During cocktail hour, we were given the unique chance to step back from our end of the food chain, all the way to the source, through a live butchering demonstration in the barn. With a cocktail in hand, everyone in attendance was able to watch the craft of whole animal butchery unfold in front of them — moments before sitting down to try the results at the table.

The drive down highway 94 from Detroit to Ann Arbor is a transformative one. You leave the Art Deco mosaic of Motor City highways and the clean lines turn soft, the expanse of Michigan’s farmland begins to emerge as a pastoral pastel.

We lucked out with a perfectly stunning day, weather-wise, and a wonderful group of guests to gather around the table. After a welcome cocktail and tasting room tour, we walked up the hill to a the barn full of barrels of aging whisky, where the table was set outside the open doors of the cask room. The entire area smelled like whiskey due to the legendary “angel’s share” of evaporated spirit hanging in the autumn air.

Right on the razor’s edge between summer and fall, Cape Cod is in full splendor. The fireworks of the Forth of July are a distant memory, replaced by hydrangeas bursting in vibrant shades against the whitewashed sides of clapboard houses. On a sultry, sunny day right at the end of the season, we welcomed a wonderful group of guests from across the US to the water’s edge at Wequassett Resort for a Supper we won’t soon forget.

The crisp aesthetics of the property belie the care and precision of winemakers Griffin Frey and Joe Woodworth, but contrast delightfully with Joe and his wife, Ashley’s sense of warm hospitality. They aren’t often open to the public, so we were thrilled to set the table in the shade of their cantilevered patio, safe from the hot sun and the dusty sun devils that tend to spring up in the surrounding fields on summer days.

We arrived at the stunning Alila Ventana Big Sur resort with plans for a dinner in the redwood grove just down the hill, a first for the property and a magical setting for Supper. But, Big Sur is a place where you listen to the land, and the land (and sky) had other ideas. The day of the Supper emerged grey and rainy, with temperatures in the 30s — not at all ideal conditions.