“Diner En Blanc” Trailer from fungible on Vimeo.
Dîner en Blanc: the World’s Largest Dinner Party will be screened today at 6pm at the Maysles Cinema in Harlem. Untapped Cities founder Michelle Young was one of the participants interviewed for the documentary, as she prepared for the annual pop-up white dinner in Paris, an event she has attended since 2010. Michelle also discusses the planning for New York City’s Dîner en Blanc, for which she was a group leader last year. (more…)
NYC’s 2012 Dîner en Blanc was my first, and I plan on attending every year from now on. I have to admit my arms are still sore from getting my table and chairs from New Jersey via NJ Transit to midtown, then downtown to my meeting point, and back uptown to Lincoln Center. But it was so much fun and well worth the pain.
I took a lot of great photos with my trusty cell phone during the night, but as I saw everyone else’s photos I felt like I didn’t capture anything new. Everyone had a great crowd photo, a table photo, a sunset photo and dance floor photo. But no one really captured the energy and anticipation of waiting for the white napkin air-twirl signaling the start of the meal? I had an empty plate photo, so I added some doodles. Now I think you get an idea of the swirling anticipation at the start of the night. Waiting hungrily to devour the food you just carried dozens of blocks.
Also check out Untapped New York’s timelapse video of the Dîner en Blanc.
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Have a great week!
After some controversy over the unofficial Dîner en Blanc Chicago last year, the official dinner from Le Dîner en Blanc International arrives this Friday. In contrast to other cities, the Chicago hosts have created a not-for-profit company, The White Basement, for this and all following events. Team leader, Lauren Haras, tells Untapped that they’re “not interested in profiting on this endeavor” and the goal is simply to “enjoy the city with food, friends and wine.”
The Union des Franà§ias de l’étranger Chicago, a consortium of French citizens living abroad (UFE), James Wild of Gridwerk Architecture, and a long time Dîner en Blanc Paris organizer are helping bring this international event to Chicago for 1000 guests. In the tradition of the Dîner en Blanc, participants in Chicago will be asked to bring tables, chairs, food and drinks, with affordable options posted by the hosts on Pinterest. Busy Chicagoans may purchase gourmet picnic baskets from renowned Chef Tony Mantuano of Spiaggia in advance for the event with specially paired wines.
To attend, register for the waitlist on the official website at chicago.dinerenblanc.info. Those that resister will be emailed with specific information regarding times, procedures, what to wear and what to bring.
With Chicago’s rich architectural history and culinary tradition, we know this will be a great event. I sat with the director of the Chicago Dîner en Blanc at the Versailles Dîner en Blanc this June and I had a taste of his sumptuous meal, including double-minced lamb kefta with layered verrine and mint tzatziki, whipped feta with smoked salmon and dill, cucumber-infused diced tomatos, whipped fea with green olives, Lebanese tabouleh and champagne. You are in good hands! Check out this timelapse video of the recent New York City dinner at Lincoln Center to get an idea of what this event will be like!
Get in touch with the author @untappedmich
NYC Dîner en Blanc – Lincoln Center Timelapse Video on YouTube
At last night’s magical Dîner en Blanc at Lincoln Center, we captured this timelapse video from the balcony of Avery Fisher Hall, Lincoln Center. Special thanks to Aymeric Pasquier, the Dîner en Blanc International and Lincoln Center for making this video possible.
Music: “Catch Me” by Justin Tracy, produced by Nic Hard. Instrumental track used with permission courtesy of Nic Hard.
Video filmed and edited by Augustin Pasquet and Michelle Young. Video filmed with a GoPro HD HERO2.
Lincoln Center has never gotten down quite like this. Tonight, 3000 revelers took in the night at the NYC Dîner en Blanc, descending upon the plaza and its famous fountain for four hours, eating, drinking and dancing surrounded by the three pillars of Lincoln Center–the Metropolitan Opera House, Avery Fisher Hall and the American Ballet Theater. The plaza turned into such a rocking dance floor even the security guards got into it.
I have been fortunate to have been involved in the Dîner en Blanc in various incarnations–as an attendee in the mythical Paris Dîner en Blanc for the last three years and in the NYC debut last year. I thought that this year’s dinners at Notre Dame, Place des Vosges and Versailles would be hard to beat, but the dance party at the NYC dinner tonight Lincoln Center may have trumped that.
I was a group leader for NYC’s second production of the famous pop-up white dinners. In charge of 250 attendees, I witnessed first hand this year how the events come together. At the top of the pyramid, the Dîner en Blanc International partnered with NYC-based company, French Tuesdays, to produce the event and select the location, caterers and other details. There were 10 group leaders, myself included, each in charge of 4-5 table leaders. Each table leader was in charge of 60 guests, or 30 tables.
The location is of course kept a secret by the organizers and group leaders until the very last moment. Assigned a designated meet up location for my group, I separated my table leaders out to specific corners and landmarks in our pickup location at Broadway/Lafayette. Staggered, we entered into the subway station and headed en masse on the B/D trains up to Columbus Circle, unleashing a flood of white up Columbus Avenue, carrying all the accoutrements needed for this dinner–tables, chairs, food, table settings and more. At precisely 6:30pm, we took over the Lincoln Center Plaza.
NYC Dîner en Blanc – Lincoln Center Timelapse Video on YouTube
New York City is a difficult city to plan large-scale events, due to its rules on public gathering, alcohol, food, noise, how late an event can go. So for a dinner that is supposed to be spontaneous, a large amount of behind the scenes planning needs to take place–and more importantly, the location has to be majestic or the event could run the risk of feeling catered and corporate. In New York City, all of the registration fees collected go into the rentals for the location, which range between $20,000 and $40,000. Was it worth it? I’ll let you be the judge, but you probably won’t see this happening at Lincoln Center again anytime soon.
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Get in touch with the author @untappedmich. More photos from tonight’s event on Facebook.
Though I’ve been living in New York for almost a year now, I decided to make the long journey (5 hours on a Megabus) back to my hometown of Boston for the city’s first annual Dîner en Blanc. The Dîner en Blanc is a pop-up picnic dinner in white of epic proportions which started in Paris and has been expanding to other cities across the world. (I’ll also be going to the NYC version on Monday.) This year, more than fifteen cities on five continents are throwing a Dîner en Blanc. In addition to Boston, new cities include Chicago, Singapore and Kigali, Rwanda. (more…)
