Fans of America’s favorite BBC series Downton Abbey are being invited to Lex 18 for an intimate interactive vintage dinner banquet recreating the flavors, style and traditions of 1920’s aristocracy.
Each Sunday through March 1st, sixteen lucky guests will be served by butlers, footmen and fetted to a five course repast on fine china, silver and the expected luxury mimicking the Downton Abbey table settings.
The host, Lex 18 – downtown Asheville’s Southern Appalachian restaurant – boasts an interior design style elegantly duplicating a 1920’s upscale speakeasy and supper club. “We all watch Downton Abbey as it’s celebrates the Gatsby and Vanderbilt era of innovation and elegance. Our restaurant was designed to recreate Asheville’s own elegant prohibition era boom and it just seemed natural to have a party focus around our favorite show.” says Georgia Malki partner and General Manager of Lex 18.
Reservations are limited to a total of 16 guests for each Sunday’s vintage banquet and Downton Abbey live showing. The experience spans from 6:30pm to 10:30pm ending on March 1st, 2015.
Tickets are available at www.Lex18avl.com via Brown Paper Bag Tickets.
“The idea of going to a party and dressing up like Lady Cybill, being served a feast by footmen and catered to by butlers is a once in a lifetime experience. Our establishment attempts to curate this part of history by bringing Appalachian life of the 1920’s alive.” Since its’ opening, Lex 18 has received high praise for its food, spirits, nightly live jazz and romantic ambiance.
Entertainment Directory and partner Alan van de Kamp Grau who will also be playing the head butler, explains, “Just like the advent of sport’s bars Lex 18 is pioneering a new way to watch television. Its like reality TV backwards, where the viewer is immersed in an actual epicurean and tangible reality while indulging in the visual or virtual spectacle of Masterpiece Theater’s finest show. We encourage our guests to get into the spirit of things and imbibe in a bit of theater themselves.” He adds, “For downtown Asheville restaurants especially, Sunday evening is a special night and we hope our vintage banquets will really bump-up the class factor.” In true Asheville spirit, everyone can be treated like a Lord or Lady or at least a Vanderbuilt. And yes, period costumes are encouraged.” Van de Kamp Grau suggests folks check-out Vintage Moon farther on the block down on North Lexington Ave. “They have an amazing collection of 1920’s dresses. Gentlemen can simply wear a tux or suit and bow tie.”
Lex 18’s historic late 1920’s dining room will be set in a resplendent post-Edwardian era style complete with all the finery inspired from this popular historic era. Centered under Lex 18’s main dining rooms’ golden ceiling, a 16-foot long banquet table will be lavishly dressed with period china and crystal. ‘Footmen’ in tails and a head butler will serve guests five-course banquet with cocktails, wines and champagne (spirits and wine are optional additions). This banquet is made all the more fabulous by an interactive cast of actors portraying Asheville’s version of the Crawley family members, guests and their gossipy servants.
The evening will begin at 6:30pm with a vintage period cocktail hour. During the cocktail hour guests will be treated by WCQS to a 15-minute presentation comparing 1920’s music, arts, fashion and culture of Asheville and England.
At 7:30pm the butler will announce dinner and guests will be escorted to the dining room to find Downton Abbey footmen at the ready to serve an exquisite five-course meal resplendent with fine wines, and champagne. This dinner affair includes tableside butler service, beautiful china, silver platters, crystal and the leisurely feast classic of a grand manor.
During dinner, guests will interactively experience the characteristic wit and sarcasm of Asheville’s version of the Crawley family. Guest will witness and be drawn into petty jealousies, titillating conversations and scheming ambitions while overhearing secrets among the family and the servants – all delicious and dangerous set against the backdrop of the aristocratic farms, quaint villages and the large estates of post WWI Yorkshire, England and Asheville.
At 9pm champagne and dessert will be served and the curtains will part for the live broadcast of Season 5 Downton Abbey Masterpiece on Lex 18’s theatre screen. A short intermission will permit for a Downton Abbey classic coffee and tea service along with digestive liqueur selection including sherry, port, cognac, curacao or brandy. During the dessert and champagne course, A projected screening will treat the revelers to a live broadcast of Downton Abbey’s fifth season.
Enjoy the splendor of an extraordinary experience with cocktails, vintage banquet dinner and interactive fun set in the grand style of one of the most watched and loved Masterpiece programs in the world, Downton Abbey.
The Lex 18 team is producing these ticketed events in cooperation with Western North Carolina’s public radio station WCQS. WCQS’s Membership Director Michelle Keenen proclaimed, “Our classical and jazz musical programming has a wonderful intersection with fans of Downton Abbey. WCQS will be entering everyone who contributes to its year-end pledge drive by December 31st into a drawing for a pair of VIP tickets to one of the banquets. We encourage folks to visit wcqs.org for more information. A pair of VIP tickets for each Sunday’s banquet will be quite a prize for our members.” WCQS representatives will be also be on hand at the banquets to present brief stories about the parallels between Asheville and Englands’ cultural and social post WWI history at the beginning of each banquet.
Lex 18 serves fresh, local, organic and regional foods and spirits inspired by Southern Appalachia.
All Inclusive Vintage Dinner Banquet Experience Includes:
- Classic Vintage Cocktail Hour
- Delight in cocktails while socializing with living characters fashioned after Downton Abbey’s cast
- Enjoy a brief historical perspective on Asheville’s and England’s 1920 music, arts, culture and fashion occurring during Season 5
- Five-Course Dinner (see here for full menu)
- Three wines paired with dinner
- Champagne paired with dessert
- Interactive experience with cast of characters fashioned after the Crawley family and Downton Abbey servants
- Live Broadcast of Downton Abbey Season 5 episode
- Intermission during broadcast for post dinner digestifs
- Coffee and Tea Service
- Selection of Brandy, Sherry, Port, Cognac or Curacao
There are two tickets categories that may be purchased.: All Inclusive Seats or Dinner Only Seats (this ticket excludes wine, spirits or liqueurs).
Tickets may be purchased online at Brown Paper Bag Ticket’s Special Lex 18 Downton Abbey VIP Dinner Experience Ticket Sale Page.