Midnight in the Garden
Sommelier Alex Wheatley Bell's pop-up celebrates the Austin culinary community.
photo: raeann serra
In 2020, Sommelier Alex Wheatley Bell was taking some time away from Aviary Wine & Kitchen and looking for ways to keep himself busy. He was on call for a “wine hotline” he had set up for any Aviary customers who had pressing beverage-related questions, but Wheatley Bell was still missing that connection with the culinary community. So, he decided to do something about it.
“I wanted to get back some sort of normalcy,” he says, “[During the pandemic] a lot of my favorite chefs had gone into the game everyone else had: fast-casual and to-go. They were missing the opportunity to make these tasting menus. A chef’s table is one of the greatest dining experiences a person can have, and it felt possible for me to open a small, intimate restaurant, but in my backyard.” Over the next four weeks, with some help, Wheatley Bell got to work renovating his large, admittedly messy backyard. When he was ready, he partnered with fellow Counter 3.Five.VII alum Chef Damien Brockway and opened the first iteration of Midnight in the Garden in October 2020. With Brockway serving his modern African American barbecue, and Wheatley Bell offering pairings from his personal cellar, the intimate eight-course dinner sold out almost immediately.
“It was a blast, and we had an amazing night. But afterwards, I went radio silent, and it wasn't until Damien called me up months later and was like, ‘hey, why are you letting this fossilize?’ that I realized this had legs. He was the first one to push me.”
Wheatley Bell dove headfirst into the project. He began reaching out to local chefs through Instagram, and word of Midnight in the Garden began to spread throughout the Austin culinary community. “Getting [the chefs] interested was the easy part, but proving the legitimacy of the concept was tough,” he explains. “I had to let them know that they would be supported, that their food would be celebrated.” It also took some convincing to make the chefs feel comfortable enough to cook out of Wheatley Bell’s humble home kitchen. After clearing that hurdle, Midnight in the Garden continued to gain traction. Wheatley Bell’s partner joined in on the effort too, designing the tablescapes and floral arrangements, and handling photography for the events.
The chef's table quickly outgrew the backyard space (although some smaller dinners are still hosted there for old time’s sake), so Midnight in the Garden began popping up around the city— from the heart of Downtown, to underground speakeasies, to farms in Eastern Austin.
“To start, it was once a month, 32 covers in a weekend. We handled it all through Instagram. It ramped up, and now, in a month we could do two or three dinners.” Originally, guests had to DM Wheatley Bell to score seats, but now the scheduling is run through Tock. And when guests buy tickets (running at $185 per person), they only know the participating chef—they learn the location of the dinner only 48 hours before. Chef Ben Runkle of Salt & Time, Chefs Nathan Lemley and Sarah Heard of Foreign & Domestic, and Chef Colter Peck of Elementary are just a few of the local chefs that have teamed up with him for the dinners. After the weekend, the participating chef and Wheately Bell are reimbursed from the total net sales of the weekend for any costs, and the remaining profits are split 50/50 between the two parties
Wheatley Bell also makes it clear that the chefs drive the dinners, while he and his pairings (nonalcoholic options also available) act more as facilitators to enhance the whole experience. “I don’t require a chef to do a pairing menu for me, and I never need to have a sneak preview. I just need the ingredients and the three boldest flavors they're going to utilize. I pair using the classic pairing rules and my gut reaction. Pairings are like waltzes: you want them to dance.”
Wheatley Bell has plans to continue growing the dinner series in the next year, bringing in chefs from around the country, and even the world, to participate. ”Down the line, maybe we will develop a brick-and-mortar, and have resident chefs on-site. They could come for a few weeks and travel around Texas and the States hosting dinners.”
At its core, Midnight in the Garden is Wheatley Bell’s ode to Austin’s restaurant community. “I’m proud of our ability to connect to a beautiful part of the culinary community, from chefs to diners. Our diners are some of the most thoughtful and deeply connected guests anyone could dream of. And they believe in so much more than an article in a publication, or insight from a critic. To me, dining is a spiritual experience, and that’s what we’re trying to portray.”
