You might think I like starting my dinners because it lets me show off Champagne sabering. The only problem with that argument is that I don’t saber Champagne; I teach guests how to do it and a couple of them do it live at the dinner. But that is just one reason, and not even the main reason. Here is why I like kicking off my dinners with Champagne sabrage:

First, the inspiration. It’s 2012, I’m a decade into my dream of redefining the traditional menswear store having piloted a small private, social club addition to it for two years. After months of back-and-forth, I’m about to sign a 10-year, $10M lease on 22,000 square feet of retail and office space in a national historic landmark building in downtown San Francisco.

A guest at my dinner should have an amazing time whether they drink or not, that goes without saying. But the 6sensory Supper I performed 20 times at 6sense had one activity where it would be great if everyone drank. The dinner concept revolved around one’s “six senses”: sight, smell, taste, touch, hearing, and then, of course, “the sixth sense” (seeing dead people). 

After the first couple 6sensory Supper dinners for marketing leaders, we realized we wanted to do assigned seating so we could place guests where we wanted them. The first suggestion was tent cards with guests’ names printed on them. Absolutely not, I thought. This is an elegant dinner featuring a ton of personalization already. There had to be a more expensive way…