The Friends of the Café dinner series begins at The Factory in June 2014. Featuring award-winning chefs from around the country, these dinners, benefiting the Southern Foodways Alliance and a range of other organizations, bring guests and community together to explore food, storytelling, and sustainability around a common table of curated, multi-course meals with wine and cocktail pairings. An extensive lineup of award-winning chefs, farmers, and culinary and libation connoisseurs partner with Alabama Chanin to host the dinners and create meals made from local, regional, and sustainable farms. Many dinners feature other elements—book signings, music, and storytelling—with musical performances by John Paul White, Cedric Burnside, and others, as well as partnerships with organizations like the Oxford American and Southern Makers. The dinners are often documented by photographers Abraham Rowe and Rinne Allen and are a celebration of the Slow Food movement that has deeply inspired Alabama Chanin’s slow design mission.
The growing list of chefs who have collaborated on these dinners include (in alphabetical order):
Adam Evans of Automatic Seafood & Oysters
Angie Mosier of Placemat Productions
Anne Quatrano of Star Provisions, Bacchanalia, Floataway Café, W.H. Stiles Fish Camp, and Summerland Farm
Ashley Christensen of Beasley’s Chicken + Honey, Fox Liquor Bar, Death & Taxes, Poole’s Diner, Poole’side Pies, and Clubhouse dinner kits and specialty ingredients
Cheetie Kumar of Garland
Chris Hastings of Hot and Hot Fish Club
Frank Stitt of Chez Fonfon, Highlands Bar & Grill, Bottega, and Bottega Café
John Currence of Big Bad Breakfast, Boure, City Grocery, and Snackbar
Kelly English of Restaurant Iris, Iris Etc., The Second Line, and Magnolia House
Nicholas Pihakis and Drew Robinson of Jim ‘N Nick’s Community Bar-B-Q
Melissa Rebholz of Midge’s Kitchen
Rob McDaniel of Helen
Rodney Scott of Rodney Scott’s Whole Hog BBQ
Sean Brock of Audrey
Steven Satterfield of Miller Union
Tandy Wilson of City House
Vivian Howard of Chef & The Farmer, Benny’s Big Time, Lenoir, and Handy + Hot
Read more about our Friends of the Café dinner series on our Journal.
Join Alabama Chanin’s mailing list to receive announcements about upcoming future dinners (and more good things).
Learn more about Oxford American here.
Learn more about Southern Makers here.
Learn more about the Southern Foodways Alliance here.
Slide 1: Cocktails served in etched Alabama Chanin wine glasses during a Friends of the Café dinner with Melissa Rebholz for The Gathering, April 2019, photograph by Abraham Rowe (read an entry on The Gathering here)
Slide 2: Italian Rice Salad served in Heath Ceramics bowls during a Friends of the Café dinner with Rebecca Wilcomb, June 2018; Family-style table setting from John Currence’s Friends of the Café dinner, August 2018, photographs by Abraham Rowe
Slide 3: Alabama Chanin and Heath Ceramics Camellia Etched Dinner Plate from Kelly English’s Friends of the Café dinner, October 2018; Preparation of chargrilled okra from John Currence’s Friends of the Café dinner, August 2018, photographs by Abraham Rowe (learn more about the etched Camellia pattern developed in collaboration with Heath Ceramics here)
Slide 4: Counter Culture Coffee Panna Cotta with Irish whiskey caramel and pecan granola served on dinnerware by Heath Ceramics from Ashley Christensen’s Friends of the Café dinner, June 2017, photograph by Abraham Rowe
Slide 5: Brut rosé served at The Factory Café bar during Cheetie Kumar’s Friends of the Café dinner, September 2019, photograph by Abraham Rowe
Slide 6: The Factory Café during a Friends of the Café dinner with Scott Peacock in April 2017, photograph by Abraham Rowe
Slide 7: Façade and entry of The Factory Store and Café during Scott Peacock’s Friends of the Café dinner, April 2017, photograph by Abraham Rowe