Ryan Del Franco, Camille Jetta & Joy Watts
Fort Greene, Brooklyn
Dinner Party is one of those places that 90’s movies and NYC-centric TV shows has trained us to believe isn’t real. It’s a wildly cool maybe-living-room-maybe-restaurant that we’ve only seen the likes of outside of the U.S., where everything has become increasingly ~~sterile. The pivot away from that overly manicured dining decor (think peach tones and glossy white wood) is inexplicably welcome to us. Dinner Party’s filled up with what could be a friend’s cabinet of collected flatware, hand-scribbled notes as menus, wax drips across the table, and a lot of love from the staff. With an unpretentious and always delicious prix-fixe, and dining chairs in close proximity to your neighbor’s, the space is truly somethin’ special. Read on for a chat with not one, not two, but three of Dinner Party’s amazing staff members.
Full name, age, where are you from?
RDF: Ryan Del Franco, 25, Long Island, New York
CJ: Camille Jetta, 26, Shelton, CT
JW: Joy Watts, 27, Madison, CT
What is your title and where do you work?
RDF: I’m a sous chef at Dinner Party in Fort Greene.
CJ: Chef and owner, Dinner Party
JW: Sous Chef, Dinner Party
Was food a big part of your upbringing?
RDF: Food has always been prevalent in my life. All of my memories are based off of the food. Not even necessarily cooking it though. My family loves to eat. When we enter a familiar neighborhood, we all chime in about the things we have eaten there. Montauk is nothing without raspberry jelly filled doughnuts. Red Hook can’t be discussed without talking about that coffee shop from that one time my grandpa visited.
CJ: Definitely. My mom cooked for the family nearly every night, and her parents were massive foodies -- most family gatherings were very festal. My grampie was an international salesman and an excellent cook, and he always regaling us with tales of the best foods he'd tried all over the world. He and my grammie were legendary for their dinner parties.
JW: Surprisingly so, I wouldn’t say food was a huge part of my upbringing! My parents most definitely made lots of home cooked meals but neither of them were/are particularly
passionate towards cooking. My meals growing up were most definitely meant to nourish more than delight. That being said, my dad is still known to this day for a killer “breakfast for dinner.”
What are your earliest memories of dining out?
RDF: My parents really leaned into the dining out thing when i was young. They’d bring me and my sibling out to Manhattan from Long Island to eat at the big fad spots like Max Brenner, Serendipity, Mars 2112, Jekyll and Hyde’s. I guess that’s where I learned to love the trends.
CJ: The first restaurants I can remember are Vincent's, the excellent local red-sauce joint, and Sassafras, the old-school diner a few doors down. They were both places I went a lot with my grandparents. Vincent's pizza was perfect: thin, crispy crust, mozzarella so hot it was basically molten, lovely sweet-salty sauce. I'd eat the table bread so fast I got the hiccups.
JW: My earliest memories of dining out surround special occasions. There’s a coffee shop on Rt 1 in downtown Madison where my dad would take us for breakfast on our birthday’s before school. They would always throw a little birthday doodle on their whiteboard menu and put plenty of whipped cream on the hot chocolate. This also meant we got to be late to school of course, which was probably the best part.
I also remember a funny routine of my mom picking me up from kindergarten and the two of us immediately stopping at the local pizza spot almost every day — my order always the same of buttered penne with parmesan.
If you could give a piece of advice to someone who wanted to pursue your career, what
would it be?
RDF: This is where I probably differ from others, but I really do believe in a formalish training. I’m so thankful for my culinary school program and degree. The quicker someone can pick up the language, discipline, and natural systems of a kitchen, the better.
CJ: Don't take it all so seriously. Food is art, yes, but it's also meant to comfort, and to nourish. Mistakes can turn into beautiful new dishes. The customer isn't always right. Be fucking kind, and have fun with it.
JW: Just because there is a clear and carved path taken by so many ahead of you, doesn’t mean you have to do the same. There are ways to enjoy this industry and be successful (whatever that means to you) that lay outside the lines of what we’re told. Food is incredibly expansive — it opens more doors than you can imagine. Use your passion and skills to bring you closer to your community and most of all, never stop having fun with it.
What do you think working in this industry has taught you?
RDF: I’ve learned how to talk to strangers and network like crazy. I’m always looking for symbiotic relationships. It feels a lot like Survivor politics. I'm constantly trying to connect the dots to get myself closer to my restaurant crushes and chef crushes. There’s a lot of social strategy that I’ve picked up on.
CJ: The value of working with the hands and the senses every day. The ignorance so many people have of the hard work that goes into feeding and entertaining them. But also: the genuine wonder people can take in food and in gathering. It's the most ancient thing we do, and it remains so powerful.
JW: Working in this industry has taught me the incredible value of every single other person who does the same and all of the people who serve as connecting links. Never have I felt more connected to or grateful for the farmer’s working and nourishing the soil our food comes from, the delivery drivers who are always my first “good morning” of the day, or our amazing team here at DP — they’re whipping together new cocktail
ideas one minute, and scrubbing the pots the next. This industry has taught me that it serves to be versatile — that my value only lays in the people around me who run the greater food system day in and day out.
What’s your favorite drink or dish on the menu?
RDF: Since we have rotating menus every week, we never really repeat dishes. But I’ll say one of my hall of fame dishes was a rosewater and vanilla crème brûlée with fresh figs and a caramelized matcha sugar on top.
CJ: Our menu changes every week, but I love any time I get to bake bread. And if we make panna cotta or pavlova for dessert, I'll have about five a day.
JW: Our menu is ever-changing! So it’s nearly impossible to pick favorites. We have a Negroni on the menu this week that has some oolong kombucha in it — it’s quite delicious.
What is your favorite place to go out and eat at and what are you ordering?
RDF: I’m aways going to answer this question with some form of fried chicken. Lately, you can find me at Mekelburg’s (Clinton Hill) on Monday nights for their hot chicken jumbo wings.
CJ: I am a fanatical fan of the new Place des Fêtes in Clinton Hill. The space is a testament to the power of restaurant design -- you walk in and a sense of well-being just washes over you. And then on top of that the staff is so kind and welcoming and good at what they do. And on top of that the food is truly impeccable. I'll order any crudo du jour and any salad they're serving. They're salad geniuses -- this little gem number they had on for a while was divine. They would scallop the leaves on the plate so every single one was perfectly dressed.
JW: Okay, another impossible question. I think I have tiers and categories of favorite places. Bunny is one of my favorites of all time. It’s a small, intimate, incredible Turkish and German spot in Bed Stuy on Nostrand Ave. It’s run by a husband and wife duo and they couldn’t be any sweeter if they tried. The food there is so comforting and always impressive. And I have to mention that the music selection never misses either.
You’re on a desert island, what are the 5 kitchen items you need to run your business?
RDF: My kitchen boots, a powerful immersion blender, rubber spatulas, an 8 quart kitchen aid mixer, and a portion scoop set.
CJ: Wooden spoon, big bowl, cast iron skillet, square metal spatula like a fry cook uses, big chef's knife. Honestly, that's more than enough. Five items was generous.
JW: A Kunz spoon, large mixing bowl, dutch oven, chefs knife, and a fish spatula.
