The Perfect Dinner catered the June 11th River Forest Tennis Club Dinner.  Featured on the menu was Beef Tenderloin Filets with a rich Red Wine Mushroom Sauce, Dover Sole Filet with a Lemon Herb Caper Sauce, Parmesan Mashed Potatoes, Roasted Summer Vegetables, Roasted Vegetable Tray and a Special Salad made with Peaches, Crispy Prosciutto, Arugula, Crumbled Blue Cheese and a Balsamic Vinaigrette.  To top things off, we made almost 400 mini desserts and arranged them in a long line following a punch bowl full of Irish Cream & Adult Chocolate Milk to create a themed dessert — a “Punch Line” which went with the Stand-Up Comedy Entertainment.  Everything was a hit!  Thanks to the River Forest Tennis Club for asking us to help with this event again this year, and thanks to the wonderful and hard working Chef John and staff at TPD for making our catering a success.

The Punch Line!

TPD's Chef John, server Terrance, TPD's Dessert Diva Jenny and server Andrew (from l. to r.)

Call us with your catering needs.  We are ready and excited to help you with parties large or small.  See our menus in the catering section of the website.

We look forward to serving you!

It has been a while since we last updated you on what is going on around The Perfect Dinner.  We have been busy!

People enjoying the food from TPD at the Spot On! Open House

On October 20th  and 21st The Perfect Dinner hosted an Open House called “Eat.Shop.Love.” for Spot On! The event was a success bringing in over ninety people to The Perfect Dinner’s Park Ridge storefront!  People ate, people shopped, and they really seemed to enjoy (maybe even love?) it all!

So what is Spot On! exactly?  Beth O’Driscoll and Sally Mauery  are the creative founders of Spot On!  Here is a little bit of information to tell you who they are and how together they became Spot On!:

Before moving to Park Ridge and/or having children, Sally and Beth were both professionals in the advertising/design fields: Sally was an advertising art director in New York and Beth was a magazine art director here in Chicago.

Spot On! Founders: Beth O'Driscoll and Sally Mauery

They started working together as graphic designers in 2005, producing the Field Elementary School VShow adbook. They had known each other for many years, through Field School, where they both have children, and St. Paul of the Cross, where they are both members of the Guardian Angel Guild, but enjoyed working together on this (non-paying!) professional level.

In May, 2009, they were asked if they would like to donate services to the District 64 Elementary Learning Foundation (ELF) silent auction and that’s how Spot On! was born. (They donated 25 birthday party invitations that were never redeemed!)

Cards and Stationery

Word got out about them, though, and they began to slowly build a client base as well as a corral of designs. The business grew to include logo development and design for marketing materials (they have done advertising, brochures, and even a restaurant menu!).

While they started out doing only custom orders, they have expanded, offering retail items as well: greeting cards, wine tags, notecards and more.  All of their products look fabulous and the quality is excellent.  They can even do personalized gifts!

Their very first Open House with The Perfect Dinner was definitely successful.  If you have questions or want to place an order with Spot On! e-mail Beth or Sally at spot.on@comcast.net.

Wine Tags

COMING SOON!  Look for a selection of cards and wine tags from Spot On! at The Perfect Dinner in Park Ridge.  Need a gift?  Send a meal with a card and maybe even a bottle of wine!

We are excited to partner with Spot On! as they continue to grow their business.  We can’t wait to see what they come up with next!

Haiku & You greeting cards

More cards and tags!

Last Saturday The Perfect Dinner was at the Oak Park Micro Brew and Food Review.   The Micro Brew is sponsored by Seven Generations Ahead.  We have partnered with them since they started the Micro Brew in Oak Park and this year enjoyed another year as a food vendor.  We served our Meatloaf Sliders, BBQ Pulled Pork Sliders and homemade Guacamole with chips.

Thanks to all who came out and supported the cause.   Also, thanks to those who stopped by our booth.  We already can’t wait for next year!

The guys behind the scenes - Chef John and Grant

Come check out Chef John this Saturday, August 28th, at the Oak Park Farmer’s Market.  He will be demonstrating a Summer salad with spring mix, peaches, blu cheese and more and a Fall Salad with roasted zucchini and squash.  FREE Samples will also be there!

Let us tell you about TPD’s new favorite cake specialist – Katy! Katy is the proud owner of The Happy Cake and she is currently using the kitchen at The Perfect Dinner in Oak Park to make her fabulous cakes.

Katy started baking cakes a year ago. She worked in marketing for 7 years but decided to make a HUGE career change to follow her dream of owning her own business!

We love having Katy around The Perfect Dinner kitchen and REALLY like it when we get to sample some of her cakes (even if it’s just the scraps). They taste absolutely delicious. Not only are her cakes delicious they are custom made.  Each cake is made special and you can see Katy’s hard work transform into a wonderful cake for a special event.

Katy has shared a booth with The Perfect Dinner a few times at the Oak Park Mid-Week Market and this week, Wednesday, August 18th, Katy and The Happy Cake will be doing a special demonstration. She is presenting a demo on creating a “Present cake” from start to finish AND she will have a “create your own cupcake” session with easy techniques you can use at home.

Additional information about Katy and The Happy Cake (and more pictures!)  can be found on her website or become a fan!

Be on the lookout for a Happy Cake promotion for you -  The Perfect Dinner customers!

Chef John giving his demonstration using Jicama!

The Perfect Dinner’s own Chef John Lane was the featured Guest Chef at Oak Park’s Mid-Week Market on July 28th, 2010. The demonstration — Jicama, the vegetable you can grow to love — drove people to TPD’s booth to check out Chef John’s newest creations.

We featured his Arugula, Nectarine and Jicama salad, Chicken and Vegetarian Fajitas, Guacamole & Chips, Fruit Salsa & Chips, Chocolate & Fruit Filled Empanadas and Cherry & Regular Homemade Lemonade.  We received so much great feedback on these dishes you can be sure you will see them again sometime soon.

Chef John even drew the attention of the local news!  If you did not get the chance to see the demonstration live, check it out:

The Taste of Park Ridge was a big success! We served thousands of meatloaf sliders and were making homemade macaroni & cheese without a break for 3 days! Chips with Guacamole and Caprese Salad with Focaccia Bread were also featured on our menu.  Everyone loved the food and we loved meeting many new people in the Park Ridge area and telling them about TPD’s everyday dinners and catering services.

Here is a picture of our staff in our tent on day one. Great work everyone!

John and Karen working hard at The Taste of Park Ridge. That grill was hot but totally worth it!

We look forward to making many more meatloaves for the people of Park Ridge very soon!

Thank you to everyone who helped make The Taste of Park Ridge a success for The Perfect Dinner!

We’ll spare you the gory details, but they have something to do with permits, appearance commissions, appeals to neighboring businesses, waiting periods, appeals to the variance committee, variance committee hearings, motions, approval by the city and a whole lot of red tape.  But now (after 8 months of red tape) we have a beautiful new awning that sports The Perfect Dinner logo in front of our Park Ridge location.  What do you think?

Summer is here!  And we are enjoying our Wednesday evenings at the Mid-Week Market in Oak Park!

So far we have been at two of the markets – June 16th and, most recently, June 30th.   We featured our Homemade Guacamole & Chips, Fresh Caprese Salad (fresh mozzarella, olive oil & basil) with Homemade Foccacia, Tapenade (olive spread) and Chicken Caesar Wraps.   It is a great way to sample some of our tasty food!

Plus, we love to see other local merchants participating and, of course, meeting more of you in Oak Park.

For a better idea on what the Oak Parkers are saying and to see a small clip on The Perfect Dinner, check out The Village of Oak Park’s video featuring the Mid-Week market.  And get a glimpse of The Perfect Dinner!

Sharing our tent this past week was Katy Zimmerman from The Happy Cake. Katy makes custom cakes for all occasions and is now cooking out of TPD’s kitchen. Visit her online at www.thehappycake.com.

We’ll both be at the market again in 2 weeks, July 14th.  Hope to see you there!

To find out more about the Mid-Week markets in Oak Park click here.

We’re on Facebook now!

If you have enjoyed our food and service, please consider becoming a Facebook Fan of The Perfect Dinner and spread the word through your friend network.