Probably a 4 hr lunch at Fat Duck. My 10 yr old son was not amused at having to eat all those funny things.
At restaurants:
Wine lunches with my regular wino friends regularly run 5-6 hours and we do this maybe 2-3 times a month.
Longest running wine meal was at the Stockbroker’s Masseto Wine Bar when lunch started at 12:30 and I got out of there at a little past 11pm - so conservatively 10½ hours.
At our homes (i.e., mine or my dad’s or the family beach house):
Can’t say because eating never really stops from when wakes up until one calls it a night.
In restaurants, I’ve had so many 5h+ meals that I cannot really remember the longest one…
I fondly recall a lunch at Bernard Loiseau. We intended to stay for 1h max, take one dish and carry on driving to Clermont-Ferrand where we had to be at 5pm. Turned into a memorable 6h lunch… we justified being late because of several “bouchons” on the road…
At home, it’s happened a few times that lunch extended into dinner without any interruption…
Growing up in France, we had a lot of meals that were 6+ hours. Typical wedding reception would start around 4:00 P.M., dinner around 7:00 and finish dessert around 2:00 A.M.
Lately, a good wine dinner at our house is usually a 5 to 6 hour affair. With nice pacing, wonderful wines and great company, you barely notice the time flying by.
4 hour dinner at Per Se a few years back…21 glorious courses.
Whenever we go to The Kitchen in Sacramento, we are there for well over four hours.
The longest, however, was when my now brother-in-law was a sous chef at Bouchon in Yountville. That night went for a good six hours.
I have done this 4 time that I can recall… once at Spago in Chicago, twice at St. John in London and once at Troisgros…
I sat down for lunch at noon and left the restaurant at midnight or later…in the case of spago…it was lunch… that was then cocktails…then dinner, then cigars in the cigar bar… twice at St. John I have sat down for wine lunches, stayed when my lunch companions left for other things, met folks for drinks in the bar and then settled in the dining room for dinner… there is photographic evidence that I fell asleep for a short time at one of those dinners. At Troisgros, we had a five hour lunch…returned to our rooms at 6pm to check email and shower, and returned to the lounge at 7:30 for an appertif and appetizers and then proceeded to have a 5 hour dinner… which was essentially the same as lunch… I can’t do that anymore…at least I wouldn’t be able to live… but 4 to 6 hour meals are not unheard of for me…
Scott,
We need to go to Troisgros sometime. I’ve been there twice for dinner, but never for lunch. I want to do the lunch and dinner marathon. I’ll suggest it for Howard and crew if they go this summer.
Another place to do this would be Pic in Valence, or La Pyramide in Vienne. I guess if you could do all 3 in one trip it would be a triple double.
That would be great. I will be at Troisgros in September, you should come? When in the Rome, I always eat at Pic…Love it… the green room is my favorite… beautiful place…
Never went to La Pyramide…would have love to have gone in the day…
Seems to be the norm for longest meal… nearly 6 hours. We arrived at Alinea at 7 p.m. and departed just shy of 1 a.m. It flew by.
I had dinner at Alinea last week and it was about 3 hours. We did the shorter menu though.
How was it? I have been meaning to go back.
My longest dinner was at l’Hermitage in LA about twenty years ago with another couple - we started at 7 and went until about 2:30 AM. The longest I have heard of happens to be the other couple who was at that dinner. They went to Girardet for lunch at noon, finished at around 7 PM and went for a short walk and came back for dinner until 1 AM.
Scott
We are going to Troisgros in November - don’t order all the good wines!!
I will be there Sept 12…I will leave you a few Roulot and Rousseau…
I have sat at the same table from lunch to closing, about 14-15 hours.
Sorry for the delay in response. I really enjoyed it. Certainly the best restaurant in Chicago. The room is great with wide comfortable tables and chairs. It has a little atmosphere that’s a lighter than Trotters. I thought the food was delicious. I know Grant’s food has a rep. for being molecular but for me it is more in the style of FL(from what I read) in that it’s delicious food prepared classically but with extreme precision and innovative presentation. I’m not saying there wasn’t any hocus pocus but the sum total really wasn’t. The service was efficient and friendly. Something that is sometimes missing in 4 star dining. The best part was the winelist. I never realized how inexpensive the list is there. We ordered the wait for it … 05 Mugnier Musigny for $450. That’s right. also had the 04 Raveneau MDT for $160. A great night for our anniversary dinner.