Dinner and a Tomatini, yes please.

We threw an Amalfi Coast themed party for some of our clients, family and friends for our 2nd Annual Thank You Dinner.

the perfect dusk

But first we eat

We love to cook, but cooking for 25 people while we are celebrating the incredible year we have had would be tough. So we enlisted the help of local chef, Colin Franklin. He really takes the time to understand our vision while offering his knowledge and food expertise, he was completely game. We filled Colin in on our Amalfi Coast theme, he immediately started finding inspiration in the seafood and pasta of the region.

We started with our signature cocktail, a tomatini. An acquired taste for sure, but if you are looking for a more savory cocktail it is the way to go.

We know everyone loves a charcuterie board, but we wanted to change up the presentation of the crowd favorite. A simple 8 foot table, craft paper and some of our favorite meats, cheeses and fruits from local favorites, Micucci’s and the Cheese Iron. Locally grown tomatoes made for the perfect salad with peaches and burrata to start the meal off right.

Lemon and artichoke pasta, white fish and beans, spicy prawns and roasted pattypan squash made for a fantastic set of main dishes that our guests loved with everyone having their favorite for one reason or another. An almond fig cake provided the sweet treat everyone was craving to end their meal.

the (controversial) Tomatini recipe

2 oz Vodka

.5oz Vermouth

.5oz Olive Brine

1.5oz Tomato Juice (2 tomatoes mashed and double strained(

basil, mini vine tomato, and a few drops of olive oil for garnish

Shake!

a trip to italy via maine, we’ll take it

Choosing the Amalfi Coast for a theme for this dinner was an easy choice. We both love Italian food, and Chrissy is Italian so we were both looking forward to seeing how it could inspire our decor. We had to fight Chrissy’s natural factory settings to go overboard with stripes. But we did include them here and there, a striped runner and appetizer plate made for the perfect addition.

For our menu design and table scape we wanted to subtly include some tomato themes to highlight some of the flavors to come and our love of growing tomatoes in the summer. We created a handmade tomato name card, to add a little detail for our guests. And included our striped runners, and soft colors to make for a relaxing table setting. A simple patterned napkin of years past provided the flourish we needed to complete our table.

find your people and feed them well

Finding people who support and understand your vision can be difficult, finding people to work with you on it can be even harder. We continue to grow our community of contractors, photographers, realtors and local craftsmen. We truly enjoy getting them together to chat, talk shop and have a good laugh.

We enlisted Natalya De Sena (@natalyadesenaphoto) to take some beautiful pictures for us. After we found ourselves in a bit of a pickle for a photographer, she stepped in for us without skipping a beat and for that we are very grateful.

We are grateful for all our working relationships, but we also truly lucked out in the friends and family department as well. They helped us serve, clean up and move endless amounts of lights, candles, dishes, food and all things dinner to the exact places we wanted them. The support we receive from all aspects of the Maine community is not lost on us.

alla prossima!

Until next time! Have we already discussed next year’s dinner, absolutely. Themes, food, decor and our signature drink ideas are already being messaged back and forth. These dinners are a chance to not only chat about what we have done in the past year but also what we are planning moving forward in our home solution, staging and interior design business.

The ideas and conversation flying back and forth over the table, the food and the candle light will inspire us throughout this year and the many more to come.

ciao, for now