The Mall that Held A Ball

The photos are up all over Facebook, Twitter, blogs, the websites of the city’s best shutterbugs, and social and traditional media streams.  Yes, I’m talking about the 2nd Annual Ball on the Mall, which was hosted Saturday evening by the L’Enfant Society and raised money for the Trust for the National Mall.  The 1 year old Society has already raised $500,000 since its inception and continues to gain notoriety and traction in the young professional demographic as “the group to join”.  Full disclosure: I’m on the Board, but seriously, I have heard that being said, especially after Saturday night’s main event.

The Dinner Tent

With the wind a blowin’ and the hair a messin’, the 600+ “festive black tie” dressed guests who paid from $135 at ticket (Member for the Party only) to $325 (Non-member for the VIP dinner and party) entered the giant tents right on 13th and Madison.  The two tents which had magically transformed from hosting a stately civilized luncheon for 700 seasoned Washingtonians on Thursday, to a brightly colored (remember, the theme was Mexican in honor of Honorary Co-Chairs Ambassador Arturo Sarukhan and Mrs. Veronica Valencia-Sarukhan), chic, contemporary dinner party and nightclub lounge in the next tent, aka “The Dancing Tent”.  Even the ceiling decor glowed in the dark when the sun set.  I use the term “magically” because like the Verizon Center, which on the turn of dime can go from a basketball venue to ice hockey to Disney on Ice to a horse show, well, we know that it takes people, direction, hard work and execution to make that magic happen.  Linder & Associates as well as Design Cuisine did an outstanding job.

The Dancing Tent Pre-Dancing

Ahh. The food. Well, amidst the wind, the howling, the billowing of the tents and curtains, a few glasses breaking, and the fear of dying or worse, being maimed, the cuisine was raved about all throughout dinner.  I heard all night, “The food was amazing!” and that wasn’t just in The Dinner Tent.  The Dancing Tent had set ups and stations for upscale Mexican fare and desserts.  Back to the dinner.  The several hundred guests at the seated dinner enjoyed spicy pork enchiladas first, then pepita crusted halibut as a main course. The cocktail reception passed fare was almost enough to make us full with shots of avocado and cucumber soup, shrimp, mini polenta cakes and more.  The varied table heights added an interesting aspect, all were rectangular or square, split between high top (which made for an interesting climb for some of the women) and normal level.  A memorable part of the night before we went into the Dancing Tent, was hearing from Ricky Schroder, who was in town for the GI Film Festival.  The actor winged his remarks and said he hadn’t even known that this was a problem.  He commended us for doing what we were doing and concluded by saying, “I leave you with …. hope.”  He also said he’d do his part in getting celebrities and Hollywood back in DC to address the National Mall issue.

Here we are … face to face .. a couple of silver spoons…

Oh, and did I mention that while I was getting my photo taken with the award winning “Silver Spoons”/”NYPD Blue”/film star, he actually serenaded me with the “Silver Spoons” theme song (unsolicited, mind you).  Ricky’s voice wasn’t too bad. Not too bad at all.  The other celebrity who was supposed to attend, Whitney Houston, ended up skipping town (the rumor mill has been churning all day with the recent announcement of her ex-Bobby Brown’s Friday night engagement).  The word on the Mall is that she pulled up in her limo and for some reason, she wasn’t able to walk to the tent.  Wind, scheduling, sordid ex-’s engagement, who knows, it’s all hearsay and we may never know why Whitney didn’t show.

David Vennett, Ricky Schroder, Lorie Peters Lauthier, Andy Baldwin and Xavier Fco. Equihua

Meanwhile, in The Dancing Tent, DJ Heather Fermia pumped out the music and the narrow dance floor filled quickly and stayed full until they shut down.  The tent was packed, but well spaced out with seating pods and food and drink stations.  The only challenge, well, there were two, but one I could have fixed had I read the weather report and brought a wrap/scarf/fur coat.  The wind and the chilly temperatures wreak havoc on a fun time.  The men in their tuxes were smug as they walked in and out of the Kohler transportable deluxe restrooms and the ladies, well, we were freezing as we stood in line for about 20 minutes each. Yes, the second issue was the ladies room line.  But hey, you can always network and make conversation in a ladies room line.

Ashley Taylor and Austin Bryan; the glass bulb chandeliers in the Dinner Tent

Great job to the L’Enfant Society Board, Chairs, Steering Committee and Staff as well as to our L’Enfant Society Honorary Co-Chairs, Mr. and Mrs. David Pollin.  And congratulations on raising $350,000 for this event alone.  David Vennett, the 2011 Co-Chair has some shoes to fill…but I don’t doubt he’ll sort it out.

Salon one80′s Jordan Pringle and Shannon Cusello who styled L’Enfant Society Board Members’ hair pre-Ball