When Tim and I first met, we had a long conversation about one of our biggest goals for a future relationship: to make it a commonplace thing that we set a long table and force strangers to become best friends. Enter MFR popup dinnersssss!
Our international retreats are big and extravagant and soulful, but the popups are a more low-key reminder of why we started MFR in the first place: to create community around a table, to experience the world more thoughtfully, and to work to create the kind of world we want to raise children in.
(Speaking of that, Amisadai co-hosted on Saturday and looked cute as hell.)
MFR popups started in 2017 with a meal at Radici cohosted by cocokelley, sharing a table with refugee families. Last year it was a fundraiser for mental health services at NAMI Seattle, in honor of Anthony Bourdain. And on Saturday, it was a Thai food bonanza as we raised funds for RAICES Texas, a nonprofit providing legal services for families at the southern border.
These dinners mean everything to us. We’ve watched strangers show up at our table and become fast friends. We’ve watched our chefs create mind-blowing menus and had a chance to flex our own drink-mixing and design muscles— basically they’re a shitload of good times all around.
On Saturday, Johnny created a Thai menu to die for. Alana of Paper Planes (our retreat co-host this year!) flew in from Chiang Mai with local Thai liquor. Our volunteers, from our trusty assistant Pearl to the ever-talented Kristina to Zach from Brothers and Co., showed up en force. I mean damn.
And the Feasters, per usual, brought good vibes and generous spirits. Thanks to a matching donor, we’ll be able to donate $6,300 to RAICES this week. It’s all just best-life stuff, really. It’s so easy these days to get mired in the oppressive injustice in the world— but we’re committed to taking tiny steps to fix it, no matter how daunting it all feels and how much we just want to cry. Thank you, thank you for being our community and helping us create a better world.
If you missed this year’s popup, we’ll catch you next summer! And if you’re on the fence about joining us in Thailand for this year’s retreat, spots are selling like hot cakes and two more spots got snapped up over the weekend. We’d love to spoil the hell out of you in Chiang Mai this year.
five courses. each one more inventive and delicious than the last. Johnny done did it again.
when our house becomes a professional chef zone we just stand back.
butterfly pea G&Ts, very on trend for Northern Thailand at this time of year…
pouring dranks and holding babies, Tim is a man of many talents
and you know when you leave a fancy restaurant and run to get burgers because you’re still starving? Johnny knows- and he made a pile of lemongrass fried chicken to cap the night (with a shot of cheap whiskey, because every high needs its low).
