Pamela Olin and her husband had a running disagreement about their restaurant, Pamela’s Parkside Grill, before it closed.
“We always joked that I thought we were running a gallery, and he thought we were running a restaurant,” she said. “I think we were both right.”
That’s because the restaurant had a thriving dinner program that gave guests a chance to meet artists. And even though the downtown Arlington Heights restaurant is gone, that experience will live on.
The Art Dinner Experience will begin its second year Sept. 20 at Wild Goose Cafe at The Arboretum Club, 401 Half Day Road, Buffalo Grove. Up to 40 guests can pay $30 for the dinner, which features a five-course meal and five artists.
To ensure the guests can speak to everyone, each artist rotates to a new table after each course.
Olin said it works because of the casual nature of the dinner, as opposed to the “cocktail talk” that happens when artists are at gallery openings.
“It’s a unique opportunity to talk to the artists, learn about the past story of the art and what went into creating it,” she said.
Even after the restaurant closed in 2010, Olin, who is a sculptor, said former customers would call asking when the next dinner would be.
Olin teamed up with Buffalo Grove artist John Green in an attempt to revive the dinners the next fall. Green, a partner with The Arboretum Club, which hosts dinners and banquets, thought of bringing the program back at the golf club.
Each dinner features five artists, most from the Chicago area. But it was a little difficult at first, as Green and Olin had to join in to round out the five.
However, they haven’t had an empty seat yet. While the artists get a chance to showcase, and sometimes sell, their pieces, patrons get a chance to talk in a casual setting.
“Many people see the pieces, but they never get a chance to relate to the artists,” Green said.
They even try to match the dinner with the style of the art. One show was considered more sophisticated, so it was wine and cheese. The Sept. 20 show is more edgy, and they are working on a menu to match the theme.
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“We let the chef also be an artist,” Green said.
With this season’s first show, Olin and Green expect to sell out again. Green jokes they have already developed “groupies.”
“We have people who say they want to come back with their teenagers, that they have to see this,” he said. “We are really excited to hear something like that.”