Meet Jeff and Kate Palmer of PBR & Caviar

Today we’d like to introduce you to Jeff and Kate Palmer.

Food has always been their mutual love and a huge part of their relationship. They met in Chicago five years ago while living in the same high-rise apartment building in the Gold Coast. Before moving to Chicago, Jeff had cooked professionally for about a decade. Meanwhile, Kate was the kind of woman who prioritized dining so much that any food restriction was a relationship deal breaker.

In Chicago, Jeff transformed his prior career into a hobby and used cooking as his creative outlet. He also used it as an easy way into Kate’s heart. By the time they moved in together, Kate had shared plenty of pictures of the dishes Jeff cooked and she was constantly met with the question: “When can I taste his food?” Jeff was always more than happy to cook for a crowd, and he frequently did, but soon the demand started to exceed their resources.

Selfishly wishing she could invite more friends to experience a Jeff-cooked-meal without them having to repeatedly cross-check schedules and front the grocery costs, Kate thought, why not streamline this process?

She came up with a simple proposal to invite friends who were interested in eating Jeff’s food to join an email list on which they would send out dates when they planned to host a dinner party. They would fill the other four seats at their table for six on a first-to-respond basis and ask that people pay a flat fee to chip in for the cost of the meal. Jeff said sure and the rest is history. Their email list quickly grew to include all sorts of old friends, new friends and strangers, and as it did, the experience evolved as well.

They discovered that their dinner parties are an awesome way to bring new people together, and they also give them the opportunity to collaborate with one another.

Overall, has it been relatively smooth? If not, what were some of the struggles along the way?
It has been a pretty smooth road. It did take some time for us to learn how to prepare for a dinner party without stirring up tension ahead of time. Jeff needs to prepare four courses for six people entirely on his own, which can get stressful (and messy). Meanwhile, Kate needs to prepare a clean home and well-set table worthy of the price people are paying to dine in our apartment. With time, we learned how to prepare for, run and clean up after the dinners without stepping on one another’s toes too much.

There have certainly been occasional rough moments beyond our control–like when our oven broke after all of our dinner guests had arrived. But, we even managed to make it through that successfully. In the end, our dinner parties are something we do for fun. So, we try to keep that in mind, roll with the punches, and enjoy the company of those who are wonderful enough to join us around our dining room table every few weeks.

Alright – so let’s talk business. Tell us about PBR & Caviar – what should we know?
We think of ourselves as running an “underground dinner party” so to speak. We do not think of ourselves as running a business, and that is really what sets our dinners apart from a typical dining experience. We serve the food, and fill the glasses, and clean the dishes. But, we also participate in the meal. We eat each course with our guests and, in the process, we enjoy their company and get to know them if they are people we’ve never met before.

We think this is critical to the longevity of what we’re doing, and the reason for that is twofold. For us, it makes the process fun and prevents us from viewing the dinner parties as “work,” even though they do require a lot of work. For our guests, it makes the evening truly unique: Our dinner parties are more intimate and relaxed than dining at a restaurant. But, the food is far more elevated and interesting than what you would typically eat if you were going to a friend’s house for dinner.

To the limited extent we’re “known” at all, we are known for offering a well-honed combination of great food, company and hospitality. Jeff’s food is inventive and he almost never repeats a dish twice. Dishes he has served in the past have ranged from squid ink spaghetti to beets prepared four ways, to razor clam ceviche, to matcha ice cream and doughnuts.

We are most proud that we have made some wonderful friends through this process (in fact, two friends we met through our dinner parties recently attended our wedding), and that so many of our guests are repeat customers, whose desire to return tells us we’re doing something right!

Any shoutouts? Who else deserves credit in this story – who has played a meaningful role?
Jeff certainly has mentors who are to thank for his culinary skills – especially Kyle McClelland, who is currently the Executive Chef at Saltie Girl in Boston.

Pricing:

• Dinners are currently $85 per person.

Contact Info:

• Email: pbrandcaviar@gmail.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/pbr_and_caviar/

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