Reimagining High Country Gastronomy: Gavin Fine
One of the key elements of fine dining is plating. How the food is presented to the diners plays an integral role in setting the atmosphere and character of the restaurant. Through the skill of the chef, the plate will ideally highlight star ingredients and balance colors and textures. He or she also must ensure that the dish fully embodies the spirit of the restaurant and manages to encourage diners to return.
Gavin Fine, the gastronomic mastermind behind Fine Dining Group in Jackson Hole, understands plating on an entirely different level. In partnership with culinary savant and Snake River Grill founding Executive Chef, Roger Freedman, Gavin and Roger’s restaurants have been established as the most characteristic and consistently balanced restaurants in the valley.
The triumphant 2001 opening of their first restaurant, Rendezvous Bistro, encouraged a trend of Jackson Hole restaurants that served high-quality, comforting American bistro fare in an unpretentious atmosphere. Since then, Fine Dining Restaurant Group’s establishments have become synonymous with quality, value, comfort, and innovation.
“Back when we started Jackson needed options… It still does,”
Gavin says. “We try to find and provide the dining experiences that
Jackson needs.”
Building on the instant success of “The Bistro”, Gavin and Roger went on to create the Fine Dining Restaurant Group, including Bistro Catering (2003), the Q Roadhouse & Brewing Co. (2006), Il Villaggio Osteria (2008), The Kitchen (2011), Park City’s Silver (2011), Bin22 (2012), and most recently Bodega in Teton Village. The carefully crafted menus emphasize simplicity, authenticity and the utilization of seasonal flavors and ingredients. If each of his restaurants were presented on a single plate, Fine Dining’s ability to balance aesthetics, highlight worldly cuisines, and sustain consistency and exceptional service illustrates that they are culinary artists as well as a restaurateurs.
“Finding and working with great people is the key,” Gavin says. “I try to create a culture where everyone is excited to come to work.”
Sure enough, if Gavin walks in the room, his employees light up. This love and respect for the man and his restaurant is showcased the moment diners walk through the door to the moment they wipe the sides of their mouths.
“Eating is the most intimate thing we do in public,” Gavin says. Luckily, diners at Fine Dining Restaurant Group restaurants can be comforted by the fact that this comforting level of intimacy is only one of the elements that have been strategically placed to ensure a unique, incomparable dining experience.
