Make your desk for 2 a desk for 23 at Brooklyn’s Dinner Occasion

The Fort Greene restaurant curates neighborhood by way of family-style eating.

A gaggle of strangers. A fastidiously chosen menu that includes conscious, contemporary and seasonal components. An evening you’ll always remember. Welcome to Dinner Occasion, a homey tackle the restaurant eating expertise situated in Fort Greene, Brooklyn.

Dinner Occasion opened its doorways to the general public in June 2021 and has since gained constructive press from the likes of Grub Road and the Gothamist. It presents diners an intimate expertise with a comfortable inside and easy seating association. The tables are communal, although you possibly can request a personal desk together with your reservation if you happen to’d choose, and might seat as much as 23 visitors, in response to the restaurant’s proprietor and chef, Camille Jetta. 

The menu is ready for the week every Monday, when Jetta’s staff meets to brainstorm its contents. They arrive with inspiration and recipes primarily based on the climate, time of 12 months and components out there, creating a strong menu from these concepts. Dinner Occasion is about as contemporary and down-to-earth as a restaurant can get. What different restaurant purposefully intermingles its visitors and presents a wholly new menu every week?

“All of us convey just a few issues to the desk that we’ve been speaking about that we’ve truly gone and eaten at a restaurant that week and are impressed by,” Jetta stated. “All of us are obsessive foodies, though it’s additionally our job, in order that additionally helps.”

Dinner Occasion presents a prix fixe dinner Tuesday-Saturday, in addition to a prix fixe brunch on weekends. The dinner prices about $65 per visitor between Wednesday and Saturday and about $50 on Tuesdays, whereas the weekend brunches price $25 per visitor. Reservations open on Resy three weeks earlier than a given date, they usually are likely to guide up rapidly. Nonetheless, these serious about reserving a sure time can place themselves on a waitlist in case anybody cancels their spot. Weekend brunches, in response to the restaurant’s web site, usually have area for walk-in visitors.

Final weekend, my buddies and I ventured onto the C prepare to expertise the magic of Dinner Occasion for ourselves. We had been greeted with essentially the most stunning, intimate eating expertise we’ve had in New York Metropolis. We had been seated at our personal desk, and handed a set of fantastically handwritten menus and wine choices.

We began with a polenta and garlic confit sourdough flatbread with nettle and ricotta salata. It was completely divine. The pesto was simply flavorful sufficient with out being overpowering, and the cheese was the proper complement.

After our starter, we ordered a bottle of wine. It was a rosé known as Cyprès de Toi bottled by Tremendous Glou. The sommelier got here and launched himself, explaining the place the wine got here from and the way it might complement the menu.

Then, we had spicy roasted carrots with labneh, solar butter, candied kumquats and shies. This dish hit each taste be aware — candy, salty and spicy. It was adopted by a duck breast with grape and calçot gastrique, in addition to a sugar snap pea and asparagus salad. The salad was an ideal pairing for the duck, because it delicately balanced out the heartiness of the meat.

It was halfway by way of our important course when Jetta came to visit to introduce herself personally. It added a layer of private connection to the meal that you simply hardly ever get at different eating places. 

Lastly, we completed up with a lemon and black tea trifle with blackberries for dessert. As we left, my buddies and I had been all buzzing with power and pleasure from our meal. It was one that we are going to all bear in mind.

Contact Anja Westhues at [email protected]