A Few New Year's Thoughts

As I write this, it’s New Year's Day.
A time for reflection on the year past.
A time to make resolutions for the year upcoming.

Yeah, right.

As far as I’m concerned, New Year's and the holiday season are a time for some good food, a drink or three, and fun with friends and family. That’s what New Year’s is all about, at least in my house. And that’s what Baltimore Foodies is all about.

What is Baltimore Foodies all about?
It’s all about food, drink, and fun. You see, I believe that more than eating goes on around the dinner table. It’s a place for celebrations. A place for savoring. A place where friendships are forged.

At Baltimore Foodies, we believe the same thing. We don’t have wine dinners; we have dinner parties. We don’t have guest speakers on financial services or someone discussing how an arid climate affects grapes during the harvest. If anyone interrupts our meal with outside discussion, it’s usually the chef, taking questions about how a dish was prepared or where he shopped for ingredients.

We do enjoy a drink with dinner. We ask the chefs to match the wines for us. We’re not wine experts. The chefs might not be, either, but that doesn’t matter. We’re guests in their houses, and I can guarantee that they want to make an impression.

As a matter of fact, sometimes we don’t have wine, but enjoy spirits instead. Last year we had a tequila-themed dinner, and we're planning a dinner with a focus on vodka and a two-martini lunch. Spirits are the new wine.

How does Baltimore Foodies differ from other dining groups in town?
Some of the other dining groups in town excel in the education element. Some excel in the area of promoting a sustainable food supply. Others cater exclusively to women or to gourmands who revel in the formality of fine dining.

What does Baltimore Foodies excel in? Food, Drink, and Fun.

We throw a dinner party and invite you to join us. We believe it’s a time to meet old friends, to make some new ones, to drink, to eat, to talk loudly and well, and to have a good time! Our dinner parties are boisterous, fun affairs—and we're proud of that.

What is the one thing that makes Baltimore Foodies unique?
Baltimore Foodies differs from other dining groups in many ways (price points, membership requirements, and menu selection, to name a few), but it's a piece of furniture that really sets Baltimore Foodies apart.

The dining room table.

When Baltimore Foodies throws a dinner party, we sit at a communal table. We believe this is the way a meal is meant to be shared and enjoyed. As I said: The dinner table is a place for celebrations. A place for savoring. A place where friendships are forged.

Naturally, this limits each dinner party to between 14 to 20 guests, and that’s fine with us. Other dining groups require a minimum of 40 to 60 people at an event. I don’t know about you, but I can’t possibly meet and remember everyone at an event that has 60 attendees. I prefer to meet everyone at dinner. It’s less intimidating, more intimate, and a heck of a lot more fun. You will not get this dinner party experience with any other dining group.

How we’ve grown
In January, 2005, we had our first dinner party at Copra on North Charles Street. Nine people attended, six of whom were friends.

Since this inauspicious start, things have changed quite a bit. A freelance writer asked to do an article on Baltimore Foodies, and we ended up with a two-page spread in Style magazine. Both Fox-45 and WMAR-Channel 2 featured us on their newscasts, and we appeared in a short piece in Baltimore magazine. Over the past eight months, the Baltimore Sun has mentioned us in four different articles.

Now, restaurants contact us, asking us to have dinner parties at their venues. IcelandAir called, and Baltimore Foodies is proud to be its exclusive partner for the BWI gateway on a culinary trip to the Fifth Annual Food and Fun Festival held in Reykjavik. And, due to the incredible demand for our first dinner party in 2006, we've added a second night.

In one year, we have gone from some scribbled notes on a napkin about a possible website design to scheduling an international culinary trip. Oh, what a strange trip it’s been. But the ride is just beginning to pick up speed, so grab your drink, place your dinner order, and hold on.