Twenty four amazing All Access Foodies joined together for one of the best meals I’ve ever experienced – an epic evening of food and beverage at Chuck’s Fish for our first ever Secret Dinner. We had so much fun spending time together.
Our first Secret Dinner sold out in two minutes, unbelievable!!! The sound of my Venmo Pro app blowing up with that “cha ching” sound effect was epic lol. Our goal was to bring something new, fun and adventurous to Tallahassee, and I think we accomplished that mission!
3 Elements To Our Secret Dinner –
- members pay up front with zero knowledge of where they’re going
- members receive an email with the address the day of the event
- members are given a menu upon arrival
Planning Our First Secret Dinner Location
I knew our first ever Secret Dinner would be a risk to guests, but therein lies the adventure, right?! I wondered if anyone would sign up when they had no idea where we were going, no idea what the establishment would serve, and we had zero previous examples to show before guests decide to purchase a ticket – this is a brand new concept we’ve introduced in Tallahassee! Luckily, we had some All Access Foodies subscribers, my “inner circle” of food loving friends and supporters, that were beyond eager to jump in on this adventure with us!
Given this risk, we had a few things in mind to make sure everyone felt it was time and money well spent – a popular restaurant with casual vibes, yet fine food, a great price point to reel people in, and a place that would go along with this new concept idea. I only talked to a couple of people about this Secret Dinner idea in the making and Chuck’s Fish was top of my list and theirs, a match meant to be!
Quick note before you scroll on – Save the Date for our next Secret Dinner on Thursday, May 19th, at 6:30pm. Secret Dinners is an exclusive event series for our All Access Foodies only. Tickets will go on sale to our subscribers on Thursday, May 5th at 10am!
Massive photo dump and more details ahead….
The ultimate goal of our Secret Dinner series is to 1. bring a new concept to Tallahassee 2. introduce All Access Foodies subscribers to restaurants that are either new to them, or menu items that they may have never tried, and 3. spend some time at a long table together, building community. The majority of members that attended had never been to Chuck’s Fish, and the rest, myself included, were introduced to popular menu items that were new to us.
Chuck’s Fish Stepped Up To The Challenge
In my initial meeting with Chuck’s, I stated that I would love for this moment to be more special than simply a large party seated together where the menu is chosen for guests ahead of time. I requested some fun extras including the chef selecting the menu and pairings for each tasting course, the dishes to be plated beautifully, for each guest to receive their plate at the same time, and for each course to be introduced to the group by a manager or the chef.
Chuck’s Fish absolutely killed it! I had a massive smile on my face the entire time, and so did everyone else! It was just a beautiful evening from beginning to end.
Chuck’s Fish Secret Dinner Menu:
Seafood Salad – tuna, shrimp, crab stick, octopus, squid, shrimp, cucumber, spicy sauce, seaweed
Wine Pairing – Paco & Lola, Albarino from Spain
Crab Cakes – crab cakes with a roasted red pepper aioli
Wine Pairing – Zardetto, Prosecco from Italy
Uptown Beef – sliced filet of beef served on sushi rice. Topped with uptown sauce, green onions, and sesame seeds
Wine Pairing – Animal, Malbec from Argentina
White Chocolate Break Pudding – with an anglaise whipped cream
Wine Pairing – Dr. L, Riesling from Germany
As many times as I’ve been to Chuck’s Fish, the only Secret Dinner menu item I’d previously tried was their incredible White Chocolate Bread Pudding! I was blown away by all of their popular fan favorite dishes that landed on our table, and I can’t wait to go back and order everything we tried again and again! Where have these tasty courses been all my life?!?!
For our Secret Dinners series, we hope to offer a wide array of cuisines from multicultural backgrounds, ranging from super casual to elegant wine pairing dinners!
What an incredible experience! Thank you so much to Natasha and the entire Chuck’s Fish team for the amazing food, incredible price point (since we knew this first Secret Dinner would be a risk), the huge portions of high end ingredient menu items, and the heavy pours for each round that was served with every dish!
I don’t use the words magical or special very often, but this evening was very much a night to remember!
My friend Katie and I looked around the room throughout the evening just taking it all in – we loved how much everyone seemed to be enjoying themselves! Every single guest came up to me expressing their love for the evening, and I have to give all credit to Chuck’s Fish for exceeding our expectations! We came to them with just a couple of requests, knowing that they would check all of the boxes for what we had in mind, and they killed it on every level.
A heartfelt thank you to Chuck’s Fish for EXCEEDING our expectations, to Dave Barfield of Lonely Fox Photography for donating his time and gifting us with these beautiful images (again, to keep costs low for our first dinner), and to our All Access Foodies for joining us for such a fun-filled, beautiful evening.
Find Chuck’s Fish at:
Socials – Website, Facebook, Instagram
Address – 224 E College Ave, Tallahassee, FL 323019
Phone – (850) 597-7506
Find Dave Barfield of Lonely Fox Photography at:
Socials – Website, Facebook, Instagram
Phone – (850) 583-1824
