Rehearsal Dinner: Chestnut
September 24, 2006 by alex
Karen and I chose our favorite local restaurant, Chestnut, as the location for our rehearsal dinner.
From the first time we ate there in the late Spring, we wanted to devise a way to hold the event there. Working with chef Daniel Eardley and sommelier Michael Connolly was great from the beginning. They invited us to eat there and choose wines aswell as worked with us to craft a menu that included fresh seasonal food as well some of our favorites from the menu (haystack shrimp, gnocchi w/ pancetta, pork tenderloin wrapped in bacon, homemade ice cream and wrapping it up with the really delicious chocolate budino). Check out a clip of Dennis reviewing the menu here (borrowed from teendrama)
The weather held up perfectly so we were able to set up entirely outside in their backyard. We arrived around 6pm and had some champagne and passed appetizers (go mini lobster rolls, go!) and then started to organize people to get the rehearsal underway. Though you might ask yourself “is a rehearsal really necessary?”, fear not, it absolutely is. Going through most of the steps of the ceremony shed some light on what the next day would hold as well as allows you to come close to nailing some of the logistical steps (walking order, etc…) that would turn the already frazzled wedding day into an organizational disaster.
After the passed apps and the rehearsal, we all sat down to have dinnner. The tables were set up as two, 20 or so people long banquet tables. Karen and I sat with our families at one and all our friends sat at the other. You got to see the most adventurous eaters by seeing who ordered the Watermelon Gazpacho with Calamari (Oliver: “I don’t know why I expected Tomato Soup with Fried Calamari on it” - come on, OT!) and the Root Beer float. All in all, people seemed really happy with the food and the dinner wrapped up with some really nice toasts from Oliver, Kevin, Julie and Marisa. Here’s a clip borrowed from Manlio of the tail end of Oliver’s toast:
Once dinner started to wind down, we gathered those up for a few drinks and headed over to our favorite neighborhood bar, Floyd to meet some more local folks. Floyd was a little more crowded than we thought it would be but we made it work with the help of the drink special bracelets with which the owner outfitted our party.
(photo courtesy of Dennis)
Karen and I stuck it out for a couple drinks and packed it in a little after midnight in an effort to not undermine our ability to be coherent the following day. Hopefully those who stuck around had a good time.
Check out some pictures from Karen on Flickr here and here along with some more from Dennis, Manlio, and Marisa
Check out some other recaps (including wedding recaps) from Dennis and Manlio
Tags: alex, alex n., andy k., brooklyn, carin g., daya w., dennis c., freya r., gabe b., jason c., julie w., karen, katie b., kevin k., manlio l., matt s., micah c., oliver t., robb s., sara k., wedding
Posted in Events, Food & Drink, New York
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