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This year's secret Dîner en Blanc in New York is...???
Meryl:
Anke! How great to see you! :-*
--- Quote from: Aloysius J. Gleek on August 21, 2012, 06:45:42 pm ---Last year, approx. 1,200 people, this year 3,400--and with a 30,000 plus waiting list, it won't be long till we match the Parisians with 10,000 dîners en blanc --rather, we could, if we knew where to put them. New York is not Paris (alas!) and we don't have the magnificent Places, Plazas, Piazzas, Squares, of other major cities. I certainly don't envy the Dîner en Blanc International people in having to picking the new 'secret' location next year!
--- End quote ---
Finally, a good use for Governor's Island? :D
Aloysius J. Gleek:
--- Quote from: Meryl on August 21, 2012, 08:38:50 pm ---Anke! How great to see you! :-*
Finally, a good use for Governor's Island? :D
--- End quote ---
You are SO smart!
8) 8)
Aloysius J. Gleek:
Time Lapse en Blanc!
:D ;D[youtube=425,350]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LaLwtsyJQAc[/youtube]
Published on Aug 21, 2012 by UntappedCities
Aloysius J. Gleek:
http://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/local/Diner-en-Blanc-Lincoln-Center-Flash-Mob-Secret-Dinner-166835386.html
Thousands Gather for
NYC Secret Outdoor Dinner
The venue was a surprise until just before
the flash-mob feast started at 7 p.m.
By Verena Dobnik
Monday, Aug 20, 2012 Updated 10:18 PM EDT
An estimated 3,000 people all dressed in white attend a flash mob feast on Monday, Aug. 20 at
Lincoln Center.
Guess who came to dinner?
On Monday night in Manhattan, the answer was 3,000 people — all dressed in white, descending on the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts.
The venue was a surprise until just before the flash-mob feast started at 7 p.m. Registered guests got emails telling them where to go.
They brought chairs, tables, food and drink, plus candles and snow white balloons sailing high above the main plaza at sunset. Row after white row filled the space around a high-shooting fountain — free of charge, with legal permits.
Matthew Karl Gale wore a sailor hat as he sat at a small white-covered table he bought on Craigslist.
"I looked for 'small white folding table,'" the 33-year-old eyewear designer from Brooklyn said with a grin.
His tattooed dinner partner, biotech industry employee Cassandra McCall, also 33, came all the way from San Francisco to join the revelry, explaining, "I love the group dynamic of all these people together, in white — it's enchanting."
Gale said he enjoyed "the difficulty of getting everything together — the food, the table — and bringing it here on the subway."
Their table was filled with cheese, a couscous dish, prosciutto, grapes and more — eaten with real home cutlery and linen napkins that came from their wicker basket. There were white roses for the table.
And then, Gale added, "you have this unique, quirky experience, and it's over."
Pop-up picnics will also be staged in Philadelphia on Thursday, Chicago on Friday, and next week in Vancouver, Singapore and Brisbane, Australia, followed by about a dozen other cities months from now.
Rob Robinson and Gai Spann, both 43, brought their own strobe light, plus some pearls and diamonds that represent his college fraternity and her sorority.
"We're both into food and wine, and dressing up," said Spann, who owns a travel agency and wore a lacy white head ornament. He runs his own e-commerce company.
Next year, they plan to fly to Paris, where Diner en Blanc — French for dinner in white — was started in 1988 by a group of friends and is repeated each year. The volunteer event grew by word of mouth and social media to dozens of cities worldwide.
This year was the second New York repast; the first was held last August on a plaza near the World Trade Center.
Aloysius J. Gleek:
http://newyork.grubstreet.com/2012/08/diner-en-blanc-2012-photos-slideshow.html#
Last Night’s
Dîner en Blanc
Clear Skies and a
Color-Coordinated Setting
By Devra Ferst
8/21/12 at 1:30 PM
Gramercy Tavern chef Michael Anthony attended.
Though skies stayed clear this year, it was once again easy to be both enchanted and frustrated by Le Dîner en Blanc , the Paris-imported picnic that popped up in New York for the second time last night. After meeting at designated locations around the city, diners were led to a destination kept secret until they arrived: the plaza at Lincoln Center, whose colorless cement columns nicely complemented the white outfits, tablecloths, and chairs.
For those given the opportunity (via an online lottery) to buy tickets, rules and restrictions abounded: Guests had to provide their own tables, white chairs, and tablecloths, and bring dinner (or order one for a hefty fee), traveling en masse via subway while clutching these props and defending their whites against the commuter crush. Yet, the collective struggle “is all part of the event,” said co-organizer Sandy Safi. And so is the reward — in New York in particular, a sea of people all in white is a rare and elegant spectacle.
One guest, Jeni Cruz, carried her white maltipoo Olivia, who wore a white flower behind one fluffy ear. “She’s white, little, and she’s family,” Cruz said, explaining her choice of dinner date.
Atop a canvas of pristine bleached tablecloths, the flowers, candelabras, and food brought by guests provided pops of color. Many toted charcuterie and cheese, while the more ambitious tucked into bowls of homemade watermelon gazpacho, a three-tiered tower of sushi, platters of poached lobster, or ramekins of jewel-toned salmon tartare.
While most people seemed to enjoy the evening — which evolved into a clublike dance party after dinner — a few who had attended last year’s Dîner at the World Financial Center observed that Lincoln Center lacked the romantic backdrop of the bobbing yachts and a sunset over the Hudson. Others said the increase from 1,200 to 3,000 guests made for a less intimate night. In the end, the evening was perhaps best summed up by a nearby diner, who opined, “This is wildly annoying and wildly beautiful.”
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