theme, magic/mystical

Spotlights lit the four-foot-tall centerpieces in the old reading room, and blue L.E.D. lights lit the tables.

The night's Mystical Colada included a hunk of cotton candy (which dissolved with the addition of rum), displayed on globes filled with dry ice.

Settings combined gray linens and silver mosaic plates with white floral arrangments.

The new reading room, with its domed ceilings and skylights, featured more modern table settings than the old reading room.

A pentacle symbol marked the main course of beef tenderloin encrusted with mustard seed.

The goat cheese and crème fraîche cheesecake, with hazelnut brittle and blood-orange caramel sauce, included a white-chocolate disk in the shape of an eye.

The dinner's mostly white centerpieces varied from short to tall, some reaching four feet into the vaulted ceiling of the old reading room.