An hour before Toronto’s second official Dîner en Blanc was slated to commence, 1,600 people were eagerly checking their emails because they still hadn’t a clue where this year’s event was going to take place. Last year, 1,400 people gathered at Fort York (in the rain no less!). Part of this international pop-up dinner party’s magic is that guests don’t know where they’re headed to until the eleventh hour (6 p.m. in this case).
Once attendees were informed to gather at Shuter and Mutual, pilgrims decked in all-white togs began to scurry over to the dinner site. Each duo of guests (registration is limited to pairs) came to the venue toting white chairs, collapsible tables, white tablecloths, china dinner services and three-course meals packed into picnic baskets. Some keeners brought crystal chandeliers with them, others ornate bouquets of white orchids, while still others brought simple splashes of colour, including a yellow dahlia in a glass.
Since its inception, the Hogtown incarnation of Dîner en Blanc has expanded every year (this year’s wait-list was in the thousands). As people trickled into the venue — a large, grey parking lot just west of Regent Park — a squadron of volunteers directed attendees with militant precision.
There was a distinctly Toronto feel to the event: it was organized, it was surrounded by concrete with a skyscraper backdrop and it was subject to banal bureaucracy (all other Dîner en Blanc events are BYOB, but because of city bylaws, organizers of the Toronto incarnation of the pop-up dinner must supply the booze).
Despite the popularity of the event, many attendees were a bit disappointed when they arrived at the parking lot venue. But as dinner setup wrapped up, living statues, acrobats and burlesque dancers began to traipse around the tables, injecting the crowd with a touch of whimsy.
French yé-yé tunes and ’50s-style crooners provided the musical backdrop as the parking lot transformed from dismal urban blight into a magical space for one evening. After the traditional lighting of the sparklers, a live band took the stage and people began laughing and dancing, and some started brazenly drinking red wine (once the white and the bubbly ran out).
Dîner en Blanc Toronto co-founder Nicholas Wong read about the New York incarnation of the international event a few years ago and decided to stage a renegade Dîner en Blanc at the Distillery District in 2011. Dîner en Blanc, which began in Paris 25 years ago, has spread across the globe, with sister events taking place everywhere from Mexico City to Kigali to Singapore.
