Foodies, there’s a secret supper experience you need to know about

What is the Secret Supper Dining Experience?

Here’s the concept: a fabulous outdoor dinner with about 50 people coming from all over the country (and even internationally) to share this culinary experience without knowing where it’s being held. That’s right: the secret of the Secret Supper is where it’s taking place. Diners sign up knowing the general region—they need to be able to arrange travel there—and then 24 hours in advance of the meal, they learn the exact location. The Secret Supper is almost never held in the same place twice.

A sustainable Napa Valley farm setting

I attended a Secret Supper held in the wine country of Napa, California. That’s driving distance for my friend and me, and I thought most people at the Secret Supper would be Northern Californians. We were shocked nearly everyone else had flown in for the special event, from far-flung states and territories like Massachusetts, North Carolina, Texas and Puerto Rico.

The secret location for our meal? Napa Pasture Protein, a sustainable farm that’s been family owned since 2007 and boasts wildflowers, rolling hills and a field of gently bleating goats. As we showed up, we were encouraged to feed carrots to the goats and wander around meeting people while indulging in wine and passed plates. Someone made a reel of the llama spitting on her, and we all admired the pastoral setting and the beauty of many strangers coming together to eat. The co-owner of Secret Supper, Jacob Firle, told us that at each hosting, he’s never worried about people getting along and chatting with each other. The first “gate” is the fact that people are willing to book a ticket without knowing where the meal takes place, so we are all culinary lovers and somewhat adventurous.

For many of us, the showstopper was the asador, a custom-built Argentinian spit that held a whole roasting lamb as we arrived. Since this venue was a working farm, seeing such a sight sparked conversation about how we have all lost touch with nature and the source of our food. As farm co-owner Cori Carlson said, “We treat our animals so very well and they have a wonderful experience...until they have one Very Bad Day.” Cori and her husband, Casey, run Napa Pasture Protein together with help from their daughters.

At the Secret Supper, one long table held us all—one of the meal’s goals is community, and we got to meet as many of our table partners as possible, chatting for five hours as course after course appeared—and Napa’s best wines were poured. The light changed as twilight fell into darkness, and we loved sitting in the glow of our candles as the pasture went dark. I could tell many people felt reluctant to leave afterward.

The chef for this Secret Supper was Rick Edge, who was at the time the executive chef of Lucy at the Bardessono Hotel and Spa in Yountville. Knowing that the evening would include a fair amount of beveraging, we took a rideshare from the Secret Supper to Bardessono, where we spent the night. Bardessono is a wonderful boutique hotel right in the thick of everything; you can walk to the Bouchon Bakery and The French Laundry, many charming boutiques and six different tasting rooms. The hotel is full of art pieces and lovely grounds with sculptures, and we loved swimming in the rooftop pool. Edge created an amazing meal with Italian and Spanish influences, much of the produce grown nearby and much of the seafood fished nearby. 

The brains behind the nomadic dining experience

The Secret Supper is the brainchild of Danielle Firle; she and her husband, Jacob, operate the company out of Portland, Maine. Rather than run a brick-and-mortar restaurant, they’ve adopted the nomadic business plan of creating dinners all across the world, partnering with chefs at the destination. International locations in recent years have included the Burgundy region in France and the Tuscany region of Italy.

The meal is expensive at $325 per person, but some had built the occasion around a birthday or other significant get-together. I chatted with one woman whose friends had organized the trip because she had had a tough few years. My friend and I were hosted, but I feel it’s worth a splurge for such a unique experience, sort of a “speakeasy meets fine dining.”

Upcoming Secret Supper dates and ticket info

As of this writing, these upcoming Secret Suppers still have tickets available, and you’ll want to get on the email list because new venues get announced on a rolling basis:

July 16: Portsmouth (White Mountains), New Hampshire
August 6-7: New Gloucester, Maine
September 20: Rockland, Maine
October 16: Healdsburg, California

On the menu: a five-course culinary journey

And for those curious about what exactly we ate, here is the menu:

Welcome bites:
Lamb meatballs with Idiazabal cheese & Calabrian chili
Lucy potatos bravas
Chilled Beausoleil oysters with uni, sweet lemon & caviar

Wines:
Hall Ranch sauvignon blanc
Ugly Duckling pet nat

On the table:
Chickpea purée with fire-roasted homemade flatbread

First course:
Smoked burrata with Patch Farms tomatoes, roasted garlic, Genovese basil, rustic crostini

Wine:
Martin Ray Sonoma rosé of pinot noir

Second course:
Fire-roasted soft-shell crab with Bloomsdale spinach, smoked bacon, maitake mushrooms

Wine:
Little x Little Suisun Valley chenin blanc
Benovia Russian River chardonnay

Main course:
Argentinian spit-roasted Napa Pasture Farms lamb with summer peppers, chimichurri
Cavatelli with lamb Bolognese and piquillo peppers, Barolo wine, shaved pecorino

Wine:
District Series 2021 Yountville cabernet sauvignon

Dessert:
Fire-roasted stone fruits with golden balsamic sabayon, whipped ricotta, Marcona almond brittle