The Newport Art Museum Summer Art Ball landed with a thud on Friday July 12, 2024. The celebration of Christo and Jeanne-Claude’s legacy was a worthy exhibit, curated by Dodie Kazanjian. But the “tasting” menu was an uninspired mess, as well as the poor quality of the place settings and; comical table service. Needless to say, the hospitality side of this event was a complete dud.
Newport Summer Art Ball Fiasco
Should The Social Diary call out the Newport Art Museum for their less than stellar approach to what should have been a classy affair? YES! The whole event was a hot mess. This included servers who didn’t know what they were doing. That’s because, whomever was in charge didn’t know how to efficiently supervise their hospitality staff, and properly train them. The Social Diary lay the blame with management who take all the glory but with none of the work.
This is what happens when an organisation like the Newport Art Museum and the Summer Ball Committee fails to properly “vet” and hire the most qualified hospitality “showrunner.” Moreover, the table service was the blind leading the blind. The tray passed hors d’oeuvres service was not much better either.
Add insult to injury, this event had none of the components of a “sit down” dinner, as noted in the email by Emeline McKeown, Director of Advancement. According to the menu card for each place setting, Chef Basil Yu was providing a “tasting.” There was so little food, you needed a magnifying glass to find the chicken. The Social Diary heard rumblings of complaint and snide remarks from other guests. One guest at a nearby table ordered a second helping, for obvious reasons.
Dinner vs “Tasting Menu”
Here is an education for Emeline McKeown and the Newport Art Museum. The tasting menu is not dinner. They are small, bite sized plates, in lieu of an entrée and “dinner portions.” More importantly, a tasting menu is a series of small plates, so three just doesn’t cut it. Of course, guests were hungry!
Since Christo and Jeanne-Claude completed several noteworthy projects, why not create at least six tasting plates inspired by their works? Restaurants who offer the tasting menu including Jean-Georges have fixed pricing and course descriptions. And the whole process usually lasts more than two hours! After all, they are serving six to 10 courses, not three chintzy bits!
According to Chef Basil Yu’s tasting menu description, each course was specific to a Christo and Jeanne-Claude instalment. Unfortunately, two out of the three missed the brief.
Newport Summer Art Ball: Place setting
There is nothing so grating as to see an improperly laid table. Was this amateur hour? The dessert fork handle was to the right and the bread plate was above the dessert fork. There was no need to take a photo since we already addressed these similar issues in our Hospitality page. At $395 per ticket for this event, there is an expectation that the place settings would be first rate. They weren’t.
Since this was our first event at the Newport Summer Art Ball, we will write off a portion and most likely not return next year. We enjoy spreading the wealth, but not at the expense of quality and good taste. It takes one poorly executed event to make an impression.
Newport Summer Art Ball: Comedy in three acts
Act I: Bar Service
By the time guests started flowing in at 6:00pm, the bar staff were still “getting ready.” The Social Diary was watching from a perfect vantage point. At approximately quarter past the hour, a 750 ml case of Pellegrino was making its way to one of the bar areas.
The Pellegrino should be already chilling by this time. Ice is the death of Pellegrino because it fizzes out the bubbles and make it taste like plain water. So a chilled Pellegrino is more desirable, then a glass of ice cubes. Aeration also decreases the bubbles. For this reason, The Social Diary prefers using a single serve 500 ml for the bar service, not 750 ml which will sit around.
Most Newport events cater to “winos” and not “teetotalers,” so 750 ml Pellegrino would be a waste. Therefore, it didn’t surprise us that the Pellegrino tasted warm and flat.
Act II: Tray passed hors d’oeuvres
There were at least four servers working the lawn area. However, they were missing guests left and right. One “dazed and confused” server stood behind a group of guests and was just standing behind them, without engaging. This server reappeared in Act III during the tasting menu service, holding two plates for at least five minutes. Moreover, why do guests have to “chase down” servers for a bite?
The Social Diary recommends having an initiation plan. Each server should have divided up the space and offered a bite to every guest within their line of sight. It’s the guest’s prerogative to accept or not.
Act III: The “Tasting” menu
Jake, our in-house investigator and military veteran called this a “clusterfuck.” Please excuse the language, here, but the tasting menu service was indeed a CF situation. Not only was the place settings incorrect, the hospitality team didn’t know what they were doing. Additionally, the guests were “expecting” dinner, not a tasting. The Weiner truck that pulled into the lot, would have been a better option. The tasting menu was underwhelming.
There were at least two servers with walkie talkies. What good that did was anyone’s guess. There should have been an ebb and flow to the whole process. But courses arrived sporadically, with some guests already finished and cleared while others were still waiting, and waiting and waiting. Moreover, not all tables received the courses at the same time. They even missed a few guests seated together!
Instead of working one table at a time, the servers were zigzagging all over the place. They were also serving from the left and the right, in addition to clearing from both sides. One server plopped dessert on top of a guest’s napkin! The server looked flushed and in a hurry. The “dazed the confused” server was back holding up two plates up in the air, while a supervisor was on the walkie talkie.
There was no direction, no initiation and no plan. At this point, a juicy burger and fries would have been better.
Christo and Jeanne-Claude’s Legacy
The Newport Art Museum Summer Art Ball celebrated their Ocean Front instalment, 50 years later. Curated by Dodie Kazanjian (Art&Newport), this exhibit was definitely worth the view. Here are some highlights.
