Cassie P.

I would participate in The Dinner Party Project every night if I could! The idea of bringing together strangers for a delicious meal and enlightening conversation is right up my alley. While I partook in a private dinner party with some coworkers, it was still an elevated experience from anything we would've found at a restaurant. With different venues for each meal, our setting was the backyard of the fab Orlando CM Andi P. Dana from The Dinner Party Project enhanced the space with such beautiful place settings and decorations. It looked like it was ripped from a magazine. The food... Where do I begin? Local chef Julian Degarden was in the kitchen and prepared for us an amazing meal. While sipping on a Florida Mule featuring spirits from St. Augustine Distillery, Dana passed around a chicken liver mousse crostini with honey and maldon salt. I'm not a big pate person but this combination was perfect. I wanted to eat more than one but glad I saved room for the main meal. We were served a beautiful beet salad and my favorite dish of maybe all my eats in Orlando that week, the bucatini bolognese. Honestly, this is a pasta I still dream about. It was cooked perfectly al dente and the rich beef ragu had me wiping the plate clean. It didn't end there. Desserts from Buttermilk Bakery were the icing on the cake (literally). My favorite was the strawberry cake and I'm not even a big fan of strawberries. It was super moist and flavorful, not to mention beautiful! More important than the food (maybe), is the conversation! After all, the joy of The Dinner Party Project is connecting with new folks. Dana guided our conversation with questions like, "If you could sign anything into law, what would it be?" And a classic, "Who would you most want to have a meal with dead or living?" While it was maybe a little hard to wrangle our loud and chatty group of CMs in, it was fun to learn more about each other in a fun and different way when we did get around to answering. If The Dinner Party Project was in Miami, I'd definitely jump on board immediately! For those in Orlando, get your name on their list ASAP.

Lita G.

I heard about the Dinner Party Project through a blog and the idea seemed too exciting not to try it. I mean, what's not exciting about having dinner with 7 strangers? The process is simple, you send your information to their main email address and join the wait list, then Dana uses a lottery process to randomly pick people to be part of the dinner party. She emails you directly and gives you possible dates to join. Once you select your date you paypal a donation between $30-$60 and are booked to join. I attended the February 1st dinner at Dana's house in north Orlando, very close to Winter Park. The house is just lovely, and a great location for an intimate dinner. As the meeting time rolls around all guests start arriving and introducing themselves. Best part is Dana welcomed us with a drink in hand for each of us! Once we sat at the table the introductions began, followed by a few questions to get the conversation going. Great thing is that most of us probably never think of that kind of question, so it was also a good introspective tool. Dinner was great, she had Rashmi Primlani as guest chef, she runs a food blog and prepared an amazing Indian menu for us. We enjoyed a moscow mule as cocktail along with samosas as hors d'oeuvres, then a huge dinner with some amazing wine and tea as digestive. I will add a picture of the entire menu. If you don't like good food and good conversation with people you've never met before then don't bother. I may be quite an introvert, but this was just perfect for me, as everyone was an equal by not knowing the others at the table. Great concept, great food, and great company. I would totally do it again.

Paul L.

My long-awaited debut at the Dinner Party Project soiree finally happened 2 weeks ago: this review is long overdue, as are a few others :-). If you're not familiar with the concept, check out their FB page. Dana Marie was a gracious hostess of a lovely home, where this particular dinner was held. Pretty classy affair, with printed menu and all. We started the evening off with a frisky whiskey sour - a foamy one, no less. I don't remember the last time I had a whiskey sour, but this one was excellent - the good Bourbon made it a nice apertif to sharpen those buds. Dinner was preceded by some crusty french bread with a nice distinctive spread, as the other 6 guests gradually arrive. Dinner at the table started with a delicate salad, followed by our main course: short ribs with fettucine. I could have used even MORE sauce, but it was otherwise very nicely done by guest chef of the evening Emily Weidner. The goo-ey chocolatey 'pie' for dessert was just the way to finish. But the Dinner Party Project is MUCH much more than food and drink - it's really the people that we come for, and people that make it work. Couldn't have asked for better dining companions than the wild bunch that was stuck with me! Everyone contributed to the conversation, everyone enjoyed the company. Before we left, Dana Marie took mugshots of us all. We got each other's email address later on. Who knows - maybe the next step is to get together for a bite or a drink with these new-found friends!

Shilley T.

I wish I could more than 5 stars...this is an amazing concept. How it works is that you email the organizer Dana to get on the mailing list and you are randomly selected to attend a dinner with 6 strangers. I had been to the Love Feast and that's how I found out about the Dinner Party project. This was my first dinner and all i can say is AMAZING. I have to admit that I was a little nervous at the idea of dining with 6 strangers at first but as soon as I walked in, I was greeted and warmly welcomed by the guest host and the other participants. As we were waiting for the other guests to arrive we had a Blackberry lemon gin & tonic which was fantastic. Our hors d'oeuvre was a balsamic strawberry & goat cheese crostini which was YUMMY. Goat cheese and strawberry all can I wow a great combination. Our dinner was catered by Farmhaus and the food from the starter to the dessert was all very tasty. Our starter was a chilled pea soup which was very good, the braised chicken for our entree was tasty and by the far my favorite part of the dinner. I also loved the apple pie and ice cream. What I really enjoyed about the dinner was the genuine conversations we had. I got to spend an evening with people from different backgrounds and life experiences. We had an engineer, a photographer, a landscape architect, a director of PR, a teacher and an editorial director. How cool is that? This was a wonderful experience and if you live in Orlando, you need to attend a dinner.

Anna L.

I've attended 3 TDPP dinner parties now, and each one has been awesome and unique in its own way. I love the idea of sharing a meal with 7 strangers in our community and having real conversation (while eating delicious food, duh!). I've had a different chef and host each time and they have all been excellent. TDPP does a great job of keeping things fresh and interesting with the ever-changing locations, menus and faces of course! The questions they ask at the dinner table are fun and deeper than just surface level, so they make you think and you really get to know people. I went to their website and signed up to join the dinner lottery. I received an email invitation to dinner shortly after where I was able to view the event calendar and select the date I wanted to attend. I registered & paid online and then received an event confirmation email with all the deets (location, host, attire, etc.). Pricing is based on a sliding scale of $50-90 per person. This is because they don't want to price anyone out of coming to dinner, so they ask that you pay what want for a cocktail, 4-course meal, wine and coffee service. If this concept is outside of your comfort zone and dining with strangers isn't your thing, DO IT ANYWAY! TDPP allows you to register a plus one if you don't feel comfortable coming alone, so you should still give it a shot. My husband and I went to one together and it actually makes for a pretty fun date night. Shortly after the dinner, I received a follow up email with the contact info of everyone I dined with so we could keep in touch. I love this innovative idea and it's just one more thing that makes Orlando wonderful!

Meghan R.

I was lucky enough to attend The Dinner Party Project (TDPP) earlier this month. It was a special dinner with just bloggers which made it even more special. There was a group of 12 bloggers from the Central Florida area and it was amazing! The dinner was hosted by Kristen Manieri of The Orlando Date Night Guide and all the food came from Chef Mike Garcia. We started the evening with a little mingling away from the table. We drank Blackberry + Lemon Gin and Tonics while noshing on Chared Corn and Jalapeno Hush Puppies with Green Goddess Dress. I must say this was a GREAT way to start the evening. After a little while we moved to the table for dinner. The tablescape was done by none other than fellow TDPP attendee and crafter extraordinaire Sarah Hearts. It was so beautiful, yet so simple. She even broke out her treasured gold flatware from West Elm for the occasion. The rest of the night was filled with amazing food and great conversation. We had Zucchini Soup with radish, yellow squash & turnips, tomato salad with micro greens, fennel, blue cheese, & buttermilk vinaigrette, open ravioli of chicken with swiss chard, carrots, & snow peas, and finally strawberry sponge cake (gluten free) and Barnie's coffee. Holy cow! Everything that came out was just as amazing as the item before. I loved getting to know some of my fellow Orlando bloggers while enjoying an amazing meal. TDPP really is one of the coolest things to happen in Orlando and I will definitely be back. If you are interested in attending yourself, make sure to go to their website and get on the list.

Joe C.

I've been wanting to try this out for a while now and because of my work schedule it's been hard to set a day aside for me to attend. So FINALLY I got my opportunity. If you want to attend, sign up for their email list, pick a date to attend and then wait for the details. This is a great concept to meet new people and talk about the awesome community that we live in. One of the reasons I love Orlando is the diversity in our town and how you meet people from all walks of life. With this concept, it's no different. I ended up meeting people from different backgrounds. Our dinner was at a local old warehouse in downtown that's used by a local church. All of the food and drinks are local and prepared by a chef from one of the local restaurants. We started the night with a cocktail from Osprey Tavern and some freshly prepped deviled eggs. This event includes a full course meal with salad, entree and dessert. Also bring a bottle of your favorite wine to share with others. Highly recommend checking this concept out and keeping an eye on the theme dinners for people who work in certain industries.

Colleen B.

What a brilliant concept: Head to an intimate, small, lovely dinner with complete strangers and make new connections. Yes, please. Lawd, I love anything that supports local communities, ummm hello Yelp! So as soon as the lovely Dana Marie Roquemore, Co-Owner and Co-Founder at Other Peoples Property, told me about her idea, I knew it would be amazing! She launched this initiative to simply meet new people and connect others. She lives and breathes kindness and love from her community and wants to spread that love by connecting others. How could you not love this? So, as soon as it launched a few months ago, I signed up immediately. I had the pleasure of attending a night with all ladies, only 2 of who I knew, so I met 3 new lovely ladies during dinner. Two of the ladies were visiting from Korea, how cool? It was not only cool to meet new people, but we also enjoyed the amazing atmosphere that Dana set up and welcomed us into as well as a four course meal with a cocktail and wine. I still can't stop thinking about the dessert, I even got the recipe! YUM! I was lucky enough to be chosen again and will be attending my second dinner next month. I can't wait! --Here is how it works-- - Interested? Email Dana - danamarieroquemore at gmail dot com - Then your name will be put into a lottery. - 7 random people will be chosen to join and notified via email to share a meal w friends and strangers from amazing school teachers to engineers to business owners, to all sorts of creatives. - If you can attend that date, you send a suggested amount to dana to save your spot, which includes a 4-course meal, plus wine & cocktails. Check out a sample of a menu in the past here: http://www.farm-haus.com/blog/2014/10/20/the-dinner-party-project-orlando - If not, get put back into the lottery. - Once the list has been exhausted, your name will be put back into the lottery, so the next time you are invited to dinner, it will be a completely different set of people. Go forth and connect my friends!

Lauren Y.

"Excuse my ignorance" said London native, Oscar M. "But, what are grits?" As I started my meal with The Dinner Party Project, everyone chuckled at this question and quickly explained this Southern treat to Oscar. On a recent Sunday night, eight strangers including myself, gathered in the home of Dana Roquemore, founder of The Dinner Party Project. Created to draw the people of Orlando together over a meal, this simple concept is unprecedented in our city and taking off like crazy. In a constantly connected world, conversation is dwindling and screens are typically the first point of contact. Siri and I are BFF's, but there's something refreshing and invigorating about quality conversation and fantastic food shared with new friends. This creative concept is a new way to meet interesting people and enjoy freshly prepared meals. Everyone who attends has their name drawn at random, so each dinner is truly unique and special. "I got the idea when I was at a crossroads in life. Everything seemed boring and I wanted to do something new," Roquemore said. "Someone posed the question 'What brings you life and joy?' So, I thought about that, and I know that I LOVE food and people. I see people out socially, but I often don't know their personals stories, or much about them. So I thought, let's mix it up and invite people over to share a meal with friends and strangers. There is something beautiful about sitting down and sharing a meal with people. It has a way of breaking down the barriers and therefore being more known as humans." After enjoying cocktails and brief introductions, our group gathered around the table for three courses of goodness prepared by Emily Weidner. Our first course accompanied by the question "Where were you on 9/11" brought deep conversation and a freshly prepared salad with a light and tangy dressing. It was fascinating to hear everyone's point of view and the effects of that day on one's life. Next we were treated to the most delicious shrimp and yellow stone ground grits topped with chorizo and fresh cilantro from Emily's garden. I've tasted a lot of shrimp and grits in my day, and these were some of the best. The yellow grits and tender shrimp topped with spiced chorizo were fantastic and made even better by dining with the chef herself. Throughout the dinner and wine drinking we were charged with questions sparking conversation like "When do you feel most confident" and "If you could enact any law, what would it be and why?" For the grand finale we were treated to rich and creamy coffee gelato made with kahlua. Prepared by a fellow dinner party diner, this sweet treat ranks up there with the likes of what I've tasted in Italy. We each arrived as strangers and left as friends, full and happy. To throw your name in the dinner party lottery email Dana at danamarieroquemore@gmail.com. Each dinner is a little different, but they are all full of food and interesting people!

Mia P.

Great experience. That's what I would call this, a delightful dinner experience that almost feels like a social experiment. It was fun and the food was perfect thanks to local chef Mike Garcia. Mike has worked with some local restaurants that have a super tasty reputation (like The Smiling Bison) and he really "brought it" for the diner menu. Our group dined in a urban warehouse space on Brookhaven Drive near Virginia Drive. When you walk in you see the table, it's beautifully adorned with lavish place settings and fresh flowers. The dinner table is clearly the focal point of the event and very inviting. The concept is appealing-the opportunity to eat dinner with seven other strangers and get to know each other over a great meal. The conversation was flowing and we enjoyed corn jalapeño hushpuppies with green goddess dressing and a blackberry lemon gin cocktail for appetizers. Aside from the food and drinks tasting fantastic, the presentation was very visually appealing. More courses were presented and introduced by the chef, including fresh zucchini soup, tomato salad with micro greens & blue cheese, a main entree of "open" ravioli, and whipped cream strawberry sponge cake for dessert. All of the items were gourmet, unique, flavorful, and just plated gorgeously. Wine was also served only with the main entree, but I would have liked to enjoy wine at the start of the meal as more of a pairing. It's just my habit to have wine at the beginning of a meal as I don't like to drink wine when I'm starting fill up on food. I prefer it at the beginning of the meal. That is my only suggestion, to serve wine during the start of dinner. While our host was gracious, I didn't understand the delay with the wine serving and myself and another guest both brought wine bottles to share for those at dinner. This was a very unique night and I had a chance to meet new people and we could talk unabashedly about our lives in this elegant setting. Thanks to the host and also creator Dana for putting this fresh concept together in Orlando. It's easy to see a lot of work and planning go into these events, so I'm very appreciative to have a chance to attend. Thanks again!

Rhea P.

Great concept and I love that it is expanding. The dinner party project gives you the chance to eat healthy, delicious food with friends--known and not yet known. Really great way to form community.

Michelle S.

You read that right...I attended my first "The Dinner Party Project" event and it was held at...an appliance store! But not just any appliance store, an awesome, high-end appliance store that has been in business for over 30 years. Tina made us all feel very welcome at the store, and it was more like attending a dinner party at someone's home! Aggressive Appliances is off of E. Colonial Dr. (617 Mercy Dr., Orlando - http://www.aggressiveappliances.com/) and has six working kitchens used for a variety of events, including The Dinner Party Project which took place last week. Our guest chef, Mike Garcia, who has previously worked at The Smiling Bison, The Rav Pig and Cask & Larder, had some lovely kitchens at his disposal for this event. Our table for twelve was set up in the center of the showroom, and each place setting showed us our menu for the evening. We began with drinks prepared by Michael Ring with Old Forester. He was kind enough to prepare special non-alcoholic drinks for me...a sweet treat! My first drink was a strawberry hibiscus punch with lemons and basil, made with Onli (sparkling flavored water). Very refreshing! We began with an hor d'ouevre of "shrimp and grits". Sweet little grit cakes topped with shrimp mousse and pickled onion. Loved this! Next, our starters were a cucumber gazpacho with fennel, peppers, cherry tomatoes and micro basil, and red beets tartine on grilled sourdough with crème fraiche, dill and radish. Michael again created a lovely drink for me (that apparently I sucked down so fast I forgot to take a photo), that was made with green tea, lemon and mint. It was my favorite drink of the night...and so pretty! You'll just have to use your imagination. I'm still dreaming about it! Next our entrée, a grilled sweet tea chicken dish with peach mostardo, baked sea island pea puree and a 63 ° egg. I'm now thinking that grilled sweet tea chicken is something I must learn to make at home ASAP! My drink with this dish was a homemade apple cider. Last but not least was dessert. We enjoyed an almond panna cotta with vanilla, lavender, sponge cake and topped with blueberries. This dessert was light and not too sweet. Our accompanying drink was a lavender simple soda, and espresso soda and Barnie's coffee blend, with vanilla bean half and half foam as the whip. It was a great evening getting to know some local bloggers and enjoy some great food! What an amazing opportunity and concept. Long live The Dinner Party Project! Thanks Dana Roquemore for creating such an awesome event! You can see more about The Dinner Party Project on Facebook as well as via their instagram.

Kaley C.

I was finally selected to attend a night at the dinner left project after weeks of drooling over their Instagram. Our evening was held at the Ivanhoe Warehouse and the crowd was really nice! Mike Garcia was our chef and Jordan was a truly wonderful host. We started with white ginger and mint coolers and feta mouse crostinis. We sat at the table and Jordan did a delightful job of facilitating easy conversation to get everyone talking. Meanwhile, Mike continued to bring us plate after plate of delicious courses. We started with a chilled corn soup. The main dish was fried chicken roulade with citrus collard slaw, watermelon and jalapeño honey. I had requested a vegetarian option, so Mike prepared mine with eggplant, instead of chicken. The option for a veggie meal was much appreciated, especially since it was a special meal for a small group of people. And the main course was FANTASTIC. I was so impressed with how well the eggplant was presented like the other dishes and I didn't feel like I was missing out on a thing. We finished with dessert and coffee. Mike made a vegan coconut carrot pana cotta and it was truly delicious. It was so nice having a special, small batch meal and sharing it with strangers who quickly became friends. Learned a lot from folks who wouldn't be a part of my daily activity and enjoyed myself. Hopefully will be able to come back soon!