty people. It doesn’t mean we’re all in the Instagram business, but it seems that it’s a fact of modern hospitality.
The experiential restaurant is a place that comes together all naturally. Movement photographs well. With the spark of a fire, steam, color, plating, cocktails, fashion, and true reaction of the guests creating moments to capture.
However, the ones that are the most successful, are not those that were made just for the camera. The visual elements should be used to enhance the experience, but not take over it.
Whether you’re holding an event, you’ll get your best memories when attendees are having a great time.
Home Has Become a Destination
The home life change that has caught everyone’s attention is the concept that there are no easy-to-do things when staying at home. Expectors take high-quality experiences home with them!
From festive getaways and mobile cocktail services to custom concepts and wellness experiences and beyond, private chefs can make any space extraordinary.
For this reason, this trend is logical.
At home, guests can stay an hour or two too long, linger around unwinding, select their own tunes, make the setting their own and have no need for the evening to be over when the restaurant is asking the table to leave. It is also rather intimate to invite folks into a private realm.
The place is now part of the narrative. For example, a dinner on the rooftop with an open city view, a birthday celebrated in a backyard with bright String lights, or a meal on the pool deck while on a weekend vacation, can feel more intimate, and warm, than a typical reservation at a restaurant.
Style Is About More Than What Guests Wear
The term ‘self-expression’ is used often in relation to fashion, and this can also apply to entertainment.
A host’s details convey an indication. While a vibrant, maximalist setup conveys a statement, a bare-bones table messages something else. Formal dinners tend to have a different tone than an active interactive dining experience.
A backyard party featuring candles, rather than a grill, is not the same. There is no clear advantage of one over the other. But that’s a matter of whether there’s an event that reflects the host and the occasion.
That’s why fashion, by today’s standards, means more than nice clothes and gourmet dining.
It is creating an environment, or an atmosphere.
Experiences Are the New Centerpiece
If you are hosting a contemporary event, it might no longer be a big floral display that’s the centerpiece of the party.
It could possibly simply be the experience. Visitor memory of the action, surprise, laughter and overall feel is very much becoming a taegeuk of the evening.
The polish and elegance of an event will set the tone with a beautiful outfit, a refined table setting, and the right menu; it’s actually determined by engagement.
This is why experiential dining is so well-suited for today’s way of doing things! It’s about hospitality, performance, aesthetics and interaction, food and memory.
So the answer to stylish entertainment of the future may not be the “raggiest place in town” but rather the “exemplifying place in town”, which is a place that people already know and feel comfortable.
