How to add a course to hit a number
Let’s say you’re F5, 6sense, or Rapid7 and you want to hold a five, six, or seven course meal, respectively. But the restaurant offers menus with one too few courses. What to do?
Toothpicks! But not just any toothpicks, of course. Artisanal toothpicks. What is an “artisanal toothpick,” you ask? Two things:
They are made with American northern white birch.
They are infused with real, natural ingredients.
Bonus points for planting 100 trees for each tree milled.
There is only one company that meets all three of those requirements: Daneson, “the choice of iconoclasts since 2011.”
If you are currently imagining a flavorless, individually-wrapped-in-cellophane toothpick that you’d find at a Denny’s, I understand why you’re skeptical. That is not this. Daneson proudly does one thing and one thing only: toothpicks. As such, they do it in a way that will genuinely impress your guests.
Let’s start with the flavors. Forget Denny's-level menthol—we’re talking a botanical blend of peppermint, wintergreen, sweet fennel, and juniper. They have a Cinna-Mint that is “sweetened with a touch of peppermint, not sugar, and a note of clove.” And then you get into the flavors that will really impress your guests, or at least those that appreciate a fine whiskey. There is a Single Malt Scotch flavor that infuses “fourteen-year-old Islay scotch whisky imbued with notes of oak tannins, peat, almond, and vanilla,” and a Bourbon flavor “steeped in six-year-old cask strength Kentucky straight bourbon,” with “notes of oak, leather, caramel, and almond and hints of fruit.” Shop by blend here.
Then, the packaging is elegant, yet simple. An amber vial filled with toothpicks, sealed with a cork. They just look…cool.
Prep
Daneson toothpicks
(Optional, and way-over-the-top): some kind of display, Daneson provides several options
Technique
At the end of the dinner, but before guests leave, make a presentation out of “the final course”: an artisanal, flavored toothpick.
Also, let’s be honest: having a bunch of people picking food out of their teeth in front of everyone is not the most civilized way to end the evening, so emphasize that this is a takeaway gift. In fact, as noted in my Table Stakes for executive dinners, one of the reasons I love the toothpicks is because they are a great souvenir.
Depending on how elevated you want your toothpick service to be —and let’s pause for a moment to bask in the thought of levels of toothpick service—there are a couple directions you can go. I’ll order them starting with the lowest level and getting progressively more over-the-top:
One flavor fits all. Buy enough bottles for your guests in a single flavor and pass them out at the end of the dinner. It’s a nice touch no one will have expected.
Offer a choice of flavor. Buy multi-blend packs so you can offer your guests their choice of flavor: Mint, Cinna-Mint, Scotch, Bourbon. Here, you may have waste as you’ll want to have enough of each flavor so that everyone (or almost everyone) gets what they want. But you can always find someone to gift left over bottles to; they’ll love it.
Offer a toothpick from your purpose-built, leather toothpick bottle holder. Daneson offers leather cases with one-, two-, and four-fingers depending on how many bottles you need to carry.
Set it like it’s a course. Admittedly, this gets expensive fast. Since Daneson discontinued their budget single-bottle holders, you’re left choosing between a $120 brushed gold display and a $400 solid brass tabletop centerpiece…per person!
Coup de Grâce
All of the above ideas can be purchased off the Daneson website today. If you really want to commit to the bit, Daneson will do a custom toothpick, with a custom flavor, custom packaging, or both. You need to commit to a lot of cases, but if you know you’re going to have a lot of people participating, it will be a memorable touch. You can see some examples of their collaborations here.
