Did you miss Outstanding in the Field or Vertical Harvest’s party on the roof of the parking garage? Are you still craving more dinners outside before the summer season ends?
Then take a lesson from Kim Wynn and Poot McFarlin. Since 2009, the couple has been throwing their own outdoor pop-up dinner parties. The call them Dinner with a View. They’re like a picnic on steroids.
It all started three years ago, when the couple bought a 1976 GMC Palmbeach they call The Silver Bullet. They took it for a spin one night and had dinner in Grand Teton National Park.
Now, they regularly take out friends to their spot just off the Gros Ventre Road in the park. They’ve held almost a dozen already this summer.
Last week Kim Wynn took me and a few other friends out: I’ve been asking all summer, and it was the perfect time to celebrate our friend Anna Cole, who just started a new job as Communications Manager at Jackson Hole Mountain Resort.
The evening began when Kim Wynn picked us all up, and we headed north.
After we parked, we popped some champagne and set up tables and chairs. While we enjoyed the view of the smoky Tetons, Kim Wynn made our dinner in the RV. Thanks to Poot, who does most of the prep earlier in the day.
I offered to help, but Kim Wynn has a system and likes to do it all herself. She relinquished control earlier this summer, when Kevin Humphreys from Cascade came along and offered to make dinner.
We started with manchego and honey, then had arugula, watermelon and feta salads.
Kim Wynn said she gravitates toward easy, one-pot meals. She’s done carnitas and chowder in the past. She served crab for dinner last week.
We finished with desserts from Atelier Ortega.
I asked if they ever thought of doing this as a business, but between the two they already have, like, four jobs. Kim Wynn owns a photo booth business and works for Laurie Interiors as a bookkeeper. Poot is a musician who plays in PTO and has a painting business.
So even if you don’t have an RV, just grab a picnic blanket and some take-out and head to the park. Can you believe there just weeks of summer left!
