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The Longest Dinner was first held in Orewa last year and has already established itself as a top event on the summer calendar.
It is a chance for local restaurants to show what they can do, as well as promoting Orewa as a fine dining location.
It’s an impressive sight, with more than 75 decorated dining tables extending down a portion of Hibiscus Coast Highway, on Orewa Boulevard.
Diners purchase tickets and order their entrée and main courses from the participating restaurant of their choice. Live music helps create a festive mood.
Right from the start it was a sell out – 420 took part in 2019 and this year there were 500.
Organiser Hellen Wilkins of Destination Orewa Beach says the next event, on February 27, will also be capped at 500 diners.
She says this is because those numbers provide ‘the wow factor’, while keeping it manageable to organise.
Volunteers are key to the workforce that makes the event happen –Hellen says that more than 50 members of local church groups, clubs and charitable organisations are involved, receiving donations in return.
Next year a total of 13 restaurants will take part – one more than this year. The newbie is the Beach House Eatery.
The event is strictly R18. Tickets, which cost $80-$110, are expected to go on sale via an event specific website from November 11.
The Longest Dinner is not a fundraiser or a commercial venture –Hellen says it is cost neutral and Destination Orewa underwrites any shortfall between ticket sales and operational costs, because it is a showcase for Orewa.
