The end (maybe)...Iron Chef 5.7.10

Our next dinner -- and possibly our last open dinner -- will again be Iron Chef themed. So sign up soon and send an ingredient or two along!

Dinner will be Friday, May 7 at 6:30pm. For pricing, please see this post. To make a reservation, click on the "reservations" tab at the top of the page.

About the price

Some of you may have noticed that we have increased the price of the dinners from $20 to $25, and some of you have complained about it. We'd like to explain a little bit about why we did this...

Really, there are two parts to it. The first is simply a matter of freedom and quality. We really enjoy putting on these dinners and we strive to make them as good as we possibly can. That means buying only fresh, high-quality ingredients from mostly local and/or organic sources. And the fact is that at every single dinner we have had to not buy something that we really wanted to incorporate because of cost. The amounts aren't necessarily large (although they can be), but when we're talking about 4-5 courses and wine, it quickly adds up to a lot. Basically, the difference will allow us to create the dishes as we envision them.

The second aspect is that...well, we think the food we make is really good. Other closed door dinners cost anywhere from $50-$200 per person, which, compared to our dinners, is of course pretty exorbitant. Essentially, we spend about two whole days planning and preparing these meals and while the dinners themselves are ample compensation for this, and we do it cause we love to do it, we think it's fair to make a modest profit as well.

All that being said, we understand that that majority of the people who come are college students (like ourselves) for whom shelling out $25 for ANY meal is a lot, no matter how good it is. So we'll leave the choice up to you. If you are willing to pay $25, that's great. If not, just pay $20 and that's also great. No pressure, nothing personal (we don't ever actually know who pays what anyway since it all gets passed up to the front while we're prepping the first course). We'd rather have you here for the experience than not at all.

So, we hope this clears some things up and that you find our solution a fair one. And we hope to see you all at our next dinner!!!

Much love,
Luke & Jared

Next Dinner: "Iron Chef II" 4.23.10

It's been almost a month since our last dinner, and we've missed it. Spring break, crazy schedules, and all sorts of things have been getting in the way, but now we're back and ready as ever! See, we've even learned to write like stereotypical bloggers.

So here's the deal. We just finished the menu for the first Iron Chef dinner (this Friday), and we enjoyed the challenge of incorporating everything so much that we've decided to do it again.

Iron Chef II -- 4.23.10

The price will be $25 per person and will include 4-5 courses plus wine. When making your reservation, include an ingredient of choice for us to incorporate into the meal. Just about anything is fair game, except for the following:

1) animals or parts of animals
2) prohibitively expensive materials
3) really too weird

If you fear that your ingredient choice might fall into one of the above categories, go ahead and send a backup choice or two.

Til then,
LJ

Format Change

Just a quick note. Instead of posting our recipes and reflections as their own posts, we've put them all on a tab up top (we'll leave it to you to figure out which tab it is...)

Also, when browsing through the pictures (which we highly recommend clicking on for beautiful close-ups) and menus, there will be links that will jump directly to the specific recipe of interest on said tab. Yea, we're learning some fancy blog stuff.

Sorry to Pastastic Matt, whose comment got deleted in this change. We couldn't figure out how to move it to the new settings. Chocolate pesto intrigues.

LJ

Next Dinner: "Iron Chef"

For our next dinner, on Saturday April 3rd, we've decided to go in a new direction. We're abandoning the cultural theme and doing a sort of quasi-"Iron Chef" theme. What does this mean for you? You, the diners, will, along with your reservation, e-mail us ONE ingredient* that you want us to use in the dinner. And we will incorporate it in a creative and hopefully (definitely) delicious way. We are now accepting TEN reservations per dinner, so this means we'll have TEN random ingredients to work with. Plus whatever else we get to keep them company. So...make your reservation today! It'll fill up quickly!

*Nothing too weird, too expensive, or meat-based. Please. If you think your ingredient might be one of these things you can send one safer bet.

EXAMPLE:

Dear Jared and Luke,

My name is J****n L***h and I love to eat white truffles. I could eat them by the pound. I would like to reserve a spot at your Iron Chef dinner and my ingredient is white truffles. As a backup, my second favorite thing to eat is shark fin. Bye now.

Love,

J****n

SAMPLE RESPONSE:

Dear Mr. L***h,

You may not attend our dinner.

Best,

Jared and Luke

SEE YOU ALL THERE!!!

Next Dinner

Our next dinner will be Saturday, March 6 at 6:30pm sharp. The theme is Italian.

If you are interested in joining us, please send us an email (check the "reservations" tab above for instructions/details). The cost for the five courses plus wine is $20.

Thank you,

Jared Olkin and Luke Pyenson

Reservation Guidelines

We've had a few questions about how to reserve, and if prior guests can return, so here are a few quick notes about our reservation policy:

1) Dinners are open to anyone, although guests tend to be college- or post-college aged

2) Reservations are made on a first-come, first-served basis, and are only confirmed once we receive an email from you and you receive a confirmation email back from us

3) If you have already attended one of our dinners and would like to attend another, you are more than welcome to do so. We will, however, give preference to those who have not already been. If a dinner does not fill up or a space opens last minute, though, we will start at the top of the list, so do still send an email early if you are interested. This also helps us gauge interest and determine how often to hold the dinners (at the time of this writing, we are doing them about every two weeks, but are considering doing them every week if we can).

Hope that clears things up!

Next Dinner

Our next dinner will be Saturday, February 20 at 6:30pm sharp. The theme is Mexican.

If you are interested in joining us, please send an email to 76reservations@gmail.com. The cost for the five courses plus wine is $20.

Thank you,

Jared Olkin and Luke Pyenson


*if you have any food allergies, please let us know in your e-mail and we will accommodate you to the best of our abilities.