Close friends Bill Patterson and Anne Marie Schultz have joined forces to present a winter supper club, which has been offering five-course dinners at Oddfellows since November.
Now called Sazio, the supper club was started three years ago by Patterson and Patricia Borgula, who originally named it the Green Door.
Sazio, which means “to be fully satiated” in Italian, offers food that blends Italian and Spanish flavors.
When Borgula moved to San Francisco, Schultz began handling the reservations and decorating while Patterson continues to create the menus and prepare the food.
Patterson says Schultz “completely transforms” the dining area and turns it from a “stark room to an inviting, cocoon-like setting.”
During their day jobs, Patterson works at the Inn at Ship Bay, is a caterer, and a sausage maker. Patterson can be seen in the summer selling his sausage products at the farmers’ market. Schultz is co-owner of the Orcas Movement Studio, where she teaches pilates. She is also an event coordinator. Patterson and Schultz met when they both worked at the Inn at Ship Bay.
There is only one seating at 6 p.m. Guests can either sit at a big round table or in smaller groupings. The food is passed around on large platters and guests serve themselves. Their goal is to create a family-style setting with authentic Mediterranean cuisine – with a twist. Patterson prepares meals with elements from Spain, Italy, and North Africa.
“We consciously are trying to recreate the sense that all great cuisine is born of poverty. We try to do what you might find at a family gathering in Spain or Sicily,” said Patterson. They also stay true to Orcas by using local produce as much as possible.
Patterson and Schultz say they couldn’t pull off the dinners without their staff: Amy Raven and Anne Garfield who work in the kitchen and Charlie Robinson who is out on the floor, serving food.
“It’s like having a dinner party at your house but you don’t have to do the cooking or the cleanup,” says Schultz. “People have a great time enjoying the good food.”
The Sazio dinners are held every other Sunday and reservations are required. The next dinner is Jan. 25. To make a reservation, call 472-1314.
The supper club is held only in the fall and winter. Menus can be heard on the answering machine.
