Dinner at 6100

How has this idea enhanced your club's operation, etc.?

Back as early as 2006 the club used to host Sunday Night Cookouts on the back lawn as an extension of our formal dining room. The sequence of service involved a family style appetizer tray placed on each table with a served choice of salad. The entrees and desserts were presented in a buffet format on the back lawn. These dinners were popular with covers reaching 300 on some Sunday evenings. Over the years we saw a decline in popularity of these events and in 2016 reinvented it to be called Taste of the Terrace with a similar format. We offered elaborate stations with an attended grill station featuring lobster tails, made to order steaks, and a fresh catch of fish. Again, we saw a very limited increase in covers, however, never compared to the volume of the previous Sunday Night Cookouts. After assessing the cost to the club to host these dinners, including food waste and production, high labor costs to set-up and execute the buffets, we decided it was time to reinvent the Sunday night feature.

The concept of Dinner at 6100 was born! Chevy Chase Club is located at 6100 Connecticut Avenue in Maryland, hence the name of the event. The dinner concept is dinner for two people for $61.00. We have seen a fifty-percent increase in overall covers on Sunday nights in the summer. In 2017 we did 472 covers in the formal dining room on Sunday nights, in 2018 with the Dinner at 6100 concept we did 948 covers from June through September. Members have been asking throughout the winter months when Dinner at 6100 will be returning.

How was this idea implemented, and what have been the club members' reactions?

Results from our last membership survey stated that the membership enjoys the formal dining room for birthdays and anniversaries. After further research into our operation, for the minimal volume we were seeing it was not worth the cost of labor to operate the dining room and proposed the idea of closing entirely on Sundays. Instead, we needed to find a way to make it feel like a special event or occasion to bring the membership back into this dining room. Our Dance Terrace, an extension of the formal dining room, was the perfect setting with market lights draped above the tables, soft white damask linen gracefully placed on each table and background music that transports you to a French bistro.

The Members reaction has been dramatic. Typically by the time the menu is released Saturday evening, it is too late to get a reservation, as we are booking weeks out in advance. We begin Dinner at 6100 the Sunday after Mother’s Day and run the concept until the end of September. We offer pashminas and heat lamps on the chillier nights and feature wines by the bottle that complement the meal and need to move from the cellar. All our Dinner at 6100 evenings have sold out and incurred wait lists.