A dinner series focusing on local farms and food producers. The dinners take place throughout the year, showcasing farmers and products as the seasons progress.
Because these dinners are designed to highlight our local bounty they include a variety of cuisines and non-Asian influences.
Our most recent Lantern Table:
Greek Lantern Table
On July 1st Lantern featured a wine from an endangered grape, the very first local tomatoes, new garlic, local cheeses, grass-fed lamb, local peaches and honey. view menu
Our special guests included James Stock of Haw River Wine Man, who shared some of his amazing wines from the sandy, volcanic soil of Santorini and the Peleponese along with his family's organically produced olives and olive oil, John and Cindy Soehner of Eco Farm and Alex and Betsy Hitt of Peregrine Farm, who treated us to an early preview of their tomato harvest.
The evening benefited Triangle farmers and cooks who are attending Terra Madre in October and the Slow Food Foundation for Biodiversity's
Presidia on the mavrotragono grape.
Castle Rock Gardens at the Lantern Table Our most recent Lantern
Table was a 9-course Japanese kaiseki-style feast, including wine pairings
by Jay Murrie
On Tuesday, March 27th our guests were two local American cheese-making pioneers, Flo Hawley and Portia McKnight of Chapel Hill Creamery.
We showcased their farmstead cheeses, along with their whey-fed pigs and prime local produce from many of their fellow Terra Madre delegates in a six-course menu inspired by an October trip to the Italian Piedmont and paired with artisan wines from the same region.
Throughout the evening, Hawley and McKnight discussed their approach to farming, their cheeses and long-term goals.
The evening was a benefit for Slow Food Nation - a festival to promote and reinvigorate America’s diverse food traditions that will take place in San Francisco, May 1-4, 2008.
For Lantern Table dinners we accept reservations for any size party - to book a table please call us at 969-8846
Listen to a discussion of the 1st Annual Fickle Creek dinner
on WUNC FM'sThe State of Things.
December 6th, 2006 - Classic Peking Duck Dinner in the bar featuring the English heritage duck breed known as Aylesbury. This delicious variety comes from Frank Reese, godfather of the heritage poultry revival. Each course was paired with wines from Burgundy.
October 4th, 2006 - A unique evening of food and wine along with 3 Cups. Rosenthal Wine Merchant’s Tony McClung, and Mike Tiano, of Haw River Wine Man, gave a special wine class, followed by a seasonal Japanese dinner featuring local ingredients. The evening began at 3 Cups with the class and tasting of six French wines selected from the Rosenthal portfolio, and concluded at Lantern with a six-course meal paired with the same wines.
February 28th, 2006 - North Carolina Seafood Dinner menu
January, 10th 2006 - 1st Annual "The Chicken & the Egg"
featuring Fickle Creek Farm menu
View slideshow: Fickle Creek Farm | Dinner
November 13, 2005 - Piedmont Pigs & Cheese/ Piemonte Menu & Wine
Two local American cheese-making pioneers, Flo Hawley and Portia McKnight of Chapel Hill Creamery showcased their farmstead cheeses, as well as their whey-fed pigs with a six-course menu inspired by the Italian Piedmont and paired with artisan wines from the same region. We also served prime autumn produce from nearby farms and fresh white truffles direct from Alba. Throughout the evening, Hawley and McKnight discussed their approach to farming, their cheeses and long-term goals.
June 5th, 2005 - All-Local Pasture-Raised Meat Dinner
The dinner focused on simple preparations of pork, chicken, and beef all raised within 25 miles of Chapel Hill. The menu included:
Chapel Hill Creamery quark with radishes and sea salt
Roasted chicken with spring onions and baby turnips (Shady Grove Farm & Fickle Creek Farm)
Braised pork shoulder and belly with fennel, olives and Anson Mills grits (Chapel Hill Creamery)
Grilled beef with fried herbs and crispy potatoes (Baldwin Family Farm & Braeburn Farm)
Local organic strawberry ice cream
April 3rd, 2005 - Six-Course all-Ossabaw Pig Dinner with 2004 James Beard Award winner Eric Tanaka and his Dahlia Lounge sous-chef (and Durham native) Gray Brooks. menu
Originally stranded in the sixteenth century by Spanish explorers on Ossabaw Island off the coast of Georgia, Ossabaw hogs are the descendants of the famous Spanish Iberian or pata negra hogs – free-range pigs who fatten up on foraged acorns & wild grasses before becoming the most sought-after ham in the world – ibérico.
The amazing story of their rescue from the island is the subject of NY Times writer & author Peter Kaminsky’s upcoming book, Pig Perfect. Among the tale’s heroines is Eliza Maclean, one of only two farmers in the world currently raising Ossabaws.
Luckily for us, Eliza’s Cane Creek Farm is in Mebane.
The evening benefited the American Livestock Breeds Conservancy, the Pittsboro-based group who has tirelessly worked to save rare farm breeds from extinction since 1977.
Owl’s Nest Trading Co. shared a selection of traditional organic wines from small producers in Germany, whose estates have been in their families for hundreds of years. The quality of these delicious wines is a reflection of their deep roots in the land. They will be a great pairing with pigs who feast on Alamance County alfalfa, peanuts and acorns.
For Lantern Table dinners we will accept reservations for any size party - to book a table please call us at 969-8846.
