Eat & Drink
Dinner in the Sky Takes Summerlicious and Toronto Cuisine to New Heights
Summerlicious 2008 couldn't have launched with any more pomp and style than it did today in Toronto. Using a massive industrial crane to hoist up and suspend a 5-tonne, 22-person table over a red-carpeted Yonge-Dundas Square, the American Express sponsored harrowing-stunt-meets-gourmet-cuisine Dinner in the Sky event most certainly created summer food festival buzz.
Until tonight, I'd never had quite a unique dining experience - one that required a safety briefing and the signing of a waiver. With papers signed, and with a group cheer with my fellow eager table-mates, we were in upward tow. In my stomach were butterflies, and underneath the shiny silver lid before me was a very special meal.
Strapped into my seat, dangling some 35m above the ground, being served champagne by a waiter sporting a safety harness, I tucked my napkin under my plate to keep it from taking flight and landing on some unsuspecting pedestrian's head below. Then I took my first bite of Summerlicious 2008.
It was surprisingly easy to quickly forget about the vertigo (the champagne was a good call) and within a few minutes everyone seemed to drop the jitters that come with, well, being suspended from a crane. Before long, we were all getting into the view and, of course, into the food.
For my half hour Dinner in the Sky experience, I was served the Cornish Hen Roulade. The poultry was filled with a rich and aromatic spinach pesto and served atop smooth fennel mash and vibrantly coloured, seasonal succotash, in a delicate and slightly sweet red pepper sauce spiced with fennel pollen.
I have to admit... between turning my chair a full 180 degrees to check out the once-in-a-lifetime view of the square, snapping photos of the experience, and chatting with the lovely woman beside me, it was a bit difficult to savour the flavours. I forced myself to concentrate just long enough to appreciate my meal.
As quick as one could finish the meal (and a second glass of champagne), the table was brought back down to the ground, and the experience was over. Diners were smiling as they were unlatched from their Formula 1 racecar-style restraints, and were pleasantly surprised by the personal souvenir portrait that was printed and ready to be picked up as they exited.
Dinner in the Sky continues tomorrow, with a special breakfast lift with the CityTV BT crew (celebrity chef Anthony Sedlak's Eggs Benedict are on the menu), and lifts throughout the day. Unfortunately, if you don't already have a reservation for Dinner in the Sky, you're out of luck. But that shouldn't mean that you're not ready to sample the many other options that the upcoming festival provides.
Summerlicious runs from July 4th to 20th. Check out the full list of restuarants participating in this year's prixe-fixe summer food festival.
For more (and larger) photos of the experience, please view this full-screen slideshow. For more visuals (and to practice your French), also check out the promotional video below.
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What precautions do they take to prevent stuff from flying off the table onto the pedestrians below? I was just checking out the French video and it seemed that with a good gust of wind those oyster shells and bottles of San Pellegrino would be gonners.
The area immediately below the platform is roped-off and the public can't be hit by anything that accidentally falls. I was worried about my camera though (and have never held onto it so tightly before!).
How much is the meal, Jerrold? Seems like a blast!
I would have loved to serve as a date to that event! What a view. Can't wait to stop by and check out the breakfast set-up tomorrow a.m. on the way to work.
The suited photo with splash of red and eaton centre in the background is truly fantastic - captures the queasiness and grand-scale of the experience at once.
I saw Rick Campanelli and Chris Murphy(of Sloan) this noon time down at the Dinner In The Sky event. I think Rick was covering it for ET Canada. Does Chris have a day job there(ET Canada or in the media industry) also because I saw him wearing a green t-shirt that I believe a few other people were wearing as well who seem'd like they were working the event. Though Chris didn't look like he was working much at the time - he was just chatting with Rick. Ha ha.
Oh, I should have mentioned that the entire experience was free for Amex card holders that were lucky enough to get a reservation in advance. Apparently they were spoken for within under 15 minutes of the public announcement.
So a "lucky few" get to eat dinner suspended in mid-air while the "peasants" gaze in wide wonder from below. "Hey, everybody, look at us, don't you wish you were lucky like us? Aren't we cool and trendy...we know people". Whoopee. Maybe next time you could just toss your crumbs to the people below or just send down your table scraps. We bow to you. You are so much more worthy than we.
@ Steve
You didn't have to "know people" to get a seat. You had to be an Amex card holder, catch the news of the reservation process, and be on the ball when reservations opened.
Looks like a cool experience. Everyone looks pretty relaxed in the lead off shot. I like the shot of the guy looking over his shoulder; it has a nice visceral quality. The one thing I somewhat dislike about this is the amount of advertising Amex is getting out of this; their name is plastered everywhere in the square and of course on the platform. I guess they're entitled since they're sponsoring the event; still it feels weird seeing our public spaces so completely given over to corporate advertising.
Did they have airline bags in case anyone had a bad reaction or would it have been "Lookout below!" if there were an incident?
That's how I got reservations at Canoe. And how people get concert tickets. And so on. It wouldn't be special if everybody were doing it, ya know.
How do they prepare / keep the food hot? Is it all cooked on the ground and kept warm on the lift until you're served?
Not exactly suited for special requests!
Special requests are taken before boarding (there was at least one vegetarian meal on my lift). Food was prepared on ground level, and brought out hot just before the crane hoisted us up.
re: vertigo/sickness: I asked the organizers about this, and their response was that not a single person had gotten ill or freaked out in fear all day :)
Every time a great idea like this appears I just shake my head sideways and repeat with myself - "Why can't Torontonians invent stuff like that?" Think about all the crazy but wonderful things that happened to/in our city and chances are they came from another country. Remember those painted moose? How about that art event that went all night accross downtown? Toronto is a great city which has been poorly served by architects (see Bloor and Yonge), artists and the creative class in general. Stop copying winterlicious and summerlicious and all these events which were invented abroad and start creating our own! No more Luminatos! And welcome those new bizarre Canadian ideas which never have their opportunity in the sun. Or over the moon. Goshhhh!
What's wrong with doing things we like, even if other cities have done them before?
Your obsession with being "original" and "Torontonian" seems to be much more concerned with what other cities have done (or haven't done).
Nobody cares, as long as we're having fun.
What if you have to use the ladies' or men's room in the middle of dinner????
People were encouraged to use the facilities before going up, but apparently if necessary, they'll bring it down immediately, on request.
sorry ... just seems to crazy for me
Hello Guys,
I recommend you to visit our website for further events. We had a request of redoing it in Toronto, next September. Hope to meet you there!
Based in Montreal, I've imported this concept to America in order to offer something totaly unique to my country. We have many other cities to visit this summer (from Quebec city, Calgary, Ottawa, New York, Chicago and Vancouver).
Thank you for your interest,
JF
OMG you were on that-I was just trying to find the Sun article about it for a friend but found your blog post-much better!
Saw this when they were at the Square, then I saw it on the Discovery Channel a few days afterwards. They were in Brussls with some super gorgeous models atop.