Premier catering company in NYC & The Hamptons

Imagine arriving at an event and being greeted at the door by the scent of sizzling Kobe beef, freshly prepared chicken, and jumbo shrimp. After being cooked on hot rocks, it’s served Nobu style with various delectable Asian-style vegetables. Or picture walking into a mozzarella bar where the cheese is made right in front of all the guests, carved, and accented with a whole array of curated toppings. Or a dessert pairing of Limoncello and lemon macarons, enjoyed best while mingling. These are just a few examples of the limitless and succulent possibilities when the catering company, Elegant Affairs, is invited to do your event. The company possesses a dedication to creating unique and unforgettable experiences for every event.

Celebrating 30 Years of Extraordinary Service

Elegant Affairs recently celebrated its 30th anniversary but sprouted its roots when the founder, Andrea Correale, was merely 16. From a young age, she was a jack-of-all-trades, exploring positions like bridal attendant, bartender, Maître d’, and personal assistant. For many weeks, the future entrepreneur worked around 30 hours. That was all until someone asked her to produce a party for an upper-class family’s home. She agreed and stunned them. By the end of the event, guests were asking for her business card. As Correale recalls, “I didn’t have anything. I lived with my parents at the time. So I took a cocktail napkin, wrote down my home number and my name, and started giving them out. And then Elegant Affairs was born.”

One party at a time, detail by detail, Elegant Affairs rose. From a desk in her bedroom, Correale continued hosting upscale house parties from clients’ homes and estates, fostering her network and vision. She kept her mind on putting herself and her brand out there, climbing above the radar, now having hosted many noteworthy events for celebrities, including Billie Eilish, Leonardo DiCaprio, Adam Sandler, and Mariah Carey. Elegant Affairs specializes in various event categories, including, high-end social events, corporate events, weddings, bar and bat mitzvahs, and product launches.

Small Bites

Correale has been curious about entertaining and catering since she was a child. Her mother sought to create unique holiday and celebratory moments through memorable details. Changing the lightbulbs to seasonal colors or putting out themed placemats crafted such immersive moments. Correale recalls those moments and how they inspired her. “That resonated with me. And I realized that catering was not just about food; it was about the art of entertaining, about

tantalizing all the senses, making sure you have the right music in the background, that the lighting is right, that the temperature is right, that the flow of the food and the timing of the food is done correctly. Not one is more important than the other.”

Prep Work

Elegant Affairs has a way of creating customer ease with grace. The process begins with a prospective client’s call. They will offer up the idea that’s been simmering in their mind. An example may be a holiday party with a Bridgeton-esque throughline. The company lets its creativity run wild from the concept and the occasion. Elegant Affairs produces a stunning proposal with various culinary ideas, photos, and vision boards. Taking the time to discuss the event’s potential possibilities ensures the customer truly understands the concept presented. Following the initial presentation, they do a site inspection, looking over the event site and performing an entire logistical walkthrough with the client. The client’s comfort and sense of ease are prioritized from the phone call and forward. Elegant Affairs follows every step to ensure a smooth operation from the planning to the party. The company thrives off of excellence in each and every aspect.

The experience the guests will have from the moment they enter is well outlined and implemented to a tee. All details — parking, coats, an area for gifts, and the food and bar placement — are given thorough thought when designing the plans. The company is known for offering a cohesive flow to the space and event.

In New York City, Elegant Affairs works from three locations, and in Glen Cove, Long Island, they have a big commissary and warehouse. It also caters to and plans quite a few weddings at homes, estates, vineyards, and many other venues in the tri-state area. The icing on the cake is their newly opened catering venue in Southampton— 230 Elm. The building features stunning architecture, including high ceilings, large windows, and beautiful woodwork ideal for a wedding or visually stunning event. The fully renovated space includes state-of-the-art lighting and sound systems. Unlike their previous locations, this is an onsite catering venue, broadening their abilities as a full-service catering company.

Chef’s Special

The company and Correale’s story is a testament to how the most successful in business are those who have done all the jobs. The education she developed through versatility has developed a seasoned expert. Elegant Affairs juxtaposes experience and detail with passion. For the company and its owner alike, the fascination blends with creating an experience that tantalizes the senses and excites the mind. elegantaffairscaterers.com

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The “Forrest Gump” of Sparkling Wine

When life serves you lousy champagne, make your own bubbly is Frank Schilling’s philosophy. When sampling sparkling wines to serve at his Cayman Islands restaurant, Mykonos, Schilling simply wasn’t satisfied with anything on the market. So he made his own. The sparkling rosé, called Aphrodise, is made from the Xinomavro grape grown in northern Greece and Macedonia.

A noble, popular wine grape in that region of the world, Xinomavro is rarely used in sparkling wines; Aphrodise is the first bubbly version to be produced on a large scale. Characterized by very small bubbles, they’ve found that people who normally don’t like rosé or champagne do enjoy Aphrodise. “It’s imminently drinkable,” says Schilling. “You can literally guzzle it and you feel great as you’re drinking, and you feel pretty darn good after.”

A serial entrepreneur, Schilling has hardly had what you’d describe as a linear career path. After making a fortune in domain names early in the Internet age, he became a restaurateur on a whim, and now, he’s a vintner. “I always say we’re the Forrest Gump of the champagne business because we’re literally bumbling into everything we do,” he said, laughing.

Grand Cayman’s Seven Mile Beach

While building out his restaurant Mykonos, a large 320-seat venue on Grand Cayman’s Seven Mile Beach, during the height of the pandemic, Schilling realized that it would be a struggle to find a single source to supply the quantity of sparkling wine required for all those mimosas at brunch. When they finally did find a source, it was expensive and of poor quality.

They began tasting different varietals and stumbled onto the dark red Xinomavro grape and found that some vintners had started experimenting with a blonder version perfect for sparkling wine. They tweaked it – it was a bit too sweet – and came up with what is now Aphrodise.

Ibiza & Las Vegas

Most important: people liked it. “We started to share it and people were like, ‘This is so good,’” Schilling said. “And that’s how we kind of bumbled into the business.” He sent 90 bottles to friends for a birthday party in Ibiza; the recipients insisted they’d never use more than 10 bottles. “These grown men in their 40s and 50s started drinking this stuff, and in a day and a half it was all gone, and we knew we had a winner. It’s an absolutely true story.”

Next, Schilling debuted the wine at a wedding-industry trade show in Las Vegas, to introduce the product. People lined up, 100 deep, all day long for samples. A well-known wedding planner with a booth nearby invited the Aphrodise team to work with them, and they’ve now signed a partnership deal. “So we’re kind of these serendipitous, sort of accidental champagne curators,” Schilling says.

After more than 20 years in the domain-name game, Schilling hungered for a change of focus. “I have a creative instinct and I’d always wanted to create a consumer product. I didn’t really think I’d ever get into the liquor business.”

Mykonos

He also never expected to own a restaurant. On his daily walks during the Covid lockdown, a vacant building on a prominent corner drew his attention. He thought it was perfect for a restaurant – in fact, a dining spot already in the works there had been scuttled by the pandemic, and the building was available, so Schilling bought it along with some neighboring properties and cobbled it into a “giant glass box” along the main drag.

He named it Mykonos because of his experiences there, at places at are convivial and celebratory, but are enjoyed by local families as well as tourists. “I wanted to create a venue that was a destination and a gathering place. And we did, we built something very residential, truly beautiful.” Finishes are sophisticated, and the space can accommodate a large crowd, which is not that common in the Cayman Islands.

120-acre Malibu property

Schilling has started many different businesses over the years. “I’ve tried lots of things. Not everything worked, but many things did,” he said. Among his many business interests is a 120-acre parcel of land in Malibu that he intends to sell via auction.

“I bought it years and years ago and I’m not doing anything with it,” Schilling explained. It’s along the stretch of Pacific Coast Highway over Encinal Bluffs. “It’s beautiful land, but out of all the projects that I want to do, building the ‘Iron Man’ house in California is not one of them anymore. I’m kind of East Coast-centric now.”

drinkaphrodise.com

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