Our Future

To our community of supporters,

 

We’ve been having conversations with lots (lots!) of you in the restaurant over the last two weeks, and we have to say, the level of overwhelming support and encouragement y’all have provided has been truly exceptional. Our creativity and passion were never waning, but if our spirits were flagging, well, the boost y’all have given us has been amazing.

Our decision to pivot towards events, both public-facing (like the paired dinners, wine classes, tasting events, and the like) and private-facing (the many weddings, rehearsal dinners, corporate events, holiday parties and more) was made with a well-rounded set of considerations, but we didn’t get to fully express it in our formal announcement. We’d like to take a moment and share with the rest of you, our fans, what we’ve told the many across the bar or tableside over the last two weeks.

 

We’re not going away. We’re not closing. We’re not giving up. But we are changing. We’ve told you what we’re changing towards. I’m hoping you might hear a little more about why. We love all of you, and we’ve loved the opportunity to welcome you into the restaurant. But what we’ve really loved? The opportunity to be creative, to let our passion fly, and to share with you the gifts of the brilliant artisans and craftsmen that we’ve been fortunate to share our space with. And the restaurant? While it’s fun, running a restaurant isn’t inherently a creative endeavor. And we miss the opportunity to be creative. Every special event we’ve hosted, we’ve worked to craft something unique and exceptional. We’re excited that with a focus towards events, we’ll have the opportunity to exercise that creative muscle every – single – time.

 

Is the restaurant hard work? Sure. A grind? Yep. Are the dollars scary? Yes, and getting scarier. But it isn’t about that. Does it make finding work/life balance a challenge? That too. And we’d be lying if we said they didn’t play a role. But really, it’s not about any of that. It’s about the creativity. The passion. The fact that our building has been the fixture in memories that have lasted lifetimes for more than 128 years. No matter how good a restaurant meal is, we can’t compete with that.

 

Melissa (she’s the smart one here, remember?) has described it this way: We won’t be Netflix anymore. They’re on-demand, right? You can pick up the controller, push a few buttons, and everything is right there in front of you. To date, we’ve been open every hour (well, a lot of hours, anyway), and if you were hungry or thirsty, had people to impress, or were just looking for a friendly place to escape for a few, we were there. What we’re shifting to — it’s a time before streaming, before Tivo, and almost before programming your VCR. Remember when the TV Guide came with the Sunday paper, and you had to look ahead to find out when your special show was on, and then you had to plan your week to be in front of the TV, lest you miss your favorite? That’s what we’re going towards — you’ll have to look ahead at the list of fun events we’ve scheduled, figure out which ones sound too cool to miss, and plan your week around it. But when you do? What you’ll get is something that we’ve prodded and futzed over, and devoted our full bandwidth, energy, and creativity towards. What you’ll get is something that is truly an experience. For those from the old days – the O.G’s, like the original beer dinners were. Exceptional, intentional, curated.

 

And so with that, we’d tell you — don’t fret. We’ve seen every emotion reflected in your eyes as I’ve had conversations first-hand, and I can tell you, this opportunity for you to experience all the best we have, with even more frequency, with a greater devotion to our craft, and with newly unleashed bandwidth is set to be even more exciting. And we couldn’t be more grateful to have you standing with us.

 

We look forward to seeing you just as much (or maybe even more!) as we always have. Themed Dinners are one thing, but we’ll have extra member (and member-curious) events each month. We’re kicking off wine classes again. We’re nearly ready to announce flight nights. There’s bunches on the calendar already, and even more in the works. Check out the full calendar on our website, and get out your calendars. (www.thecarterpayne.com/upcoming-events)Keep an eye out here, we’ll be making facebook events for all of them, too. And join the mailing list to be the first to know about new additions. These events are worth making time for, we promise. And we’ll look forward to seeing you soon.

 

Jeff, Brent and Melissa