Chef Trevor Shankman built a mega-following after launching his supper club called “Maria” in Kennesaw, which Eater Atlanta deemed one of the most exclusive dinner experiences in Atlanta. In a new iteration of the dinner series, Shankman is now hosting events in Buckhead.
“Now it’s time to grow up a little bit and come closer to home,” says Shankman.
At just 22, Shankman cooks from the memory of his grandmother, Maria Delgado, who passed away in June last year. The location of the dinners in Kennesaw was at his late grandmother’s house, making the experience intimate and personal to the story he was trying to tell. A year on, Shankman has evolved his menu and wants to meet his diners within the city.
The exact location in Buckhead is revealed to diners once they purchase a ticket. Each dinner will seat 14 people. Shankman says diners are given an address to a secure parking lot. From there, they are valeted in an SUV to a condo building on East Paces Ferry where Shankman greets guests at the door.
“I wanted to maximize the mystique and theatrics,” says Shankman. “And parking is hard in Buckhead so I wanted to offer this.”
There is no stove at the Buckhead location. Shankman cooks and preps at his home kitchen in Dallas, Georgia, and brings hot plates and burners to do the finishing touches at the new location. The menu has changed seasonally, keeping Shankman’s grandmother as the root of inspiration. In the new chapter of the series, Shankman says the dinner has five acts, to play on the five senses.
“The menu is now playing on the tremendous changes in my life — a lot of turmoil, this metamorphosis of me as a person,” says Shankman. He is still grieving, he says, and publically. One of the courses is called 13-Hours of Grief and involves a charred onion dish that takes 13 hours to cook. In a previous dish, Shankman described the inspiration behind a burnt onion sauce as his grandmother yelling that something was burning on the stove.
“My grandmother was the first person in my life who was very close to me who passed away,” says Shankman. “I’m not afraid to talk about loss and grief, the taboo topics — it’s important to challenge the guest at some points. A lot of people can resonate with my feelings.”
Another course is called an adolescence act, with chicken and bee pollen, a take on the birds and the bees. Shankman says the dinner is a story of his life, ending with the vision of his future.
November tickets have sold out for Maria and December seats will be announced soon here. Tickets are $120 per person.
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