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Dinner in the Sky Events
Casino International spoke to Mike Gallant, one of the partners of Dinner In The Sky Events, an exciting idea which has already been used as a promotional tool by at least one casino in the US. Mike explained what Dinner In The Sky Events is all about…
It takes something special to stand out after years of conspicuous consumption in most developed countries; it's fair to say that many consumers and customers are somewhat jaded and it's very, very hard to surprise people. But explain Dinner In The Sky Events to them, and we can almost guarantee the response will be raised eyebrows and a broad grin! The basic idea is very simple – a table hoisted into the air by a crane and suspended while guests enjoy dinner way off the ground. Mike Gallant told us more, and explained how it can be used by casinos as a promotional tool…
Casino International: Mike, could you tell us a little about the Dinner In The Sky Events concept please?
Mike Gallant: Dinner In The Sky is a unique, high-flying dining experience – 22 guests get strapped into plush leather seats via an aircraft-grade harness; once they're strapped in to their seats and positioned around the table, the entire table and 22 diners get attached to a crane. The crane then elevates the table and diners upwards of 180 feet. Once you are at the 180-foot point, you can enjoy five-star dining, you can enjoy a spectacular view – it’s just a unique dining experience for people who may have done and seen it all, people who are looking for something new and interesting to experience.
The idea was developed by a Belgian company. My partner – Taj Jordan – and I both come from the special events and entertainment industry, and we saw the unit at a trade show. I was on my honeymoon, had seen the unit and couldn’t stop thinking about it. Taj, who has always been a great business friend of mine was one of the groomsmen at my wedding, and he had also seen it. He was calling me while I was on my honeymoon, saying ‘Mike, are you ready for Prime Time?’ I asked him what he meant, and he said he couldn’t stop thinking about Dinner In The Sky. I told him I couldn’t stop thinking about it either… He said ‘we’ve got to buy it’, and I said ‘let’s do it’.
It took us eight months for us to negotiate a deal with the parent company and we were able to bring it to the United States.
CI: How safe is this?
MG: Safety is the aspect we are asked about most frequently. The unit itself is constructed of steel, and has been tested and inspected by TÜV Rheinland, the number one safety testing agency in the world. Every single weld, bolt, shackle, cable – every one of these components of the table has been safety tested. We have stamped engineering reports that state that all the specifications exceed the real requirements needed. For example, the table itself weighs, with diners, seven tons. The crane that we use to perform the lift is a 120-ton crane; that’s approximately a sixteen-to-one ratio. That’s just one example of how all he safety measures have been designed to supersede any real requirements. Having the engineering reports puts any risk manager who looks at this at ease. It’s very well documented, very well engineered, very well constructed which is comforting for guests who want to purchase the experience.
CI: Is the food prepared teppenyaki style, in the air? Is the food good quality, or what a customer might find in the average restaurant?
MG: The food is mostly prepared on the ground, but may have some finishing touches put to it mid-air. For example, we did an event at the Coconut Creek Casino in Florida where most of the preparation was done on the ground, but the finishing touches, like plating the smoked caviar on acrylic plates, or plating the dry-aged beef tasting which was a fourteen-day, twenty-eight day and forty five day dry aged beef; if they were doing crème brulee they would finish the crème brulee mid-air. It is possible to have propane skillet cook tops mid-air if the chef wants them. The food was amazing – real five-star dining and presentation – for instance we used bricks of Himalayan sea salt with holes drilled into them for the scallops, which were accompanied by a perfumed spritzer that had vodka, lemon juice and sugar in it. We did a smoked caviar with a dissolving stone crab and mustard sphere, which was the equivalent of a thinly-sliced piece of stone crab that would dissolve in your mouth in the same sort of way as those Listerine mint strips dissolve in your mouth. It was just amazing. We served Iberico de Bellota ham which is a very rare ham, with some Spanish goat cheese called canarejal. We did a ‘rebirth by chocolate’ dessert, which comprised three different chocolate desserts – it was over the top!
CI: What's your background coming into this? How do you recruit and train staff for such an unusual thing?
MG: Both my partner and I own event and entertainment companies. I own an amusement company and a synthetic ice-rink company, my partner Taj also owns an amusement company and he owns one of the largest haunted houses in the mid-West United States called Haunt Fest. We both have existing businesses that we can pool some of our A Team level staff to help the set-up and the operation of the table.
We want strong continuity with the set-up and tear-down crew, which has undergone training from the parent company in Belgium. For our first few events we brought the Belgian company over to continue to monitor and train during our set-up. That’s the important thing – this is not a makeshift operation with fly-by-night employees, people who haven’t done or seen this. We’re using the best people from both our companies with supervision from the manufacturer.
CI: With the Coconut Creek Casino, how did their renting the table work? Was it tied in to a promotion they were running?
MG: The Seminole Casino, Coconut Creek, rented the table from us for two days. It is a smaller casino with a reputation for very eclectic promotions. Previously they had given away a trip to the edge of space on board the Virgin Galactica, and have also done a program they called Black Gold, giving someone their own personal oil well, so the casino has a reputation for these funky promotions to generate publicity. Whey they heard about Dinner In The Sky Events, they thought it would be great because they have a very high-end chef and are opening a new restaurant at the casino called The Chef’s Table. They rented Dinner In The Sky from us to promote this new restaurant, The Chef’s Table and also to wine and dine some of the casino’s VIP players. They also had some members of the tribe experience the opportunity.
For a casino it is multi-faceted, in that they can wine and dine current and potential VIPs, they can run a big promotion in the casino around being able to win an opportunity to Dine In The Sky, and if they are promoting a restaurant, food, a new bar service or anything along those lines, Dinner In The Sky is a terrific medium for doing that.
The signage facilitates marketing and advertising opportunities on board the unit and include a four foot by twenty foot banner on the underside of the table to allow a purchasing partner to use for their signage. The can also put signage on the headrests, the seat belts, the roof and we even have plasma TVs on board the unit which allows us to accommodate companies that want to show sales or marketing pieces to guests.
CI: Where are you based?
MG: Orlando, Florida. The unit is completely mobile and can go anywhere in the United States. We have it in a 40-foot container, put the table on the back of a flatbed truck, and we can drive it to any destination. We handle all the logistical elements, which include getting the table to the location and confirming the crane for the location. Once we are on site, we just need an area about 45 feet by 90 feet that can accommodate a crane – we call this footprint the safety zone beneath the table, which stops any spectators going beneath the table.
CI: Is there anything that hirers need to do, apart from simply hiring you?
MG: Each client wants different levels of involvement. Technically we can handle all logistics of an event. Most of the time clients are involved with selecting menus, proofing signage and assisting with site selection. Our website www.dinnerintheskyevents.com highlights common questions asked by clients and puts their mind at ease with us handling most details.
CI: Is it expensive to hire for an organization?
MG: Pricing starts at $25,000, which includes the insurance, and depending on the duration of the event, how long they want to do it, what they want to do for food, what they want to do for signage – things along those lines can change the price. I can’t say enough about the experience – you can’t pay to get the reaction that happens from guests when they come off this table. The experience itself is magical…it’s exhilarating, it’s soothing. If you are a big company that is launching a product and you want to put media up there, what better way to WOW the media. If you have VIP guests that have done and seen it all, the wealthiest at the casino who spend all sorts of money and are used to a high-end experience, this is truly a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. These people get off the table, and to hear them talk about it, to rave about it, makes it worth it for the purchasing partner.
CI: How long are people usually up there for?
MG: The length of the experience can fluctuate. Nokia used it at a convention, where they had a new Nokia cell phone at the table and they took people up in the air, had a sales person in the centre of the table, and the sales person talked to them about the features of the new Nokia cell phone. That experience might have lasted 20 minutes. Recently, when we were down at Coconut Creek, we did a breakfast experience that might have been 30 minutes, but also did a five-course dinner that might have been an hour. The person who rents the table from us can determine how many times we go up and down during the rental period. It takes 30 or 40 seconds to get the table up into position; it’s equivalent to an elevator ride.
CI: Do you get many users needing the bathroom while 180 feet in the air?
MG: Before the lift we have a debriefing with all the diners who will be on board. We explain to them the rules of the table, and we explain that if they do need to use the facility that now would be a good time… We’re not seeing too many lifts beyond an hour, or an hour and fifteen minutes…it’s not like being on a four or five hour flight! If somebody does need to use the restroom, we are in communication the entire time with the crane operator and the ground crew, so we could radio below and have the table lowered in 30 seconds.
CI: Do you take bookings from individuals?
MG: Right now we’re not set up to take bookings from people, though we do have inquiries from couples for Valentine’s Day, or wedding celebrations. There isn’t a permanent location, so we can’t really capture that audience. It’s really companies or individuals who want to rent Dinner in the Sky for a specific reason, perhaps to launch a product or wine and dine VIPs at a convention, a wedding in the sky, a casino promotion…a lot of folks who might like to use it as a tourist-type attraction, that option doesn’t exist as yet. We really need to know when we are doing an event.
CI: Would a casino be able to offer a gaming experience in the sky with you?
MG: How about the Ultimate High Roller Club, or the Really High Stakes Poker Room? A Casino In The Sky…maybe holding Texas Hold Em' tournaments, casino gaming in the sky…If you have got someone who has eaten at all the great restaurants, then give him a new experience. Put him and 22 of his friends or family up in the air for a dinner. When you rent it, you have it for upwards of eight hours – it’s possible to entertain different groups of people, one every hour or hour-and-a-half. There is a lot of versatility…
CI: So it's very flexible – that opens all sorts of possibilities up…
MG: The term dinner makes people think that it really has to be a dining experience, but we encourage people to explore other possibilities of this being a sky bar, a meeting in the sky, the ultimate sky box for a sporting event, a really high roller club for casinos…it can lend itself to any situation where someone wants to deliver a high impact, ‘wow factor’ event. That is really what this is about – about being a media stunt, its about press coverage, about people coming off this thing saying they can’t believe what they just did and what they experienced. It can be used for anything, and that’s what it is really about.
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