How The Equinox turns house-cured meats and local cheese into a self-serve station that keeps groups mingling
Picture the first hour of a conference reception. Two hundred attendees walk in at once. A server carrying crostini gets swarmed by the door, so the back of the room never sees a bite.
Meanwhile, a crowd lines up at the bar instead of meeting anyone new. The networking promised on the agenda is now losing to hunger.
Chef Kirk Morrison’s answer to that problem sits on a wooden board.
Morrison is the executive chef at The Equinox Golf Resort & Spa in Manchester Village, Vermont. The property’s history runs deep: it began in 1769 as Marsh Tavern, Vermont’s oldest hotel and a meeting spot for Ethan Allen’s Green Mountain Boys. Morrison grew up in New Orleans and says he has professionally cooked “for most of my life, probably before it was even legal.”
His charcuterie board appears on the menus at Marsh Tavern and Falcon Bar. A larger version anchors banquet receptions and wedding packages, and that’s the one meeting planners should pay attention to.
The Reception Rush Nobody Puts on the Agenda
Passed hors d’oeuvres look elegant on a banquet event order.
In practice, they hand out food to whoever’s closest to the kitchen door. Plated service fixes the fairness problem but ends the mingling, since a seated guest talks to the same two neighbors all night. Buffets bring back the line.
Planners have noticed.
One Savannah sales director reports that clients increasingly ask for interactive stations over traditional plated or buffet meals, because planners want attendees circulating and interacting rather than parked at a single table.
An event planner quoted in The Meeting Magazines says grazing tables with add-ons and food stations have been the biggest hit with her meeting clients.
Generic Cheese Is a Wasted Opportunity
Now picture the station itself: cubed cheddar, a fan of salami, a few grapes going soft under the lights. That board could be in any hotel in any state, and attendees can tell.
People who travel for a meeting want to taste where they landed.
Conference center operators flagged this years ago, ranking local sourcing as a top trend because attendees want to experience as much of the destination as possible, including locally sourced ingredients in what they eat and drink.
The bar has only risen since.
The ideal sourcing radius keeps shrinking, sometimes to just outside the property.
Vermont Brings an Unfair Cheese Advantage
Morrison has plenty of local cheese to choose from.
According to the governor’s office, Vermont has more cheesemakers per capita than any other state, roughly one for every 13,000 residents.
The Equinox draws from creameries including Shepherd’s Brook Farms, Grafton Village Cheese, Plymouth Artisan Cheese and Cabot Creamery.
“Lots of great dairies in the area. We try to support them all,” Morrison says.
A recent board paired an herb goat cheese with an aged raw cow’s milk blue and a burrata. The burrata blends sheep’s and cow’s milk, and in winter it shifts to mostly sheep’s milk.
That seasonal rotation is a quiet selling point for repeat business.
“The cheeses are always changing,” Morrison notes, so a returning association won’t get last year’s board. The resort’s commitment shows outside banquets as well: it runs an eight-week Cheese & Wine Series class of New England and beyond.
Hot tip: We do private classes for groups as well!
A Chef Who Does It the Hard Way
Morrison’s kitchen skips the shrinking radius and works from inside the building.
He says the board “is almost entirely local, right down to the charcuterie that we make in-house.”
Today’s lineup starts with 18-month-aged prosciutto and a spicy soppressata. Finocchiona, a dried sausage perfumed with fennel, rounds out the meats. The pickles are house-made too: green tomato, onion, and broccoli, each bringing acid to cut the richness. Orange marmalade and local honey supply the sweet side.
“We take a lot of pride in being as local as possible, and I don’t know how much more local you can get than making it in-house,” Morrison says. Anything the kitchen can’t make itself follows a short chain of custody: “If not, they’re coming from a local dairy, a local farm, or closer by.”
For a planner, that difference matters. A reception built on in-house charcuterie gives attendees something the competing destination on the RFP shortlist can’t easily copy.
Why a Board Beats a Tray for Groups
The banquet version uses the same local cheeses and cured meats as the bar board, scaled up and set as a self-serve station. Any group can add one, from a twelve-person board retreat to a full conference reception.
The Equinox includes boards in its wedding packages. Especially for cocktail-style events, the Vermont charcuterie/grazing board has taken the wedding world by storm, it is an attractive hand-crafted display of delicious local goods that guests love to gather around and explore
Self-serve does a few useful things at once. A well-placed station pulls people across the room, spreading traffic away from the bar. It also gives strangers an easy opening line. Nobody needs an icebreaker when the person next to them is asking whether the pickled green tomato is worth it.
Self-serve also helps guests with dietary restrictions. At one event, planners found that a station where guests could see every ingredient let attendees with allergies eat with confidence. A board where each cheese and cure is visible and labeled works the same way.
The bar can join in too. The kitchen recommends a crisp Sauvignon Blanc with the cheeses and pickled vegetables, and sparkling wine alongside the savory charcuterie. A light-bodied Pinot Noir works well with the cured meats. Those pairings fit neatly into a hosted bar and give the reception a curated feel without a sommelier on the payroll.
Motion to Approve
The first hour of a reception decides whether attendees spend it meeting people or waiting for food. A station stocked with Vermont cheese and meats cured down the hall keeps people moving and gives them something to talk about. It also reminds them where they are.
Morrison is confident about the setting, too: “You should stop on by The Equinox for the best view in Manchester and the best charcuterie board in the area.” The view checks out. Falcon Bar looks out on the Green Mountains through its original windows.
Planning a meeting, retreat, or reception? Explore meetings and events at The Equinox or weddings, and ask the team about adding a charcuterie station.