“Welcome to Eden” would have been appropriate signage for the Inn at Little Washington’s 30th anniversary soiree on Wednesday night. Held at the Andrew W. Mellon Auditorium, the gala, which benefited the children’s health organization Five & Alive, took a cue from spring, with decor reminiscent of a decadent garden party.
Inn owner Patrick O’Connell hosted and conceptualized the event, to honor his award-winning spot (the first country-house hotel in America to receive a five-star rating). “I saw the Mellon about a year and a half ago and was struck by its scale,” O’Connell said. “The space is so wonderful that if it’s treated well, it feels intimate with 500 people.” (For this party, it held 550.)
For inspiration, he turned to spring. In the predinner reception areas, children from the Washington Ballet milled around in bright costumes, some as woodland creatures, others as toy soliders who saluted guests as they stepped onto the red carpet. The dining space featured a rainbow of settings, with tables fully dressed—from the linens to the chairs—in specific colors (think shocking pink, lime green, and lemon yellow).Centerpieces from Joe Devers at Just Outrageous Events Inc. brought in a food element, with pyramids of fruits and vegetables, such as green apples mixed with artichokes and purple potatoes and turnips arranged with limes. Classical Venus-esque sculptures and life-size garden arrangements surrounded the tables, set among the room’s enormous columns.
“We tried to make it feel like a surreal garden where everything was alive with colors in a celebration of that moment of April and spring in Washington,” O’Connell said, adding that he scattered seed packets, plastic insects, and moss-covered balls on the tables, intended to be discovered throughout the evening. “People have become so numb to the flower centerpieces at most events,” he added.
The evening’s purpose was to honor 22 culinary greats including Thomas Keller (who was there to accept his award) and Martha Stewart (who had received the honor on her show days before) and to premiere O’Connell’s Visa-sponsored documentary A Chef’s Journey, about the evolution of American chefs over the last 30 years.
For the crowd of A-list chefs (Daniel Boulud missed our Event Style Awards in New York, where he was inducted into our hall of fame, to celebrate the anniversary), the menu and the service needed to be impeccable, O’Connell said, so he brought in event planner Lynn Yaudes to help with logistics and Design Cuisine Caterers to produce the meal in a venue with no real kitchen. (The team prepared in a tent outside.) Not surprisingly, the menu process began six months before the event. “Rather than say, 'This is what we’re doing,' we asked for input,” O’Connell said. “Design Cuisine sent their crew to work in our kitchen and we sent our crew to work in theirs. Everybody learned a great deal.”
The result? Guests in the silent-auction reception room had lobster bites with grapefruit, while the ice bar in the Dom PĂ©rignon-sponsored V.I.P. room featured Island Creek oysters topped with wasabi- and cocktail-sauce-flavored sorbets. The seven-course dinner included American ossetra caviar with peekytoe crab and cucumber rillette, veal cheek with a salad and crawfish tails, and a 30th anniversary "Lilliputian chocolate fantasy," consisting of a pistachio and white-chocolate ice cream bombe wrapped in a gold-leaf ribbon and topped with a caramel cage.
Inn owner Patrick O’Connell hosted and conceptualized the event, to honor his award-winning spot (the first country-house hotel in America to receive a five-star rating). “I saw the Mellon about a year and a half ago and was struck by its scale,” O’Connell said. “The space is so wonderful that if it’s treated well, it feels intimate with 500 people.” (For this party, it held 550.)
For inspiration, he turned to spring. In the predinner reception areas, children from the Washington Ballet milled around in bright costumes, some as woodland creatures, others as toy soliders who saluted guests as they stepped onto the red carpet. The dining space featured a rainbow of settings, with tables fully dressed—from the linens to the chairs—in specific colors (think shocking pink, lime green, and lemon yellow).Centerpieces from Joe Devers at Just Outrageous Events Inc. brought in a food element, with pyramids of fruits and vegetables, such as green apples mixed with artichokes and purple potatoes and turnips arranged with limes. Classical Venus-esque sculptures and life-size garden arrangements surrounded the tables, set among the room’s enormous columns.
“We tried to make it feel like a surreal garden where everything was alive with colors in a celebration of that moment of April and spring in Washington,” O’Connell said, adding that he scattered seed packets, plastic insects, and moss-covered balls on the tables, intended to be discovered throughout the evening. “People have become so numb to the flower centerpieces at most events,” he added.
The evening’s purpose was to honor 22 culinary greats including Thomas Keller (who was there to accept his award) and Martha Stewart (who had received the honor on her show days before) and to premiere O’Connell’s Visa-sponsored documentary A Chef’s Journey, about the evolution of American chefs over the last 30 years.
For the crowd of A-list chefs (Daniel Boulud missed our Event Style Awards in New York, where he was inducted into our hall of fame, to celebrate the anniversary), the menu and the service needed to be impeccable, O’Connell said, so he brought in event planner Lynn Yaudes to help with logistics and Design Cuisine Caterers to produce the meal in a venue with no real kitchen. (The team prepared in a tent outside.) Not surprisingly, the menu process began six months before the event. “Rather than say, 'This is what we’re doing,' we asked for input,” O’Connell said. “Design Cuisine sent their crew to work in our kitchen and we sent our crew to work in theirs. Everybody learned a great deal.”
The result? Guests in the silent-auction reception room had lobster bites with grapefruit, while the ice bar in the Dom PĂ©rignon-sponsored V.I.P. room featured Island Creek oysters topped with wasabi- and cocktail-sauce-flavored sorbets. The seven-course dinner included American ossetra caviar with peekytoe crab and cucumber rillette, veal cheek with a salad and crawfish tails, and a 30th anniversary "Lilliputian chocolate fantasy," consisting of a pistachio and white-chocolate ice cream bombe wrapped in a gold-leaf ribbon and topped with a caramel cage.
The Mellon Auditorium was awash in spring hues of sunny yellow, sky blue, and lime green, with fruits and vegetables arranged as centerpieces.
Photo: J.C. Martins/Fotobriceno
The centerpieces alternated from fruits and vegetables to moss-covered blooming quince-branch arrangements by Just Outrageous Events Inc.
Photo: J.C. Martins/Fotobriceno
Moss-covered swan topiaries in Italian urn pedestals flanked the Mellon Auditorium stage.
Photo: J.C. Martins/Fotobriceno
Young Washington Ballet dancers, dressed as toy soldiers, saluted guests on the red carpet.
Photo: J.C. Martins/Fotobriceno
Dressed as woodland creatures, young Washington Ballet dancers roamed the event.
Photo: J.C. Martins/Fotobriceno
During the cocktail hour, Design Cuisine served lobster maki bites made of lobster salad and just slightly sweetened sticky rice hand-rolled in a sesame-soy wrapper.
Photo: J.C. Martins/Fotobriceno
The focal point of the V.I.P. reception (held in the Mellon's greenroom) was a giant urn holding seven-foot-long blooming cherry branches.
Photo: J.C. Martins/Fotobriceno
