A New Take on Dinner—From High Above

I recently began using Stumbleupon.com. Initially, my time spent on the site was very minimal, however, as of late I’ve been visiting it on a more frequent basis. On a recent foray into the world of Stumbleupon, I actually stumbled upon a website that literally gave me butterflies in stomach.

Photo Credit: Dinner in the Sky

As most of my friends, acquaintances, readers, followers, frenemies, etc. know, I have a particular penchant for food. I love damn near everything about it: the aesthetics, the sound (yes, if you listen closely, food makes sounds – ever hear a steak sizzling on the grill and think “Ahhhh, yesssss…”?) the alluring aromas, the varying textures and, of course, the flavors (including umami, my new favorite).

So it should come as no surprise to anyone that since cuisine is a tops on my list, dinner is a major contributor to my culinary lust. Well, to be honest, so are breakfast and lunch . . . and snacks in between.

But back to the stumbling.

Imagine if you will being strapped into a leather chair (no, I’m not talking bondage here), seated at a table—actually, the chair is secured to the table—you and 21 of your closest friends, dining on sumptuous fare and enjoying the provided entertainment . . . while suspended 160-180 feet in the air! Talk about a dinner with a view.

This is an absolutely astonishing concept. It’s called “Dinner in the Sky,” and leave it to those wonderful Belgium folks to dream up something so fantastical. Dinner in the Sky is the brainchild of David Ghysels and, together with Stefan Kerkhof of The FunGroup, the seemingly far-fetched concept of people dining in the sky soon became a reality.

Photo Credit: Dinner in the Sky

Dinner in the Sky's high altitude dining is a client-catered event, which essentially means that you, the client, need to bring your own chef (for the sake of catchy acronyms, let’s just call this “BYOC”). That means whatever your culinary delights, within reason, they are yours for the asking when you BYOC. For safety reasons, there are no open flames allowed (but gas bar-b-ques are) while you’re way up yonder, but a creative and innovative chef should have no problem formulating an inventive menu to go hand-in-hand with this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.

Photo Credit: Dinner in the Sky

While I don’t have a fear of heights, I do suffer from vertigo so this particular dining adventure may be a challenge for me. But what a phenomenally fantastic item to tick off on your bucket list (if you’re into that morbid sort of “things-I’ve-gotta-do-before-I-die” type of inventory). Besides, it might be a bit cost prohibitive for my meager budget; Dinner in the Sky primarily operates with corporate clients who pay roughly $38K or more for a dinner of 22. Not sure about you, but I don’t have that kind of cash just sitting around (and if I did, I’d spend it all on Dungeness crab legs…but that’s a-whole-nother story).


Chowing down while livin' it up . . . so high up . . . is not for the faint of heart. If heights give you the willies, you may want to keep your feet planted firmly on the ground. However, if that adventurous streak that runs within you is as wide as it is deep, and your penchant for extreme dining leads to you do things like gnosh on giant beetles as if your nickname were Andrew Zimmern, Dinner in the Sky may be just the thing for you.

Dinnerin the Sky operates in 35 countries, including in the U.S. (Florida and Las Vegas), Canada, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands and the Caribbean.

Photo Credit: Dinner in the Sky

This was just the most unusual find . . . I had to share. Hope you enjoyed it!

When will you be experiencing your Dinner in the Sky?