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| photo by Bean Fairbanks |
Until last week, the Humble Feast was a vision in search of an audience and a home. For years I've wanted to hold a series of monthly dinners serving affordable food focused on local ingredients, an alternative to the events that showcase local chefs and producers creating fancy, pricey menus.
Folks told me that they thought it was a great idea but I found it to be a tough sell. We held a dozen dinners last year but, aside from a handful of regulars, turnout was disappointing. I lost money. It was also hard on my morale to put my heart and soul into this endeavor and to have so few people show up.
So after last October's dinners, I put the Humble Feast on hold. I'd originally planned to just stop for November and December, when folks were busy with the holidays, but January and February came and went and I still dragged my feet about scheduling another dinner.
At last October's event, three women who had devotedly attended the dinners accidentally paid us twice. I offered to refund their money, but they said they'd rather apply to sum to an upcoming dinner. They got in touch with me last month and asked when I'd be starting up again, so I decided to act on an idea that had been germinating for a while.
Skelly and the Bean is a relatively new Capitol Hill restaurant whose offerings, like my own, are based on market ingredients. Zephyr, the owner and mastermind, launched the business with funding from the neighborhood and community. She sold shares that involved prepaying for upcoming meals, and she enlisted supporters to come sand floors and paint walls.
On Monday and Tuesday nights, the restaurant hosts incubator dinners, opportunities for local chefs to host pop-up restaurants. I thought this might be a good fit for my Humble Feast dinners, and a venue that could help me solve some of the biggest obstacles I'd encountered when I held the dinners last year. I wouldn't have to rent a space and wouldn't have to haul the dishes back to my kitchen and wash them the next day. There was a marketing infrastructure already in place, and the restaurant would be serving drinks, which can certainly make any meal into a more enjoyable experience.
This time around, I enlisted help with the marketing. In addition to tapping into Zephyr's systems for getting the word out to the media, other folks helped to spread the word through list serves and word of mouth. Something clicked. Synergy happened.We drew a crowd, almost filling the first seating and pushing the limits on seating capacity for the second round, filling every spot in the restaurant as well as every seat out on the deck. We set the restaurant's record for turnout.
We also ran out of food before the last few people were fed. Zephyr whipped up some supplementary fare using whatever she had on hand. Most people were quite happy, but several weren't pleased. I think it came down to customer expectations: folks who turned out to enjoy a community dinner were willing to overlook rough spots, while people who were expecting a dining experience were less forgiving.
One tricky element was the fact that the restaurant made their money from the event by selling drinks while we made it by selling food. The restaurant crew didn't want to let people up to the buffet until everyone had placed a drink order, and the process took a long time because the place was packed. And then everyone came up at once, so the line was long and progress was slow.
We'll work out those kinks. Needless to say, we'll hold another dinner. I'm thinking we should schedule them seasonally rather than monthly, so they're somewhat regular yet there's plenty of down time in between. We're also talking about having two seatings two nights in a row, and I think that's a great idea which will ease some of the pressure if we continue to draw crowds.
The idea of affordable local foods buffets also seemed to resonate with folks who work with nonprofits. I've had several people contact me since the dinner wanting to host similar types of events for occasions or organizations.
I'm not sure what lesson to draw, other than the fact that it sometimes takes just the right combination of elements to make a venture succeed. I once read an interview with the guy who pioneered the Silk soymilk brand. He said that he knew that he had a solid idea, so if it wasn't working then he must be doing something wrong. I felt the same way about the Humble Feast. And I'm thrilled that we seem to finally be starting to get it right.http://pattypangrill.com/dinners.php
