The pandemic of possibilities for the St Marys Country Club
The first photoshoot of 2021 started with a lovely drive through the country roads that lead to St Marys. In late November 2020, Matt Staffen, manager from the St Mary's Golf & Country Club, reached out to us to coordinate a photoshoot for their new restaurant, Social Thirty One–which came to be because of the first Covid lockdown in April 2020. Some people's challenges are other people's opportunities! The restaurant was born out of a business shift due to the pandemic. Since they had to close the Golf course last summer, they shifted their food services from serving visitors to the club to serve the surrounding community via take-out. It turned out more successful than they could have ever imagined, so they followed their instincts and channelled their energy into upscaling and expanding their menu, giving birth to Social Thirty One.
We got the pleasure to work with Chef Nathan Brown and hear all about his life journey. Turns out he's quite the traveller, and has worked in Bermuda, Dubai, Macau, Singapore, Beijing, Shanghai, Kyoto, Bali, and Vancouver with many renowned chefs from top-notch restaurants and hotels. A very down to Earth chef, that continues to be passionate about local ingredients, culinary artistry and food photography.
We also met Jennifer Benny, Nathan's Sous chef, and Jennifer Dong, the food and beverage manager, who prepared some classy cocktails for the photoshoot. Mark McMurray was our superstar helper of the day. He made sure I got everything I needed for the shoot, was a very patient hand-model for a few images, and while I took the photos for the website, he made little videos and photos for social media promotion. Matt also popped-in to share his enthusiasm!
Fun fact, you probably can’t tell by the pictures, but we shot all food items at The Hideaway, a rustic space destined for Summer weddings and events. It has beautiful, wooden, double-height ceilings and NO heating during the Winter. We made the best out of working with gloves, parkas and scarves, and it proved to be a challenging yet rewarding situation. Is our Latin, thin blood adapting to the Candian weather or what?
It was a good start for 2021. Now The Social Thirty One new website is finally live, beautifully designed by Jonathan Clemens from rTraction, and featuring some of our images. The St Mary’s Golf & Country Club s is finishing up the renovations to the new restaurant space, and the team is eagerly waiting for you to make a little day-trip to visit. See some of the images from the photoshoot below!
