The Genesis of the Sunset Dinner Tours

Sometimes folks ask us how we came up with the idea for the Sunset Dinner Tours.  Really, when you think about it, it might initially sound odd to say, “we’re going off into nowhere, in a horse-drawn wagon, and having dinner.”  I mean, where’s the fancy kitchen, 30-page menu, and pianist in the corner.  Isn’t THAT what you need for an amazing dining experience?

In the early 2000s I worked as a whitewater raft guide.  Our company had an arrangement with the very prestigious Abercrombie & Kent luxury travel tours.  All of the tours our company did were really nice, but the “A&K” tours were in a class of their own.  Guests had multi-room tents, fancy cots, night stands, door mats, bedding… Every evening of their 5 day rafting tour of the lower Salmon River ended with brandy and cigars.  We hauled a fairly well-stocked bar on those trips.  We had a chef on the tours and her job, her only job, was to prepare the meals.  

I learned a lot from her about doing “more with less” and that dining al fresco, far removed from town, didn’t mean skimping on a single detail.  I also learned a lot about making do when you did forget a single detail.  Like silverware.  

It was so fun to work those dinners and see how elegant “camp cookin'” could be.

Hope you’ll join us this year for one of our sunset dinners!