BC Business
Staff begin setting up 10-person seating arrangements in the Peak 2 Peak gondolas. Image: Joern Rohde
Finishing touches are put on the $7,500-per-gondola table arrangements. Image: Joern Rohde
Food stations are set up in the gondola stations for 80-second intervals to clear the tables and serve the next course. Image: Joern Rohde
Guests load the gondolas for their six-course dinner at 424 metres. Image: Joern Rohde
André Saint-Jacques, Bearfoot Bistro founder; and Melissa Craig, Bearfoot Bistro executive chef. Image: Joern Rohde
Guests load the gondolas for their literally “sky high” dinner. Image: Joern Rohde
Richard Coglon (head of the table, at right), venture capitalist, and guests. Image: Joern Rohde
Kyle Washington, Seaspan executive chair, loads his gondola. Image: Joern Rohde
Jim Robertson (front, at left), International Wine & Food Society Vancouver branch president, and guests. Image: Joern Rohde
Dragons’ Den dragons Bruce Croxon (second from left) and Jim Treliving (head of table, at right), and guests. Image: Joern Rohde
Whistler Blackcomb executives. Image: Joern Rohde
Local media and hospitality names, including Rick Cluff (second from right), host of the CBC’s Early Edition; Cecilia Walters, morning news host on the CBC’s Early Edition; chef Pino Posteraro (left); and Jean-Christophe Fleury (third from left), consul g
Clearly Contacts founder Roger Hardy (far right) and guests. Image: Joern Rohde
Guests enthusiastically begin dinner as their gondola travels between the Peak 2 Peak terminals on Whistler and Blackcomb mountains. Image: Joern Rohde
Three people are running along the edge of the Peak 2 Peak terminal track as one of the gondolas makes its one-minute-and-twenty-second rotation before it pushes off for Whistler Mountain. Nine people have shown up for an eight-person reservation, and speed is of the essence: first a chair is hoisted inside, then a plated black truffle amuse bouche and, finally, a handful of cutlery is thrust between sliding doors seconds before they snap shut.
The gondolas are all gussied up and set for dinner as part of bravura fundraiser “SkyHigh: A Dinner With Altitude,” in aid of The Whistler Blackcomb Foundation, a charity that supports many social welfare projects along the Sea-to-Sky corridor. Hosted by the Bearfoot Bistro and Whistler Blackcomb, the June 28 event saw 25 gondolas holding a total of 248 guests served a six-course menu created by Bearfoot Bistro executive chef Melissa Craig, as they travelled 424 metres above ground, back and forth between the Peak 2 Peak terminals atop Blackcomb and Whistler mountains.
Guests—who paid $7,500 per gondola—included Kyle Washington, executive chair of Seaspan, and his wife, Janelle; two Dragons’ Den dragons, Boston Pizza magnate Jim Treliving, and digital entrepreneur Bruce Croxon; Sean Clark, CEO of ShoeMe.ca; and Roger Hardy, founder of Clearly Contacts. Other notable attendees included Dave Brownlie, president and CEO of Whistler Blackcomb and president of the Whistler Blackcomb Foundation; Mayor of Whistler Nancy Wilhelm-Morden; Jean-Christophe Fleury, consul general of France; and Vancouver celebrity chef Pino Posteraro of Cioppino’s Mediterranean Grill.
Servers ran on to clear plates, serve fresh wine (donated by individual wineries), lay courses, offer bread, check guests were comfortable—all in 80 seconds. It took 16 servers to manage the turnaround each time a gondola entered the terminal. Allergies were all carefully noted and colour-coded, with managers on each mountain staying in touch by telephone to relay specific needs for individual gondolas as they arose. It was, as Bearfoot general manager Kerren Bottay said, “more like a Formula One pit stop.”
Believed to be the first event of its kind in the world, this grandiose—some might say crazy—night was the brainchild of the team at the Bearfoot Bistro, who practised for the event with a stationary gondola Whistler Blackcomb had placed on the restaurant’s patio by crane a week earlier.
Although intended to be a one-off event, the success of the night inspired Bearfoot Bistro founder André Saint-Jacques to promise a return next year. “Guests were stepping off at the end and asking me how they could book for next year,” Saint-Jacques said. “They said they had never experienced a more fantastic event. Some asked if they could book two gondolas next time!
“I can’t believe it went off without a hitch,” he added. “It was wicked!”