In my role as Event Coordinator for the ICVA, I’m responsible for planning events for Meeting Planners who may choose to bring their conference or meeting to Indianapolis. No pressure right?!
I mean seriously, these are the people who have already planned it, seen it or done it in the meeting and event industry and it’s my job to figure out something that will “WOW” them and give them a true “experience” in Indy. Oh and remember, we’re a non-profit and the word “budget” is always haunting me in my dreams… but truth be told, I love it!
Thankfully Indianapolis has several venues that make my job a little bit easier and really helps deliver that “Wow!” experience to our clients. One such place is Chef JJ’s Back Yard in Broad Ripple- it’s a little hidden gem that is not quite a restaurant, venue or retail store, but a wonderful combination of all three that sits right off of the strip.
Nothing like Big Green Egg cookin'...
Chef JJ’s takes grilling to a whole new level by using fresh local ingredients and cooking every part of your meal, from appetizer to dessert, on the “Big Green Egg” ceramic grills, which they also sell.
This summer we hosted a group of about 25 meeting planners from Chicago and Washington DC and several local hotel partners at Chef JJ’s for a team-building experience that was absolutely amazing. When I first started planning the visit, I knew this was a group we really wanted to impress for they only choose 2 cities to visit per year and Indy made the cut; so I couldn’t let them down.
Now JJ’s is not a regular restaurant open nightly for dinner, but they offer grilling classes and rent out their venue for private dinners and corporate team building exercises. I could have opted for a delicious dinner that Chef JJ himself and his talented team would have prepared and served to us for a more traditional evening, but what’s the fun in that? I opted for our group to participate in a team building exercise where the guests would prepare their own meal in a judging competition.
While I’m not a foodie, I do believe that whatever I eat has to TASTE good and I’m a self-confessed “cake snob”, so I admit that I was a bit concerned with guests preparing their own meals- but with help and guidance from the team at Chef JJ’s, I soon found my concern to be unwarranted.
Chef JJ getting ready to grill
So, on a steamy evening in June when the temperature peaked at 100 degrees, I had our clients headed to Chef JJ’s Back Yard to slave over hot grills to cook their own dinner (100 degrees! Oh my, too late to get out of this now).
The group was divided into 5 teams to prepare a 3 course meal consisting of flatbread pizza, salad, grilled chicken with asparagus and mixed veggies. By the end of the evening, we all looked like a bunch of rag dolls, but can I say, OMG! As the official coordinator, I deemed it only right that I get to taste a little something from each of the groups. Even though each team had the same ingredients, every team’s preparation was different and all were so very delicious!
Resident sous and pastry chef Jenna topped the dinner off with a decadent dessert of Chambord chocolate cake topped with espresso whipped cream, raspberries and Chambord syrup- cooked on the Big Green Egg!
This event was such a wonderful, different dining experience even those of us who eat out regularly and are not easily impressed, left singing the praises of Chef JJ’s Back Yard.
One of the best comments from a national meeting planner who joined us: “We need to book meetings in this city and bring them to Chef JJ’s- I’ve been in the business 20 years and this was the best team building experience I’ve ever participated in”
And yes, that’s a direct quote.
Oh an remember, that little BIG thing that keeps popping up in my dreams: BUDGET… Chef JJ’s was more than reasonable for such a fantastic experience. There was beer & wine flowing all evening with 5 courses served and I still came in under my budget.
