When you look for an event venue, is award-winning cuisine at the top of your list? If the answer is yes, you’ll love this list of Tripleseat customers — we’re highlighting four fine dining restaurants from Esquire’s Best New Restaurants in America, 2021 list.
Take a look at four of the 40 restaurants that earned a spot on the list.
1. Gage & Tollner — Brooklyn, N.Y.
The reopening of this historic Brooklyn restaurant was delayed by COVID, but Gage & Tollner’s comeback impressed Esquire’s writers:
“The team has inhaled much of what made G&T so beloved, including favorites from the eighties, when culinary giant Edna Lewis was head chef, like the she-crab soup, creamy as ever and laced with roe,” according to Esquire.
Choose from two private spaces – or one combined space – for your next event. They’ve both been restored to create the atmosphere of a Victorian brownstone and include a marble-topped brass bar, custom wainscoting, and two decorative fireplaces.
Photo credit: Gage & Tollner
Learn more about events at Gage & Tollner on their EventUp listing.
2. The Harvey House — Madison, Wis.
This venue is housed in a former baggage claim house behind Madison’s historic train depot and it’s inspired by the golden era of train travel and the post-Prohibition trend of supper clubs that became popular in the Midwest.
“… it’s Shaina Robbins Papach and chef Joe Papach’s deceptively simple menu that will have you longing to return to the upper Midwest. A relish tray with pressed celery and sous vide deviled eggs topped with roe. Walleye sautéed atop a crouton-crisp layer of bread and its own mousse. Apple pie served pavlova-style in a delicate meringue shell. Yes, its classical technique meets midwestern food, but the sum is so much more: delight, surprise, and then some,” said Esquire. Photo credit: The Harvey House
There are three event spaces to choose from at The Harvey House. The second floor of the venue has a private dining room and bar. The Pheasant Room is a semi-private dining room for smaller groups. Finally, The Office is a private space with its own entrance decorated with local art and antiques.
Get more details on events at The Harvey House on their website.
3. Hestia — Austin, Texas
Hestia is a Greek word meaning “goddess of the hearth.” Hestia the restaurant embodies the definition with a custom 20-foot hearth that spans the kitchen and dining room. The entire menu revolves around the restaurant’s centerpiece.
“Hard to believe that the same fire that tenderly cooks the halibut—kept three feet above the flame and served with an iridescent mirror glaze of a brown-butter sauce—is responsible for the ferocious char on the dry-aged Wagyu bavette, with its sunset-red center, accompanied by lacquered layers of potato and butter coiled into a tight, croissant-like bun. You’ll even find an element of flame buried in the matcha kakigori, the best of the desserts,” Esquire said. Photo Credit: Hestia
Private events and parties are easily accommodated at Hestia, in their private dining room, garden, and full restaurant space. Plus, non-private reservations can be made for parties up to 14 guests in the main dining room.
Find out more about events at Hestia via their website.
4. Owamni — Minneapolis
You’ve never experienced a restaurant like Owamni. The menu focuses on indigenous meat, fish, wild plans, ingredients from Native American heirloom farm varieties, and local produce.
“ … tasting dishes made entirely from indigenous ingredients is soul-nurturing. A reclamation. There are the indigenous tea blends. A conifer-preserved rabbit dotted with fresh berries. And the wild-rice tart, made with no colonized ingredients (like flour or refined sugar), is electrifying,” Esquire wrote.
Owamni, located in a former mill along the Mississippi River, offers indoor and outdoor event space. Visit their website and scroll down to Private Dining + Catering to learn more about booking private events.
Photo credit: Mpls.St.Paul Magazine
Looking for more fine dining venues for your next event?
Check out EventUp, Tripleseat’s own venue directory, which hosts 15,000 + venues available for all types of private events in eight different countries. Search by city, specific amenity, gust count, venue aesthetic, and much more to find the perfect venue for any future event.
Editors Note: This post originally appeared on the Tripleseat blog.
