Local chef Graham Calabria recently announced a new dinner series he calls “Calabriations,” or the “starving artist supper club.” The aim, he said, is to highlight local visual artists during a dinner-and-a-show style event.
At each dinner, a local artist is featured as the guest of honor — with their artwork on display and available for purchase. The ticketed dinners each offer a four-course meal with a menu crafted by Calabria and inspired by the artist, their overall motif and their favorite foods from childhood, he said.
At the end of each 6 p.m. dinner, the event space is opened to the public (with a cash bar) for viewing hours and the opportunity to purchase artworks from 9 p.m. to 10 p.m. The idea of the event, Calabria said, is to make room for inspiring conversation between creatives.
“I think hearing about the artist’s story and being surrounded with the visual stimulation of the artist’s work in a space, I think that’s something that will start conversations. I think there’s going to be people talking about a lot of different mediums, different ideas, what they want to do in the future, where they want to go with stuff. I think there’s going to be a lot of fun conversations.”
The dinner series launched June 10 with surf photographer Justin Morris
(@FollyHood on Instagram) as the featured artist at Union Station downtown. Calabria worked with Morris to develop a menu inspired by his photographs, which feature the sea and human interaction with it.
Calabria takes on a unique challenge to translate elements of an artist’s work into a work of culinary art.
“Justin Morris does seascapes, often with a lot of contrasts and a lot of black and white photos. We can do sweet and savory to interpret that contrast. We can do it literally too, with black and white dishes like squid ink and a coconut cream sauce,” he said. “With this dinner, we wanted to actually take you into the ocean and follow its path, from sea level down to its depths.”
For Calabria, the dinner series offers a reinvigoration of his passion for culinary arts.
“This idea kind of came to me because I was working in my own business (Calabria’s Fine Foods) for two and a half years now, going on three, and doing a lot of the back-of-house stuff. I was kind of starting to lose sight of why I started it, not getting the chance to cook all that often anymore. So I chose to do this to keep that culinary artist in me alive by collaborating with other creatives.”’
The next three dinners will be held at Union Station downtown with Maggie Mazza on July 1, Nathan McClements on July 10 and Lauren Ridenour on July 24. Upcoming artists Patch Whisky and Will Harvey will also participate in the series with those dates and locations still to come.
“I picked these artists because not only do I enjoy their art, but I really enjoy their company, and I find them really easy to talk to and get along with,” Calabria said.
For the first dinner, Calabria released 44 tickets via Resy on his Instagram account at $99 per seat. He will release tickets about a week ahead of the coming dinner events on his Instagram, @ChefGrahamCalabria.
The series will be documented by photographer JB Hillard with a video of the series to be made by Jake Cosmo of Koz Films. Calabria said he is excited to collaborate with artists, to craft inspired dishes and to create a space for creative conversations.
“The story behind the food is almost more important than the food itself sometimes, and getting the right people together to have the right conversations can really build community and be a lot of fun,” Calabria said.
“Being creative in whatever way you can be, that’s the expression of being human. That’s what makes us who we are.”
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