The Mick Klug / Jason Vincent dinner on Wednesday August 13 looks great and tix are still available. Mulling the feasbility making the trek to St. Joseph, MI mid-week.

=R=

GO--we did Klug last year and it was fantastic--not sure what I enjoyed more--Brian Huston's food or what I ate off the trees and vines (which, yes, we were absolutely encouraged to do!!) Get a hotel in the area, get up in the morning and head home--you even gain an hour

boudreaulicious wrote:GO--we did Klug last year and it was fantastic--not sure what I enjoyed more--Brian Huston's food or what I ate off the trees and vines (which, yes, we were absolutely encouraged to do!!) Get a hotel in the area, get up in the morning and head home--you even gain an hour

Well, I'm already going to the City Farm / Abraham Conlon dinner on 8/7 and I'm also a little concerned about laying out that kind of $$$ when I very well could end up going on vacation that week. We shall see . . .

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We talked about doing the City dinner and I wasn't in favor--much as I like Abraham's food and I'm sure he'll knock it out of the park, part of what I love about the event is getting out of the city and experiencing a true farm. But if you're already going to one, I'm not sure it's worth doing a second so close together. I'm planning to try to get my family to get tickets in January in Florida. Maybe you should look into one of the winter locations and plan a little vacation around it...

Just secured two spots for the dinner at Mick Klug. So happy I have LTH to keep me posted on things like this!

I am unexpectedly going out of town and now have to miss the 2014 Outstanding in the Field evening I was so looking forward to. I thought I would offer up my tickets here first for this long ago sold out event. My tickets are two for Thursday, August 7, when Abraham Conlon of Fat Rice is cooking. I am sure it will be amazing. The tickets, with the tax cost me $490. Will sell at face value, please email me at [email protected] if you are interested.

This intrigue's me. Not that I want to attend, although we would if we were closer, but I'd love to host something like this. There have been farm to table events around here, but never held on the farm. What a great way to teach people where & how food comes to them.

Hmmmmmm.......

Freezer Pig wrote:This intrigue's me. Not that I want to attend, although we would if we were closer, but I'd love to host something like this. There have been farm to table events around here, but never held on the farm. What a great way to teach people where & how food comes to them.

Hmmmmmm.......

It's just too bad you don't know a bunch of people who are quite particular about the quality of their food and the manner in which it's produced...

Tim--this organization seeks out farms that are close (not more than a couple hours driving distance) from major metro areas with folks willing to shell out the dough to go and chefs with some pedigree to attract them. If you're located near such a locale, definitely get in touch with them. I went to my first last year near St. Joseph in Michigan (Klug Farm) and am going to one this summer in Door County WI at Waseda (a cattle farm this time).

boudreaulicious wrote:.....not more than a couple hours driving distance......

That leaves us out. We are about an hour from Ft Wayne and Toledo but neither of them are big enough for an event. Too far from Cleveland and Chicago. That's OK, might be able to wind up something on a smaller cheaper scale. I'll keep it in mind this winter, when things are a little slower, and there is more time to talk to people and organize some things.

I might know a guy that knows a guy, that might like to see something like this happen......

Tim

Freezer Pig wrote:

boudreaulicious wrote:.....not more than a couple hours driving distance......

That leaves us out. We are about an hour from Ft Wayne and Toledo but neither of them are big enough for an event. Too far from Cleveland and Chicago. That's OK, might be able to wind up something on a smaller cheaper scale. I'll keep it in mind this winter, when things are a little slower, and there is more time to talk to people and organize some things.

I might know a guy that knows a guy, that might like to see something like this happen......

Tim

I would not be surprised at all to find enough people here on LTH who would like to be your guests.

I don't want to run this thread any further off the rails. If anything comes of this, I'll post up here, for the first seats. Lots of details to think through.

My wife is dipping her toe in the water of being self employed, so she won't have a lot of time to help with my scatter-brained ideas for a while, and she is the one I count on to keep me grounded. I need to keep my imagination in check, until she gets things firing on all the cylinders in her corner of the operation.

This needs to ferment in my pointy little skull for a few months......

Tim

Hi Tim- What about Detroit or Ann Arbor? I personally think that this would go over really big in Ann Arbor, which is really a foodie town. They have a large food coop, two Whole Foods, and I believe one Plum Market, and plus they have a really good farmer's market. As far as Detroit goes, I don't think too many people in Detroit proper can afford $200 tickets. There are people in the suburbs such as Bloomfield Hills that do have the money, but I don't know how many foodies there are in the well to do suburbs of Detroit. Maybe somebody here will prove me wrong. I have not been to Detroit for five years. One of my sisters lived in Detroit proper for four years, and she hated it there. She thinks they should blow the city up and start all over again. Hope this helps, Nancy

I have two tickets to the South Haven dinner with Paul Kahan for sale, $200 a piece. I will be out of town and can't make it.

Hi everyone. This seems as good as a place as any to offer the same (similar) thing. We have two tickets to this Sunday night's Blue Moon Community Farm dinner in Stoughton, WI (near Madison). Unfortunately, we've had a death in the family and can't make it, but if anyone is interested, the tickets are $200 each. Dinner starts at 4pm.

I went to the Louisville dinner last year and had a spectacular time.

Met a group at the Blue Moon Dinner outside Madison (which was outstanding, as the name indicates) that was from Dallas and L.A. They just pick a OITF a dinner at random and plan a 3-4 trip/get together around that dinner. Sounds like good idea to me, although I might pick my location less than randomly.

Tickets for the 2015 season go on sale next Friday, 3/20. LOTS of interesting options in our area. Looking forward to it!!!

boudreaulicious wrote:Tickets for the 2015 season go on sale next Friday, 3/20. LOTS of interesting options in our area. Looking forward to it!!!

Here's a link to the schedule: http://outstandinginthefield.ticketmob. ... ntList.cfm

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I actually think out area gets a little hosed. As do a couple of other states/regions, to be honest.

The friends who were going with us to the August 9 dinner at Blue Moon Farm in Stoughton, WI can no longer attend. If you are interested in buying their tickets, please pm me for more information. The chef for the event is Daniel Fox of Heritage Tavern in Madison, and the tickets are $205.00 (details in the link below). The event is sold out.

Outstanding in the Field

I attended the Mick Klug/Paul Virant dinner this Saturday. It's my third OITF dinner and they do, in my opinion, a consistently outstanding job. They have the whole process down to a science. Chef Virant's food was probably the best we've had. One of these days I think we'll road trip a dinner on the West Coast, or Jackson hole, or who knows where.

I'd love to go to the Charleston dinner one day...

We also had a great experience this year, and have the same thought about doing a true road trip from next year's schedule.

We attended the dinner last night at Blue Moon Community Farm in Stoughton, WI (with chef Daniel Fox of Heritage Tavern in Madison) and had the pleasure of sitting with farmer Kristen Kordet. Just a lovely night with great food and warm hospitality from the OITF staff.

We have friends who subscribe to the Blue Moon CSA (they live in Stoughton). Kristen is a wonderful person who runs a great operation. We did the OITF dinner there last year and it was great.

I'm going to the City Farm dinner this Thursday, it will be my third OTIF dinner and I've really loved my first two experiences.

This is as good a spot as any to air a couple of complaints. I've been to a couple of these dinners in other cities - Louisville, Nashville - and while I like the idea, and ultimately had a good time, the Nashville meal in particular put us off paying for another one. The head cowboy hat guy running the show seemed to be on autopilot, the food and drinks were OK but in relatively limited supply, and overall we found it to be a really poor value. I know, it's not about value, it's about experience, and I agree with that, to an extent. In fact, a bunch of us are going to Charleston for OitF this October, but rather than dine at that dinner, my wife and I decided instead on a hopefully equally good dinner and experience at one of the city's fine restaurants, possibly or likely Husk. At the time of our decision we did the math: $215 per person at the Outstanding in the Field table, vs. literally every single thing on the Husk menu for around $300, total. We just couldn't pull the trigger on the former this time, especially given tickets went on sale before the chef was even announced. What can you do?

Having been to a few of these, I think the quality of the OitF experience really depends on the specifics/details - who's cooking?, what farm?, etc. To generalize beyond that seems fruitless (pun intended) to me.

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I amended my post above but the chef for Saturday's dinner is Jason Hammel of Lula, a long time OITF vet.

Sure, the farm makes a small difference, mostly in terms of aesthetics & what type of farm may interest you. That often dictates some of the menu (e.g., a fruit/vegetable farm versus a dairy).

And yes, you're certainly paying more for the OITF farm dinners than for many other farm dinners.

But 90% of it is on the restaurant. I went to one dinner where my vegetarian dinner friends were not well taken care of. Since then, we've been much better at communicating in advance of the ticket purchase with the OITF folks about the best meals for vegetarians and we haven't been let down. And some of the chefs are just more concerned with putting on a rock show so to speak than others. Indeed, I understand that OITF has not invited some chefs back based on feedback and OITF staff's own impressions. But don't forget, OITF generally partners with the most highly touted chefs and these top chefs are putting themselves out there to discriminating diners, and most are very well known and want to bring in new diners to their restaurants.

As for value, the dinners I've been to have featured several passed hors d'oeuvres, a family style dinner (usually 5 courses including dessert) and paired wines. I've never left hungry. Sorry to hear some people have not had as great an experience. But to say that each dinner is the same and offers the very same experience is not at all correct. It's almost as much as I've paid for dinner at 42 Grams. Is it the same experience? No - not at all . . . they're very different. But I suppose it all depends upon your preference. For me, I love the variety and I think OITF does a terrific job with these dinners.

I'm glad I jumpstarted the conversation, and don't think my comment deserved to be dismissed as BS, nor do I think I generalized. I was very specific. Anyway, in no way did I want to discourage people from attending an Outstanding in the Field event, or buying someone's ticket. I think the events are really well run, and I think I was pretty clear in my original post in acknowledging that it is a different experience from a restaurant, and that there are a lot of variables at work that affect the final take-away. The Louisville meal I had - food, location, the whole package - was one of the best dining experiences I've ever had. (And as far as paying the farm and directly funding the operation goes, this was a hobby farm owned by the same art collector that owns the 21C Hotel in Louisville, so take that as you may).

I was just expressing my disappointment that the Nashville meal was, well, a disappointment, given that it set us back $500 or whatever, plus getting there, staying there, and all those extras. Maybe they were struggling with stuff I didn't see (weather was not awesome), maybe it was the chef, maybe there were other invisible variables. I know that OitF is by its very nature different from night to night and location to location, and for some the potential for hit or miss is less of an issue than the big picture event. But for us the particular experience was off enough that I wasn't comfortable gambling on the next one, and I was not expecting that. I may very well change my mind down the road, because like I said at the beginning, I don't have a problem with the organization itself.

In the case of Charleston specifically, when the tickets went on sale the chef/restaurant hadn't even been announced yet, so there's gamble number one, and a big one at that. I've since looked up the chef/restaurant, and while I'm sure it could end up a home run, I think I made the right decision to skip the table meal and spend the time/money somewhere else in Charleston that night. We'll see, since we'll be reconvening with several friends there after our different but concurrent dining experiences.