ADVERTISING: Advertorial — GEORGE BALLING: Our community
Last week we wrote about our approach to the wine business here in North Idaho and how we work to set our shop apart. In writing that column I realized that the most important part of our story here at the Dinner Party really has to do with the “community” that has developed around and within our shop and our wine club.
It became clear to Mary and I early on that what our shop offered so many of our customers was its own community. At our events, both winemaker dinners and our in-shop tastings, our customers would meet each other and friendships would develop. Our customers would not only get together at our events, but they would arrange to meet for dinner and even travel together. It was incredibly rewarding for Mary and I to see this first hand and to hear how so many new friendships were forged through our little shop.
As North Idaho has continued to grow, and do so quickly, we have seen this repeat itself over and over. New friendships are forged and social circles keep expanding as more and more folks meet through our shop. It is really quite extraordinary.
It has become so fun to watch, and at the same time so rewarding personally, and to our business that it has become ingrained in what we do everyday and it has become part of our mission. At one of our recent winemaker dinners we again saw this transpire first hand. One of our existing wine club members brought neighbors that had recently moved to North Idaho. At the end of the evening the new neighbor came to me and said, “We moved here without knowing anyone, literally not a soul. We have been looking for exactly this type of community and events like these. We look forward to being at many more.” They signed up for the wine club that night. When Mary and I were on our way home from the winemaker dinner that night we talked about how that is exactly what we are striving for. Creating this incredible community around our little shop, and giving all of our customers the chance to live richer lives.
The good news is that all of us know some folks like our new club members. The area is growing so quickly and our new neighbors are all looking for a “community” to belong to — a group they can join and enjoy a great social evening, in our case around food and wine.
So how did this happen? We have always felt that wine and dinner parties are a great way of breaking down barriers and forging new friendships. Wine is one of those things in life that everyone will taste differently and you can have a great discussion about your different tastes and before you know it, your conversation leads to all the things you have in common.
At our winemaker dinners and at our own dinner parties at home, we always enjoy mixing up a group so we will all meet new folks. At our winemaker dinners we hold at Fleur de Sel in Post Falls, we never assign seating. Unless a group makes a reservation together we always just kind of let the seating arrangement come together organically. You know what? It always works out and new friendships are made.
If you haven’t attended one of these dinners or one of our in-shop tastings you should. If you have been to either already, then you know how fun they are. Please come back and when you do, invite along a new neighbor, colleague or client to join you. We all know someone looking for friendship here in North Idaho. This is a great chance for all our new residents and neighbors to join and really become part of our community here at The Dinner Party and it is a way for our long-time residents to make new friends as well.
We hope to see you at one of our events soon, and we welcome you to our shop. We believe you will enjoy it!
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George Balling is co-owner with his wife, Mary Lancaster, of the dinner party, a wine and gift shop in Coeur d’Alene by Costco. The dinner party has won the award for best wine shop in North Idaho twice, including for 2018. George is also published in several other publications around the country.
After working in wineries in California and judging many wine competitions, he moved to Coeur d’Alene with Mary more than 10 years ago to open the shop. You can also follow us on Facebook at facebook.com/#!/dinnerpartyshop.