Spanish Dinner in the Texas Hill Country
The true gauge of an event’s success is the guests’ experience matching our client’s end goal for the project. In this guest’s words, those two pieces aligned perfectly… and that makes us so happy.
“I just wanted to take a moment to express my heartfelt gratitude for the absolutely magical evening you put together. Every detail was beautifully curated, and the experience gave me such a deep sense of the warmth, thoughtfulness, and vibrancy of this community.
After this unforgettable night, I'm even more excited about calling Loraloma home. Experiencing just a taste of what life here could be like has only deepened my enthusiasm, and I can't wait to be part of it all. Thank you again for such a special evening...I'm truly grateful!”
Over the past year, we’ve had the honor of partnering with Areté Collective as they develop their highly anticipated luxury community, Loraloma, nestled in the rolling Texas Hill Country. Areté Collective is known for shaping luxury communities over the last two decades in some of the most sought-after locations worldwide, and their Texas debut is no exception. Our team’s involvement has been focused on creating special dinners that embody the Areté ethos. For this event, the team at Loraloma wanted a Spanish-inspired dinner set in The Barn at Saddlebrook.
Loraloma will be home to a highly anticipated, 18-hole course crafted by internationally-renowned golf course architect, David McLay Kidd of Bandon Dunes and St Andrews. Golf has been a strong thread through each dinner we’ve planned at the property, so we started guests off with cocktails beside the putting greens.
For our Spanish-inspired bar, we chose a delicious Rioja by Viña Alberdi and for the white, an Albariño from the Rias Baixas region by Ponte Da Barca. The signature cocktail was a Madrid 43, which calls for Spain’s Licor 43.
We had a beautiful, clear Texas sky for cocktail hour. As the January sun set with a chill in the air, guests walked over to the Barn, and into a candlelit, cozy space filled with live music by a classic, Flamenco guitarist. Loraloma branded Outer blankets were draped over each chair-back & tied with a gift tag letting guests know it was theirs to take home. Outer Blankets are super soft, and have the unexpected perk of being insect repellent, perfect for nights spent outside.
From the start of planning, Spanish Paella was the obvious choice for the main course. The traditional paellera pan used to cook paella makes the preparation impressive to see in action. We brought in one of our favorite chefs, Meg Schwartz, owner of Spoon & Co. , to make her Basque-style paella with rice, fragrant saffron, chicken, chorizo, shrimp & mussels, at one end of the long, candlelit table for guests to see.
We wanted to bring an interactive element to each place setting. For this, we built out a Spanish olive oil tasting concept highlighting oils from four distinctly different Spanish olives: Arbequina, Picual, Royal & Arbosana. We created a tasting mat with tasting notes for each olive oil so that guests could understand the unique characteristics of the each one. A basket of rustic bread was served family-style with the oils, which served as the perfect tasting “tool.” Dinner continued with Pan Con Tomate, paella, and last, but certainly not least, Burnt Basque Cheesecake.
The tablescape was sprinkled with mocha-colored taper candles and table lamps with woven, fabric shades to thread a warm, amber light down the length of the 28’ table. We focused floral at the seams where the tables were joined together. For floral, we used modern, rectangular terracotta vases filled with Brownie Truffle Tulips, Green & Red Hanging Amaranthus mixed with a dried cream-colored Amaranthus and stems of Lavender Lady and Cocoa Anthurium. The combination was stunning and played off of the warm, wood-tones of the barn.
Salud!
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