Tonight Clairemont client, Chef Teddy Diggs of Il Palio, will take diners at the James Beard House on an Italian Olive Oil Road Trip. We are honored to work with Chef Teddy and for Clairemont’s Cherith Andes to be in attendance at tonight’s dinner.
Wish you could be there, too? Watch Chef Teddy live on the James Beard kitchen cam! Interested in other work Clairemont does in the restaurant industry? Read our Restaurant PR posts.
We love this shot of two Clairemont clients, Chef Teddy Diggs of Il Palio and Sam Ratto of Videri Chocolate Factory, taken recently at Videri’s fifth anniversary party. Chef Teddy is one of the many well-known chefs who uses Videri Chocolate to create signature desserts.
Both gentlemen will be participating in Charleston Wine+Food in March, and Chef Teddy Diggs will be cooking at the James Beard House in New York next month. But why wait for these events to experience their talents if you can drop in and see them sooner! Check out Il Palio’s hours and location here, and details for Videri here.
When Instagram rolled out Stories, clients, friends and colleagues alike asked us to weigh in on this new tool, especially with its marked resemblance to Snapchat Stories.
After a little research, several 10-second #velfies (video + selfie) and lot of neon doodling, we concluded, like other industry colleagues, that Snapchat and Instagram stories do indeed offer similar functionalities. But for businesses already engaging their audiences on Instagram, Instagram Stories provide another avenue to strengthen these online relationships. In addition, it taps into one of Instagram’s originally cherished qualities: the instantaneous, “behind-the-scenes” approach to content creation.
For those in the food and beverage industry, we cooked up a few tasty tips to use Instagram Stories in your restaurant!
Instagram story content stays fresh for 24 hours, providing the perfect opportunity to tout a deal, coupon or promotion with a sense of urgency. In addition, followers might be inclined to check your feed more often once they know you share “now or never” deals from their favorite restaurant or chef.
With the 24 hour limit, Instagram Stories allow restaurants to post project updates more frequently without the fear of permanently flooding their feeds. Share shots throughout the day of a dining room renovation or the stages of creating a dish from raw to ripe for the evening menu. Even diners can tap into the spirit by sharing the courses of a meal or stages of a culinary event.
Dissect the DishIt’s a one-time opportunity to provide meaningful backstory to your food — in a brief and light-hearted visual format. Chefs can doodle on photos of their menus to highlight new feature items or explain favorite parts of a dish.
Could this be the newest iteration of the ubiquitous Instagram takeover? With Insta Stories, chefs have the opportunity to “narrate” their experiences during a takeover in a more personal fashion through text, filters or drawings. In addition, the 24-hour time limit allows for increased content without increased clutter. Host Instagram accounts could leverage the time frame to increase user engagement; in a short 24-hour span, chefs can post festival highlights or booths and ask fol
lowers to find and repost each location a la a virtual scavenger hunt!
Get personal, stay light and be fun. Insta Stories offer an ideal medium for staff interviews, backstage tours of the kitchen and quick glimpses into the cooking process.
What other flavorful favorites would you suggest for this Instagram tool? In the meantime, check out our other social media tips for restaurants.
Active verbs, lean sentences, compelling facts. We’ve heard all the tips and tricks to crafting copy, and it’s one of things we love to do at Clairemont! This fall, we had the privilege to pen an article for Chapel Hill Magazine on behalf of Clairemont client, Il Palio, to unveil an upcoming Italian celebrity chef dinner — and the Instagram story behind it!
Here is the copy as it appears on ChapelHillMagazine.com!
Teddy Diggs, executive chef at Il Palio, has long championed the heart and soul of regional Italian cooking, from his early apprenticeship under legend Fabio Trabocchi to his recent pilgrimage through Tuscany. Italian guests claim that 
his authentic pastas, smoky sauces and daring dishes – like wood-grilled octopus – summon fond memories of their homeland. So it was no wonder that Teddy connected almost through cosmic destiny with Katie Parla, acclaimed Italian author and colleague of Mario Batali.
After volleys of bounced emails, Katie sent Teddy an Instagram message with a friendly yet unlikely dinner invitation. She lived in Rome. Teddy worked in Chapel Hill. But as luck would have it, Teddy just happened to be on a nine-day sojourn through Italy, and it wasn’t long before the two were sharing forkfuls of carbonara in a Roman cafe.
“Italian cooking is like a language of its own,” said Chef Teddy. “It’s accessible and approachable, but there’s a deep connection between the ingredients and the heart of the chef. Both Katie and I have a passion to share the spirit of Italian cooking with guests around the world.”
With that, these two fast friends set their sights on Chapel Hill. On November 15, 2016, Katie and Chef Teddy will fire up the grill to offer a culinary tour of the hidden hearths of Italy’s capital. Hosted at Il Palio, this Tasting Rome feast will feature recipes from Katie’s acclaimed cookbook, Tasting Rome, along with classics from Teddy’s regional Italian repertoire. The culinary line-up features gems like cacio e pepe, an elegant Italian hallmark crafted from only three ingredients. And lest ye forget, Italy is famed for its wine, and no Italian feast is complete without a glass (or three) of the country’s treasured vintifications.
“After spending more than a decade in Rome, I have cultivated a love for the heart Italian cuisine,” said Katie. “I was excited to connect with Teddy, since his approach to ingredients and regional cooking so closely reflects what I have come to know as true Italian food.”
For those saving pennies for a plane ticket to Europe, Teddy and Katie recommend Flavio, a delightful ristorante tucked off the thoroughfares of Rome. For the rest of us, they’re bringing the heart and soul of Rome directly to you.
For more information, visit www.ilpalio.com. Tickets may be purchased by calling 919-918-2545 and include signed copies of the Tasting Rome cookbook, wine pairings, tax and gratuity.
Image courtesy of Katie Parla.
If you ask me where to go to enjoy a glass of wine with friends in Raleigh, that’s a no-brainer. Clairemont client, Vita Vite opened at the end of last year and has quickly become a downtown hot spot. Best place for dinner with wine in Chapel Hill? Oh, pick me! I know that one, too. Il Palio, also a Clairemont client, is the absolute best at pairing regional Italian cooking with wine from Italy’s 20 regions and vintifications produced in every corner of the Italian Peninsula.
Ask me to pick a bottle of wine outside of the doors of these establishments with no expert help from our clients and I might hesitate. However, my recent trip to Napa certainly provided a strong foundation for my wine knowledge. What better place to start than Opus One! I captured this shot during a tour and was intrigued to learn that Opus One hand-harvests and hand-sorts all grapes, and after about a year and a half in these beautiful barrels, the wine is bottled.
Can learning about wine really help me be a better public relations counselor? Many of our clients would say so. Read more about our restaurant PR work, and let me know if you agree.
