Beatles fans, this one’s for you: Next Monday and Tuesday, June 27 and June 28, you have a chance to dine in the company of Ruth and Angie McCartney — Sir Paul McCartney’s stepsister and stepmother—at eculent Restaurant in Kemah.
David Skinner, eculent’s owner and executive chef, says that he met the McCartneys through a mutual longtime music-business friend, Barry Coffing, in 2014. At the time, “The McCartneys were coming into town for a music festival, and I thought a dinner featuring them would be a great event at eculent. As Ruth and I talked, it became apparent that she was a real foodie and had traveled the world like I had, so we really hit it off. This dinner series in June will be our third collaboration.”
For those not familiar with Skinner or eculent, the restaurant specializes in what he calls modern farm-to-table cuisine. That is to say, he uses produce he grows at his on-site farm, as well as meats from local ranches such as 44 Farms or Barry Farms, and applies modernist techniques to them.
The dinners will feature a meet-and-greet cocktail hour with Beatles-inspired passed hors d’oeuvres with names such as Yellow Submarine, Piggies in a Cloud and Octopus Garden.
After the cocktail hour, guests will be invited into the chef’s work space for a lab tour titled “Ticket to Ride” before dinner commences.
Each of the four courses is named after and inspired by a Beatles song. “I kept the menu purposely vague, but expect some fun surprises,” Skinner says. Wine pairings are included.
“Dinner is limited to 16 guests per night, so it’s going to be very intimate and really immersive,” he said. “Chances are, you’ll be sitting next to, or just a few feet away from, one of the McCartneys.”
The cost is $150 per person for the event. Ten percent of the proceeds from the evening will be donated to the Linda McCartney Breast Cancer Research Centre in Liverpool.
For more information and to purchase tickets, please visit: http://eculent.simpletix.com/Event/26669/Dinner-with-the-McCartneys/
The menu is as follows:
This article appears in Jun 23-29, 2016.
