Archive for the ‘Events’ Category

As the sun set over the Capitol dome in the distance, through tall glass doors and windows on the mezzanine floor of the Library of Congress’s Jefferson Building, the customarily hushed voices and subdued behavior was shattered by the squeals and giggles of can-can dancers ready to whoop it up.  Racing down the sweeping staircases on each side of the Great Hall, they literally kicked-off The Hemingway in Paris Ball.  One of DC’s premier events, The Washington Ballet’s Annual Spring Gala themed itself to reflect and celebrate the world premiere of Septime Webre’s Hemingway: The Sun Also Rises.

Guest reveled in the literary giant’s world, from sipping the classic drink, a Jack Rose, featured in Ernest Heminway’s novel, The Sun Also Rises, to walking the streets of Paris as they settled into their seats for dinner. And once again, we were honored to be a part of the fabulous celebration with deep ties to the community and helping raise critical funds for the Ballet’s training and outreach programs.  This year Susan Gage Caterers triumphantly and deliciously started the meal by serving a delicious bouillabaisse  followed by a salad of watercress and endive with vinaigrette, and then a plate of French cheeses served with lavender sel gris and fruit.

The table design was all SGC while the other beautiful décor was created by Syzygy Events International and the floral masterpieces were arranged by Suzanne Codi.  The evening was dotted with other performance by The Washington Ballet’s professional dancers as well as the students of TWB@THEARC.  After dinner, crepes were filled with chocolate and lemon curd, sprinkled with sugar and enjoyed with other sweet Parisian treats.  DJ Pitch One got the guests dancing themselves and before you knew it the night had drifted into a haze that even Hemingway would have shared.

Read more & see more here in Carol Joynt’s posting on The Wasingtonian.com.

Photos:  imijphoto.com

Billionaires and the Bidens Show Up for the Opera Ball 

appeared in the Washingtonian.com By Carol Ross Joynt

Published April 8, 2013

It turns out billionaires can be just like everyone else—they want to be up front when the big act hits the stage. This particular event was not a rock concert but the Opera Ball, and the big act in question none other than Vice President Joe Biden. A handful of Washington-area billionaires pressed to the front of a virtual black-tie mosh pit to be closest to the Vice President when he made a surprise appearance at the ball Saturday night. Standing just yards from Biden and listening closely as he praised Italy and the Italian ambassador, the ball’s hosts, were Kennedy Center chair David Rubenstein, Mars candy heiress Jacqueline Mars, ball chair Connie Milstein, and philanthropist Adrienne Arsht—who combined are worth approximately $20 billion.

Word spread quickly among the 550 guests that the Vice President and his wife were at the Villa Firenze in a holding room meeting privately with ambassador Claudio Bisogniero and his wife, Laura, and would be on the stage at any moment. It was the first time in recent memory that anyone could recall a Vice President attending the annual gala, which costs upward of $1,000 a ticket and raises money for the Washington National Opera. There was no clue in advance, because unlike most appearances by the Vice President—for example, last week at the Kennedy Center for the Vital Voices award ceremony—there were no security checks, no Secret Service agents operating walk-through magnetometers, looking inside handbags or asking for IDs.

Maybe there were special security screening devices in the flower-festooned golf carts that shuttled guests from valet parking on Albermarle Street, four to six to a cart, up and around the long, curving driveway to the impressive Italian residence, which, while bathed in bright colored lights, was still somewhat upstaged by the two luxury Italian roadsters parked out front, a Ferrari and a Maserati. They were there to be admired and to remind us the Italians know how to make hot cars. Indoors, and under a massive marquee out back, the WNO re-created an Italian town square, adorned with lemons—in cachepots large and small and even hanging from the ceiling intertwined with votive candles—plus enough pasta, risotto, cheeses, meats, olives, cakes, cookies, chocolates, and other desserts to easily feed everyone. As with last year, when the ball was at the Embassy of the United Arab Emirates, Susan Gage provided the catering. There were bars in every direction and a special table dedicated to sampling notable Italian wines, plus a self-serve limoncello bar with three brands of the liqueur available on tap. The evening’s specialty cocktail was a creation of limoncello and Champagne served in a flute.

Due to protocol, because technically we were on Italian soil, the Bisognieros preceded the Bidens onstage. The ambassador praised the Washington National Opera and the numbers of Italian operas that have been performed by the company this season, and noted what a good fit the ball was, since this is the Year of Italian Culture in the United States. In return, Biden had only affection to express toward his hosts and their country, noting that though he is Irish he’s married to the granddaughter of an Italian.

“As most public officials, we tend to aspire to certain offices,” Biden said. “There’s only one office my wife, Jill, aspired me to hold, and that was to be ambassador to Italy, and I am not kidding.” There was laughter. He gave shout-outs to Connie Milstein, David Rubenstein, chief justice John Roberts, and justice Samuel Alito, and then a big verbal hug to the Kennedy Center: “It’s literally difficult to imagine Washington and what it must have been like before there was a Kennedy Center.” Either the VP is fond of opera, or he was just wooing the opera vote. “Opera is an incredible expression of the wide range of human emotions expressed, in my view, with more passion than any other art form that exists,” he said.

Despite appearing onstage, the Bidens did not mingle with the guests or attend one of the earlier private seated dinners at 20 embassies. Jill Biden’s stunning red off-the-shoulder evening gown reminded us that only a few weeks ago she was at the Italian residence making another fashion statement in a backless cocktail dress by Gucci, which hails from Italy.

When the Bidens and Bisognieros left the stage, David Rubenstein tried to get the guests to quiet down and listen as he heaped praise on people who helped make the evening possible, but it was in vain. It was also getting close to 11 PM, and everyone’s attention span was used up. They wanted to dance, and filled the dance floor when the evening’s dance orchestra, Big Ray and the Kool Kats, started to play Sinatra.

It is a long night, especially with the earlier dinners, but it is the dinners that serve as an intimate complement to the grandness of the ball itself. We were guests of the ambassador of Gabon, Michael Moussa-Adamo, and his wife, Bridgette. At the last minute the ambassador was waylaid in Gabon, and Mrs. Moussa-Adamo tapped the ambassadors of Morocco and Niger to sub for her husband.

In her toast, Mrs. Moussa-Adamo was funny and charming. “My husband likes to say that the boss here is me, and I have often wanted to believe that this is true,” she said. “But as you can see, despite my orders for him to be here today, he failed to follow the orders of his boss; he preferred to obey his other boss, president of the republic Ali Bongo Ondimba, to whom, I shall add, I will not fail to complain.”

The dinner party began with Veuve Clicquot Champagne and canapes of spicy tuna tartare, avocado and goat cheese crostini, and grilled baby lamb chops. The meal, served with Cakebread Chardonnay and Saintsbury Pinot Noir, was butter lettuce salad with rhubarb and strawberries, herb-grilled beef tenderloin and halibut with leeks and shiitakes, and a dessert of wine-poached-cherry cheesecake.

What can be fun about a Washington dinner party, and what encourages eternal optimism, is you never know whom you’ll be seated next to. Just when you think you can’t be impressed, there’s something fresh. At my table were Niger ambassador Maman S. Sidikou, who went to law school at the University of Texas; Bruce Bradley, owner of the new Capella Hotel (where many guests ended up after the ball); and Rachel Pearson, one of the evening’s sponsors. On my left at dinner was Meg Thompson, who in the course of our conversation explained she’s a retired CIA operative, formerly posted to the Mideast, and while she liked Zero Dark Thirty it was not an accurate depiction of what it’s like for women “at the agency.” I wondered what kind of second act one can have after that. “I write trashy spy novels,” she said. Nothing same-old same-old about that.

This January, Susan Gage Caterers had the thrill of collaborating with the renowned VIDALIA restaurant and their celebrated Chef Jeffrey Buben.  The menu was all Vidalia.  The first rate service was all SGC.  Together we created a milestone celebration for one our mutual clients at the National Museum for Women in the Arts.

The evening started with winter mojitos and passed hors d’ouevres that included petite Maryland style jumbo lump crab cakes, chicken fried quail medallions, artichoke beignets, foie gras parfaits and miniature Vidalia onion quiches.  Buben’s reputation for original American cuisine with its subtle Southern influence was as delicious cooked on-site as it is in-house at the restaurant.  Our chef’s and his made magic happen and the cross study of how each of us works was invaluable to all.

Each presentation was a complexity of textures and tastes.  The buffet was set with Vidalia’s shrimp & grits, lobster boudin, butternut squash kebabs and crisp Berkshire pork belly.  Lemon chess tartlets, cream puffs & eclairs, Georgia pecan diamonds, sable butter cookies and French macaroons were just a handful of delectable sweets that covered the dessert table in anticipation of being devoured.

Thanks all our vendors that helped make the evening a huge hit.
Floral – Urban Petals
Lighting & A/V – John Farr Lighting
Lounge Furniture – Syzygy
String Quartet – Bialek’s Music 
Photographer – Pamela Leopold
Valet – MJ Valet

The 2012 Holiday Season had Susan Gage Caterers on their toes and in the spirit as our calendar was full of festivities from small family gatherings to large company dinners.  We had a great time designing this event!

The Rotunda of the National Museum of Natural History was already charged with the twinkling grandeur of the 2012 holiday season.  Our idea was to paint this package with all the colors of a desert sunset.  The museum’s majestic African bull elephant greeted guests mid-stride, bathed in violet light.  Linens of rich yellow and fuchsia-red were woven with gold thread.  Clear and amber hued glasses glinted as the color drenched roses and hydrangea towered high.  Warm up-lighting of purple and gold washed tumbling white waterfalls of sheer draping and the stone walls.  It was a holiday safari.

The Rotunda of the National Museum of Natural History was already charged with the twinkling grandeur of the 2012 holiday season.  Our idea was to paint this package with all the colors of a desert sunset.  The museum’s majestic African bull elephant greeted guests mid-stride, bathed in violet light.  Linens of rich yellow and fuchsia-red were woven with gold thread.  Clear and amber hued glasses glinted as the color drenched roses and hydrangea towered high.  Warm up-lighting of purple and gold washed tumbling white waterfalls of sheer draping and the stone walls.  It was a holiday safari.

In the end, Nutcracker sweets were enjoyed, miniature thin-mint floats were sipped and slowly, the festivities came to an end.  It is with thanks to our client, all the vendors who helped us make magic, and of course the unsurpassed beauty of the museum and their terrific staff that we look next to all that is to come in the new year.

Design: Susan Gage Caterers
Photography: Pamela Leopold Photography
Floral: Jack Lucky Floral Design
Lighting: John Farr Lighting
Draping: Syzygy Events International

Susan Gage Caterers’s exceptional spread steals the spotlight for the fifth year in a row at the Washington Winter Show, January 10-13, 2013.  By Carol Ross Joynt Washingtonian.com ”Best Bites”. The Washington DC Winter Show benefits local area charities and features over 40 premiere antiques and fine art dealers. Photograph by Michael Kress.