Who knew that a table of butter could be so gorgeous? The table - featuring butter fashioned into various small floral shapes - was just one dreamy detail of many at Ruby’s stylish dinner party last week, hosted for the brand’s staff as a mid-winter celebration.
Held at Auckland bar Soap Dancehall, the get together was for what the brand describes as ‘Club Rubettes’ - named after the internal Instagram page for their team, where they share news, training and all else that’s going on in store and at head office. It came at the end of the Ruby Academy - another internal initiative that sees the various teams come together over several days, to learn and talk about everything from budgets to resilience.
The party also acted as a very delayed Christmas party for Ruby’s sales team, which had been postponed multiple times because of Covid.
Like one of those casual but outrageously chic dinner parties where the joy is found in the carefully stylised details - and chaos - Ruby’s featured food and vibes by Cooked Plates, run by Karl Bayly and Ophelia King (with baby). Cooked Plates began as an Instagram account to share dishes Karl had made, before evolving to offer pick up dishes over lockdown for those in the know. Now they host private dinners and fun pop-up events, including a recent three course feast at Auckland bakery Florets.
For Ruby’s dinner, guests were greeted on arrival with a welcome drink of Honest Rum with black lime syrup and prosecco. The butter table was joined by a tower of baguettes, various salts and bowls of olive oil on others. Later, guests sat down for dinner at long tables decorated simply with red and pink floral and citrus centrepieces (by Auckland florist Isadia), burning taper candles, crystal glassware and red napkins.
The Cooked Plates menu was part Italian, part Middle Eastern, including crudo with feijoa sambal, orange and mint; burrata with persimmon, sumac, basil oil and macadamia; citrus with pecorino and pistachio; fesenjoon / eggplant ravioli with yoghurt and walnuts; endive with blackberry and golden raisin; and salt baked beetroot with whipped herb feta. For dessert, another beautifully delicious surprise: pink peppercorn meringue towers with salted tahini cream, wild compote and pistachio.
What better after a long and jovial dinner? Dancing, of course, with a DJ set from Ruby head of marketing Ima Jujnovich and Ruby general manager Emily Miller-Sharma. Fun!
Photos by Ophelia King and Samantha Totty
