Maybe, like so many things did, it started during COVID. Home alone or with our limited crew, we made soup and sourdough, and when we didn’t, we ordered takeout. But we missed restaurants. We missed connection. We missed celebration. We missed the sight of a chef walking through the dining room, waxing poetic about the evening’s offerings.
The silver lining to all of that frustration might very well be what’s being called “experiential” or “immersive” dining. It’s happening from coast to coast – in Maine, Napa Valley, Texas, and here in Rhode Island. Think of it as the anti-food festival. Instead of 5,000 people packed into a tent, waiting in line for a Bobby Flay burger or a Guy Fieri autograph, we flock toward intimate, one-of-a-kind gatherings curated with detail and vision, from the flowers in front of you to the lighting, food, cocktails, and more. The emphasis is on building community – getting to know the hosts and the other guests in ways that aren’t easily facilitated in restaurants or at big public events.
“I think there’s something really special about gathering around a table with both friends and strangers. We often have more in common with people than we realize, especially in Rhode Island!” says Emily McCoy, the owner of Fig & Fromage and creator of The Lavender Table, an atmospheric dining experience held mid-summer at Lavender Waves Farm in South Kingstown. It’s an evening for the senses: wine tastings curated by the Rhode Island Wine Experience (Wine X), lavender cocktails, abundant grazing boards from her charcuterie company, and a sunset sound bath, all set in a fragrant field among the blooms. Pull up a chair at one of the long, candlelit farm tables, and say hello to your neighbors.
The key to curating these unique, intimate events lies in collaboration, where each detail is imagined by a different purveyor. “When creating this event, I think of who I want to collaborate with and why,” says McCoy. Rosanna Ortiz of Wine X is a perfect example – she adds her knowledge of wine to pair with the cheeses.” Other collaborators included Sippin Pretty, a Cranston-based mobile cocktail bar owned by Nichole Bonollo, and Quonnie Rocks Oysters out of Charlestown.
“I wanted to bring people together in a setting that is different from your average restaurant,” McCoy says. The result was carefree and unfussy. “There’s something about sharing food that naturally brings people out of their comfort zones. It creates conversation, connection, and often leaves people feeling a little more inspired than when they arrived.”
According to a 2024 Associated Press study, the number of people eating alone has risen by 50 percent in the past decade. So while the long lines at food festivals might provide the excitement of a celebrity chef demo, at a long-table dinner, the farmer may be sitting nearby. The chef may explain why the tomatoes on the plate were picked that morning. A winemaker can talk about the vintage. Strangers have something immediate to talk about. The meal creates a shared vocabulary – and, for a few hours, a temporary community. McCoy witnesses this at her Lavender Table events, where attendees are so committed to the experience that they even dress the part – lots of flowy floral dresses (many lavender-colored) on women and preppy pants on men. “But my favorite part is hearing the laughter and conversation fill the space as the evening unfolds,” McCoy says.
Long-time spa owner Alayne White collaborates with Chef Eli Dunn and his wife Rachel Lopes Almeida Dunn of Folklore Provisions in Bristol for events that celebrate, commemorate, fundraise, or all three. “Shaking up the typical way people eat and changing the paradigm to engage and enlighten” is what it’s all about, White says. Some events take place in her Bristol garden, or living room jam sessions featuring local musicians. The event planning is organic for the Dunns and White and whomever else is involved. “We bounce ideas off each other and build on them together, from the food to the atmosphere to how the whole evening will feel for our guests,” says Lopes Almeida Dunn. “Eli brings his creativity as a chef, too. It’s very collaborative, and I think we bring out the best in one another.” Recently, the goal was to raise money for Bristol PorchFest, a celebration of music played from the porches of private homes. “Then we thought about Dolly Parton’s passing, her music, food, and beauty influence, and it made sense to have a Dolly Parton-inspired event,” says White, which was held in September. “We wanted the warmth and fun of a gathering with friends – music, food, dancing and a little sparkle,” adds Lopes Almeida Dunn.
The people and businesses that plan and participate in these events get as much from them as attendees. They aren’t caterers-for-hire fulfilling someone else’s vision. The events are an outlet for the vision and expression of their coordinators. “I went to every participant individually with the concept and gave them the space to interpret it through their own creative language,” says Michelle Peterson, owner of Slow Bloom Ceramics in Providence, who makes handmade contemporary dinnerware for local restaurants such as Frank and Laurie’s and Claudine.
“Rather than prescribing what the collaboration should become, I wanted to create a framework loosely enough for everyone’s imagination to take over,” explains Peterson, who in September banded with a dozen creatives on an urban-landscape dinner in the alley below Small Things Studio on Agnes Street in Providence. The space was completely unexpected, and proof that with a little ingenuity, even the most banal location can become a destination. “These are magical third spaces, carefully curated worlds that exist for one night and disappear the next. There’s something beautiful about knowing it only exists for a few hours.”
Artists made up the majority of the 50 attendees at Dinner in an Outdoor Passage, and they were treated to sculptural approaches to food design that highlighted the chefs themselves as artists. “Everything was local,” Peterson says. “The produce, flowers, menu design, talent, you name it. I made all of the ceramic vessels, as well as the serving platters that chefs plated their courses on.” Some attendees made their own dinnerware at a two-week pottery wheel class in preparation for the event, taught by Peterson at Small Things Studio.
Chef-owner Stacy Deetz, of Hangry Kitchen bistro in Pawtucket, handled the main courses. “I wanted to give people a completely immersive and creative experience, but a delicious and whimsical one, too,” she explains. “The first course was plated (or planted) in wheat grass, like a garden. The guests had to get in there like an Easter egg hunt,” Deetz says. “All the ingredients I used were sourced from the best local farmers and I wanted to showcase that.”
Chef Paula Agganis from Providence’s Courtland Club complemented Deetz’s creativity dish for dish. “I wanted the dessert table to capture something that feels quintessentially both Greek and New England,” Agganis says. This included an installation over the table fashioned from concord grapes and figs draped over metal pipes. “These bespoke events with Michelle and her team allow me to step outside of that structure and fully execute a vision, knowing I have her creative support,” Agganis says.
For Emily Trodson of Riverside, the founder of Matchbook Supper Club, events can happen anywhere; it’s all about taking advantage of what the space offers, whether that’s her home or her parents’, a restaurant, or elsewhere. “Matchbook Supper Club has always been about creating an experience that feels like more than simply going out to eat.” Each month Trodson bases the dinner on a theme, and recently hosted a supper with Porto General Store in Warren. “It reminded me how exciting it can be to bring Matchbook into a space that already has its own distinct identity.” She kept things local by enlisting Sam Bowers and Sarah Augusto of The Lilac Thief to work on the tablescape. “We talked through the colors, textures, and overall feeling of the evening, as well as the menu I was creating. That kind of exchange is what makes collaboration so exciting, one person’s creative choices inspire another’s, and the entire experience becomes more layered and cohesive.”
At many of these events, it’s not at all unusual for people to attend solo. “I’m always so proud of the women who come to a Matchbook supper alone. My goal is to create an environment where that initial nervousness disappears quickly and conversation begins to happen naturally. Trodson’s background is in hospitality, and says Matchbook is her love letter to hosting. “When you go to a restaurant, you’re stepping into an experience that already exists,” she says. With an immersive event, hosts get to create the entire gathering from the ground up for one particular evening. “I also love seeing how fully guests embrace each experience. They dress with the theme in mind, ask questions about the menu and the inspiration behind it, photograph the details, and genuinely engage with the women sitting around them. They aren’t just observing what we’ve created, they bring it to life through their conversations, energy, and willingness to participate.”
“I’ve been fortunate to attend all of the Matchbook Supper Club events,” says Sara Harrison of Bristol. “Last summer I decided to step out of my comfort zone and attend, and it was the start of one of the most beautiful years of my life. I feel so lucky to have found the club because it’s brought so much joy to my life,” she says. “I lost my husband to cancer two years ago, and I feel like I got my spark back thanks in part to Emily, Matchbook Supper Club, and the friendships made around the table.”
It is a familiar setup: multiple tables placed single file in a long, continuous line, covered with linens or rolled-out paper to visually read as one. Vessels of blooms are spaced along the center, while simple lighting such as tea lights or strings of Edison bulbs are on standby to keep the festivities going after dark (which in November means around 4:30pm). Although dining al fresco is as old as time, hosting an elevated gathering outdoors is a growing trend, and one that you can try at home.
“This year I think all in all we had about 70 people, kids included, and 33 lobsters ordered,” says Katie Blais, who recently hosted her second annual lobster party in her Portsmouth backyard. “Everyone pitches in, which is a huge help.” Guests are asked to bring a side dish or dessert to share and cover the cost of their own lobster, which Blais orders a month in advance from Andrade’s Catch in Bristol. The lobsters arrive pre-cooked, a shortcut that lets Blais focus on spending time with her guests. For drinks, her husband mixes up a fun cocktail, and the cooler is stocked with beer and soft drinks.
Tapping into her organizational skills as the community programming and events manager at Mount Hope Farm in Bristol, Blais is accustomed to juggling many moving parts and plans the menu well in advance. She can also borrow tables from the farm, which she covers with lengths of moisture-resistant butcher paper. “Butcher paper is your best friend. It makes for an easy cleanup once you are done eating – just roll it up and throw it away,” she says. Throughout the year, Blais seeks and collects vintage lobster-themed servewear, and saves emptied olive oil tins to fill with flowers for centerpieces.
For Blais, the best part of this tradition is seeing her guests enjoying themselves. “It makes me so happy! I love looking around watching everyone eat and laugh together – friends from college, old jobs, and current Rhode Island friends, and everyone’s kids running around – it is really special.” Smiling, she adds, “It’s not fancy, and it’s not overdone, and it allows everyone to relax and have fun. I try to schedule on a day when I know there are fireworks nearby, and we end the night down by the bay watching them. It’s a magical summer party!” –Elyse Major
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