Chef Adrian Arvizu

The 2024 Supper Club season kicked off with a perfect, snow globe evening featuring the Big Tree Catering team. Guests enjoyed skating in the forest grove while sampling hors d’oeuvres such as grilled oysters, brown butter lobster rolls, and assorted freshly grilled skewers. To warm up, guests enjoyed yuzu hot toddies and a “winter fizz”, with pomegranate, thyme, and cardamom.

For dinner, Chef Arvizu treated guests to an evening inspired by the concept of “Mexican Dim Sum”. An abundance of courses ranged from a decadent lobster pozole soup, served table side, to flavor-filled steamer baskets of tamales, assorted baos, and mini sopes. The evening concluded on the sweetest of notes, with a caramel-chocolate flan dessert.

We count ourselves lucky to collaborate so frequently with Big Tree Catering for our private event and wedding clients, and it never ceases to amaze us to witness the incredible talent of their team in action.

Chef Adrian Arvizu is the Executive Chef of Big Tree Catering, the James Beard award winning team behind Eventide Oyster Co. and The Honey Paw. Arvizu has been with Big Tree Hospitality for 8 years. Hailing from Mexico, Chef Adrian is always looking for ways to infuse these influences into the unique flavor profile that the Big Tree Hospitality group has cultivated.

Collaborators: Hitched Willie, Timber & Moss Florals, One Stop Event Rentals, Roaming Speakeasy, Griffin & Griffin Lighting

Chef Christian Hayes

Led by Chef Christian Hayes, the dynamic forces behind The Garrison and Dandelion Catering put together a Supper Club evening filled with bold and memorable flavors. Cocktail hour highlights at the skating rink included a delectable pork belly bite with abundant spice. The cocktails were not to be missed, including “Life on Mars”, featuring reposado tequila, mezcal, manzanilla, fresno pepper, pineapple, gochujang honey & lime with a smoked salt rum. For those seeking a warm option, a spiked hot chai was also on offer.

Dinner in the barn featured a progression of equally bold and delicious flavors, beginning with a colorful and vibrant winter salad, and building toward a main of roasted lamb shoulder (featuring our now favorite combination of words in the English language: “fat roasted olives”). To bring it all home, what could be sweeter than a perfectly fluffy chocolate donut, dressed to the nines with coffee cocoa and orange creme anglaise?

Christian Hayes, a seventh generation Mainer, balanced the parallels of being a professional musician and full-time cook for close to two decades before he and his wife and business partner, Christine, launched Dandelion Catering Co. in 2008. In 2019, they launched The Garrison, an intimate restaurant and bar overlooking the Royal River in Yarmouth. Hayes is a proud member of the Chef Corps of World Central Kitchen, an organization launched by Chef José Andrés, that travels the world to feed the hungry in times of crisis.

Collaborators: Hitched Willie Photography, Timber & Moss Florals, One Stop Event Rentals, Roaming Speakeasy, Griffin & Griffin Lighting

Chef Krista Desjarlais

Oh, what a night! For this very special evening, we were transported back in time to enjoy an evening at Chef Kern Desjarlais’ beloved Portland restaurant, Bresca.

Our wonderful community of guests, many of whom had dined at Bresca back in the day and are ardent fans, kicked off the evening with a warm cocktail hour in the forest grove. Perhaps Timber & Moss’ spring-inspired florals heralded in a bit of early spring!

After a delicious cocktail hour (roasted medjool dates with gorgonzola dolce! carmelized onion, prosciutto and warm anchovy vinaigrette on flatbreads!), guests transitioned to the barn where they were greeted by rose petals, an ode to Bresca’s floral styling back in the day.

Dinner, which was entirely gluten free, kicked off with a savory, heaping winter brussel salad. Soon after, family style platters of perfectly cooked duck breast with roman trading spices, frisee, roasted grapes, gastrique, and polenta hit the table. Then, to bring the nostalgic Bresca flavors home, a most perfect buttermilk panna cotta, topped with passion fruit broth and orange blossom sorbet. It was a plate that could momentarily transport you to a tropical place (or at least to a perfect seat in a very special spot on Middle Street, circa 2012).

Krista Kern Desjarlais has worked in the restaurant industry for more than 40 years. In 2007, Krista opened her first restaurant, Bresca, in Portland, and was nominated for a James Beard Award, Best Chef Northeast, in 2011 and was on the semifinalist list for four additional years. In 2013, Krista closed Bresca to focus on raising her daughter and opened Bresca & the Honeybee at Outlet Beach. Shortly after, she opened The Purple House wood-fired bakery. Krista was once again a semi finalist in 2018 and 2019 and a finalist in 2020 for the James Beard Award, Best Chef Northeast.

Collaborators: Big Tree Catering (beverages and service), Hitched Willie Photography, Timber & Moss Florals, Roaming Speakeasy, Griffin & Griffin Lighting, One Stop Event Rentals

Chefs: Devin Finigan, Ilma Lopez, Damian Sansonetti

Three incredible chef forces and teams came together to conclude Flanagan Farm’s 2024 Supper Club Season.

Cocktail hour at the rink was one for the books with cocktails from the Aragosta team, including a 44 North Coffee cold-brewed Averna Amaro. Amuse-bouche bites ranged from “crab au gratin” with smoked potato and sea bacon, to “carrot ‘n’duja’”, a clever vegan play on the traditional Calabrian sausage, featuring lacto-fermented carrots, sunflower seeds, and Maine dulse on sourdough.

The five course dinner that followed was a parade of some of Maine’s best flavors and products, starting with Finigan’s ode to the scallop in its peak season, and moving on to Sansonetti’s surprising and delicious bluefin tuna bolognese with Piccolo pasta.

To conclude an incredible evening of flavors and courses, Lopez delivered a masterclass in pastry, featuring a show-stopping pavlova with custard and winter citrus, as well as a decadent Paris-brest with chocolate and caramel.

What a gift to conclude the 2024 Supper Club season on such a high note with these incredibly talented chefs and a barn full of the loveliest guests.

Ilma Lopez and Damian Sansonetti are the husband and wife team behind Portland's beloved Chaval, as well as the newly opened luncheonette, The Ugly Duckling. With a multitude of James Beard nominations between them, the pair have worked under revered chefs such as Daniel Boulud and Olivier Muller. Lopez hails from Venezuela, Sansonetti from Pittsburgh, and their careers have led to Portland, which their family has called home for more than a decade.

Devin Finigan is the Executive Chef and proprietor of the celebrated Aragosta at Goose Cove. Devin grew up in the mountains of Vermont and developed a passion for cooking at an early age, as her father, Kevin Finigan, is one of Vermont’s great chefs. Finigan began working in kitchens at age 14 and since then has worked alongside many exceptional chefs including Thomas Keller (The French Laundry and Per Se), Jean-Georges Vongerichten (Jean-Georges), Dan Barber (Blue Hill at Stone Barns), and Kyle Connaughton (Single Thread Farms).

Collaborators: Novae Film & Photo, Timber & Moss Florals, Roaming Speakeasy, One Stop Event Rentals, Griffin & Griffin Lighting