Maybe you’ve heard: Taylor Swift released a new album last week. “The Life of a Showgirl” is advertised as a look into the life of music’s biggest star when she’s not onstage, and several local businesses are getting in on the hype. Magic City Books and Ida Red threw listening parties last week; AMC Theaters hosted a limited theatrical run of “The Official Release Party of a Showgirl” which included the premiere of her new music video; even Cain’s Ballroom is celebrating with its own release party for the album.
One local business has been celebrating T-Swift’s work and milestones for the past two-and-a-half years. This week, Duet is bringing back a wine dinner concept that has become one of Tulsa’s hardest dinner reservations to snag. In fact, this one’s already sold out.
The Lore
I remember it all too well. Saturday, April 1, 2023. I was running the registration desk at a work conference, and the first panel was well underway; I had nothing to do. I took the opportunity to doomscroll on Instagram, when I came upon an exciting post.
This was in the early days of the Eras Tour. Swift’s marathon three-and-a-half hour concerts had started a few weeks prior, and videos were going insanely viral on social media. If you didn’t have tickets, you were feeling FOMO. I only began listening to Swift when she released folklore and evermore, so I wasn’t compelled to sign up for a pre-sale code, but when the tour began, with its attendant viral videos, I very quickly regretted that decision.
Desperate to feel some kind of high akin to attending the tour (without the hassle of travel logistics and the stress on my budget or body), I quickly texted a group of Swift fans from work about the dinner. I waited. Before anyone even responded, I called to make the reservation. I knew this would sell out.
The owner answered. When I asked to make a reservation for the Taylor Swift Wine Dinner, she laughed. The post, she told me, was an April Fools joke.
Embarrassed, I texted the news to my friends. It didn’t matter. What was put in motion could not be undone. They, too, decided to call the restaurant, and when given the same response, they tried to convince them to give the concept a shot. And they weren’t the only ones.
Due to the sheer amount of demand for the fake event, Duet declared the Taylor Swift Wine Dinner a reality, and announced they were opening reservations that day. It sold out immediately. They added another night to meet demand, which sold out just as quickly.
Since the April 2023 wine dinner, Duet has brought this concept back more than a dozen times. It’s gone from a one-off Wednesday night event to a four-night block, celebrating everything in Swift’s life from album drops, gaining ownership over her masters, even her recent engagement, and now her latest album. In January 2024, they added Swift-themed Sunday brunches, which they’ve brought back six times. They’ve also expanded their libations to offer nonalcoholic drinks.
The concept of the Wednesday night wine dinner is not new to this restaurant, but it typically sticks to highlighting regional cuisine and wine from around the globe. Since the Taylor Swift Wine Dinner, Duet has created menus which feature other beloved artists and popular culture icons—Beyonce, Chappell Roan, Charli XCX, Mamma Mia, even Shrek—but none have sold out as quickly as the Taylor Swift wine dinner.
So, what makes this wine dinner so special?
The Experience
Because I am chronically online and slightly insane, I’ve been able to snag five reservations to these dinners—which to this day still sell out in minutes. While menus have changed over the years, the trajectory of the night always takes an eerily similar path.
The event starts at 6:30 p.m. and always happens on a weekday. The demographics of the attendees won’t surprise anyone: 99% women, predominantly white. Women get dressed up, sometimes on theme, with their best friend, sister, friend group, or on occasion their supportive boyfriend.
Here’s how it goes. You arrive a bit early to take a picture outside of the restaurant, where there’s often a lifesize Taylor Swift cardboard cut-out or a large banner, styled like a friendship bracelet, for a cute photo backdrop. When you walk in, you’re greeted first by Taylor Swift’s discography and then by either the owner or one of the waitresses, who take you to your table. I avoid the middle of the restaurant as much as possible, unless I’m with a big group. If it’s just me and a friend (almost always my best friend Elise), we prefer sitting on the side, preferably at one of the high tops by the bar, so we can get an optimal view of my fellow guests.
While the restaurant is packed and the energy lively, I wouldn’t necessarily consider the tone “friendly” or “outgoing.” My attempts to talk to those at my neighboring table almost always fall flat, met with an awkward laugh or sometimes a stare and a strained smile. Attendees tend to stick to their groups, huddled over their tables as they try to converse over the music. Even the waitstaff revolve around the tables instead of conversing. And I can’t blame them; it’s a busy night!
Before Duet dishes out the wine, you’re given the opportunity to order a cocktail from the list of five Swift-themed drinks (Look What You Made Me Brew Espresso Martinis, The Last Great American Brine-asty Bloody Marys, and jello shots). The seasoned Taylor Swift Wine Dinner attendee would advise you to steer clear of these clever concoctions—unless you know how to hold your liquor. Believe me, you’ll receive plenty of libations as the evening progresses; and remember, it’s a week night!
In the early iterations of the Taylor Swift Wine Dinner, the first course was paired with your own, personal, small bottle of champagne, complete with a straw. Nowadays, they forgo the bubbles and stick to white wine, and that’s probably for the best. Without any food in your system this early in the evening, the bubbles made for a lot of alcohol, and the noise level got a lot louder a lot quicker in those days.
Even with the change, the staff still serve plenty of wine throughout the night to get you properly toasted. The second course consists of a (cheap-ass-screw-top) rosé, and a red rounds the night out. The waitstaff are generous and keep your glasses full. If you’re too busy scream-singing along to the music, they will come by and top off your glass while you’re not paying attention.
If you’re here for a wine review, leave me alone! I have no intelligent thoughts about the various wines. I like wine; it's my preferred drink. I’ve loved all the wines I’ve had at these dinners, and to my inexperienced palette, they go down easy and pair nicely with the pre-selected menu. Other wines are available for purchase, but I’ve only bought a bottle once, some chianti from I-don’t-remember-where. While wine is clearly a big point of a Duet Wine Dinner, it never seems to be the point of the Taylor Swift wine dinner.
As for the food, surprise! That’s not the point either. There’s very little cohesion here; the goal is more “what’s a clever on-theme pun?” The first dinner I attended consisted of an elevated fried cheese paired with spicy maple syrup, an underwhelming charcuterie plate, and a pretty satisfying steak and mashed potatoes dish. We also had eclairs for dessert, which were not memorable.
While there hasn’t been a singular dish that I have truly disliked, the lineup tends to be incongruous. Fried summer rolls, spinach salad and spaghetti and meatballs. Coconut shrimp, chicken tacos and Asian style sloppy joes (okay, I take it back, I wasn’t a fan of those). None of it is particularly remarkable—except the fried cheese—but it’s tasty enough, and it puts something in your stomach to counter-balance all the alcohol.
It seems to be the perfect amount of food for most people who attend. Most plates are picked up three-quarters of the way eaten. Before writing this, I swore up and down it was never enough food! Looking back at these photos…I feel like this is enough food for one person at dinner, even if my wine-addled brain didn’t remember it that way. Or, I’m just a glutton who likes to chow after a long work day!
Now, normally, would I pay $35 for it? No. But, considering I only paid $15 for at least three glasses of, what I consider, really good wine? Tipsy girl math says it all works out and that I’m actually getting a good deal on this experience. I’ll note that the price of the dinner has since increased to $55/person, but I don’t know if the extra $5 went to food or wine.
Regardless, everyone who attends knows that the food is tertiary to the wine, which is secondary to Taylor Swift. So, how does she play into this whole scenario? Why is this the dinner ticket that seems so impossible to get?
As I indicated before, the vibe is not friendly at the start. Everyone sticks to their own groups rather demurely. If it wasn’t for the Taylor Swift songs playing on the speaker or the Taylor Swift themed stickers and menu cards on the table, it would look like a normal dinner service.
The Shift
Maybe it has something to do with where the night goes next. While you sip on your rosé, you start to notice that you’re talking louder to your friend across the table. And then you realize that you’re talking louder because the room itself is louder. People are loosening up, relaxed in their seats, smiling, laughing. Suddenly, it feels jovial.
Then, somewhere between the second and third course, the staff drops the bomb. They play “All Too Well (10 Minute Version),” and the room absolutely erupts. Women are shout-singing as loud as they possibly can, “YOU KEPT ME LIKE A SECRET, BUT I KEPT YOU LIKE AN OATH,” hands are waving in the air, eyes are shut tight. It’s a communal performance! It is raw and it is cathartic and despite how isolating those early moments may have felt, you feel a connection with everyone around you in that restaurant.
The collective high from that moment carries you through the rest of the evening. The energy bubbles throughout the dinner like wine through a bloodstream. The playlist starts incorporating Swift’s earlier work, and people get rowdy. I saw a woman do Swift’s chair choreography to “Vigilante Shit.” During the songs “New Romantics” and “Picture to Burn,” someone started a conga line. One guest broke a light fixture in the restaurant.
The Ending
Last winter, my friend and I joined two girls at a table next to us to sing the final song, “Love Story.” As we packed up to leave, one of the girls expressed how relieved she was that other people wanted to sing along too. She told me that she and her sister were placed at a table with another party of two that was not really into the group concert vibe (they left right after dessert came out). I think that’s the exception, rather than the rule. For the most part, people come here to sing, and to sing publicly, and to engage in this sort of group catharsis.
The Taylor Swift Wine Dinner follows this same arc every time, and I always leave feeling exhilarated, as if I was walking away from the Eras Tour, if I ever got tickets, which I didn’t. What sticks with me, more than the wine or the food or the theme, is this shift in energy that happens somewhere around the third course. It takes so much alcohol and time to get this nearly homogenous group of individuals with a clear shared interest to open up to one another, extend outside of their preestablished group and connect with a stranger. That could be the setting itself; this is a restaurant after all, not a bar or a club. The answer could be more sociological: something to do with the demographic that can not only afford a $55 dollar wine dinner, but also have the type of schedule that allows them to attend it, especially on a week night. It could be reflective of an insecurity around sociability that plagues a lot of young professionals. It’s probably all of those, but that’s another essay.
That later-in-the-evening communal experience is the reason I’m a return customer. Even if I don’t get to discuss Taylor Swift’s image critically, or deconstruct an album over fried cheese—it’s just too loud in there—there’s something to be said for the connection I feel when I’m dancing and singing to a song with a bunch of people in a room. And as someone with a physical disability, it’s difficult (and most of the time too tedious) to go out to a club or concert and sustain the energy needed to really enjoy myself in a similar way. At the Taylor Swift Wine Dinner, I get that concert high and I don’t even have to stand up! And, of course, there’s wine.
The Taylor Swift Wine Dinner has become one of my favorite recurring Tulsa events. I know that makes me sound like the most basic white woman ever, but it’s true! This experience is a glittering, bubbling celebration, perfectly calibrated to leave you in a good mood. No matter what headspace you’re in when you arrive, there’s a Taylor Swift song for you to sing out all that bad energy. Mad at your ex? “Now That We Don’t Talk” lets you stew in pettiness. Frustrated with work? “You Need To Calm Down” is the perfect zillennial rebuttal. And you could screech the lyrics to “You Belong with Me” or “Enchanted” with whimsy in your apartment alone, but it’s way better with fifty other exuberant women doing the same thing.
Maybe you’ll start a conga line. Maybe you’ll make a friend. You’ll definitely feel something. And if the past is any indication, I’ll see you there.
