In October 2019, my friend Anne and I headed to Florence for the final Friends of the Café dinner of the 2019 season. The chef was Tandy Wilson of Nashville. As the diners gathered, we were treated to music by Single Lock Records musician Caleb Elliott, accompanied by violinist Kimi Sampson. It was, as always, a relaxing, magical evening at the former t-shirt factory – now the headquarters of Natalie Chanin and Project Threadways, the 501(c)(3) umbrella that guides the work of the Alabama Chanin fashion brand and The School of Making (Project Threadways | Alabama Chanin).

Nobody suspected that in five months the world would stop and that would be our final trip to Florence for several years.

Now, five years later, Anne and I are once again traveling to the Shoals on a beautiful fall evening toward the end of cotton season. Cotton fields are on each side of the highway, farm vehicles head home for the night, and cotton lint dusts the shoulder of the road like the aftermath of a winter flurry. When we received word that another Friends of the Café event was in the offing, it didn’t take long to text each other Let’s go. We also wondered if it would still be as magical an experience as some of the past dinners.

This most recent dinner was helmed by Vishwesh Bhatt, James Beard Award-winner at Oxford, Mississippi’s Snackbar (citygroceryonline.com). Born in Gujarat, India, Bhaat’s culinary training began in his mother’s kitchen and was further honed in the United States, where he moved as a teenager. Indian culinary influences mesh beautifully with his adaptation of dishes and ingredients of the Southern U.S. His 2022 cookbook, I Am from Here, illustrates Bhatt’s creativity and blend of unique but related styles.

Arriving at the Factory felt like a homecoming of sorts after five years and, after over two dozen of these events, I felt like we were Friends of the Cafe “O.G.s.” We didn’t know a lot of people there but were happy to see them. When we arrived, Natalie Chanin warmly greeted people at the door as the staff handed out glasses of brut rosé. Passed hors d’oeuvres included a lamb keema shepherd’s pie, royal red shrimp salad on a cornbread cracker, and Benedictine on rye topped with paddlefish roe. These preliminary bites were a tasty enticement for the meal to come.   Entering the Factory, guests encounter the showroom featuring Alabama Chanin’s latest line and other items of interest, including books, art, and dinnerware. Farther back, and behind a curtain of lights, is the inviting café area with places casually set at expansive wooden tables. We briefly discussed with Natalie the changes wrought by the pandemic and agreed that so many things had been changed by that period that will never be the same.

The guests took their seats in the café and introductions were made. All proceeds from the dinner will benefit Project Threadways and, at Chef Bhatt’s request, his chef’s fee will be donated to Giving Kitchen (thegivingkitchen.org), a nonprofit that provides emergency assistance for food service workers, including financial support and other community resources. Chef Bhatt’s charming and insightful comments evoked the textile history of his childhood home in India and the textile history of the Shoals area of Alabama. The first platters began to arrive for a family-style course – an impressive platter of sprouted lady cream pea chaat with apples, onions, chilies, sweet and spicy chutneys, and corn tortilla “sev.” It was a delicious mix of tastes with a pleasing heat that came in with subtle notes at the end. The next dish was a bowl of crab and fregula in a refreshing tomato-chile broth, brightened by fresh herbs.

Everyone at our table seemed delighted. Which brings up another highlight of the Factory dinners: I am always impressed by the range and variety of guests in attendance. We have met and dined with people from all over the country and, indeed, around the world at these events. I have met people I have stayed in touch with and some who have become friends. At the Vishwesh Bhatt event, we lucked into sharing a table with a young couple named Kristy and Ben who own a record store / bodega in downtown Florence — an “elevated bodega,” according to one report. There are always intriguing and entertaining people “at table” at the Alabama Chanin Factory and Ben and Kristy filled us in on the events and artists forthcoming at fashion designer Billy Reid’s Shindig, which was taking over the town that weekend.

The final family-style course of the dinner was a platter of ginger-peanut braised beef short ribs on a bed of Anson Mills pencil cob grits, served with a side dish of roasted okra. The fork-tender beef and the gravy from the various juices and herbs were succulent and perfect and the okra was a fresh and bright reminder of the season just past.

Chef Bhatt made some parting remarks and dessert was a chocolate-tahini tart with spiced honey. Need I say more? As we left, I commented to Natalie that Anne and I had worried that the experience might not be as magical as it had been in years past. “Was it?” she asked.

Oh yes. It was good to be back.