Their October 28 dinner was the first iteration of downtown restaurant OneSixtyFive’s new dinner series, the Literary Supper Club. Restaurant owner Eileen Horner said she asked the Bowdoin duo to host the inaugural supper.
Echeverria, a New York City native, is pursuing an honors project, “Reading the City: Mythmaking and the Metropolis,” which incorporates research she conducted this summer on Irving’s A History of New York. Chakkalakal, a professor of Africana studies and English, teaches Irving in her American literature classes and is the creator and co-host of the acclaimed podcast Dead Writers, which explores great American authors through the places they lived.
At OneSixtyFive, local book lovers, including several Bowdoin students, took their seats at a large dining table. As they got to know one another, they were served a three-course meal of black garlic soup with charred sourdough bread, blood-orange glazed duck breast, and a dark chocolate cake with pomegranate coulis, prepared by the staff of OneSixtyFive. As the dinner concluded, the table shifted into a conversation about what participants knew about Irving and his work.
Chakkalakal prompted guests to conjure up images of the Headless Horseman and Ichabod Crane, both well-known characters in The Legend of Sleepy Hollow. Echeverria then summarized the tale. “It’s kind of a false ghost story, which I feel like Irving is known for,” she said. “It’s a story that’s meant to be something else.”
Chakkalakal and Echeverria discussed how Irving was famous for constructing “fake stories” and passing them off as real. In his biography of George Washington, he made up the tale of Washington and the cherry tree, and, in A History of New York, written under the alias Diedrich Knickerbocker, he fabricated the city’s history. That tale resulted in the name of the New York Knicks, named after Mr. Knickerbocker, Echeverria told the group.
“Washington Irving’s thing is to tell interesting stories and to come together and share those stories with each other over a good meal,” Chakkalakal said after describing a scene in the novel in which the characters similarly gather to share stories. “And sometimes these stories become true.”
Participants asked questions of Chakkalakal and Echeverria, about the comedic and supernatural elements of Sleepy Hollow, the influence of Irving on other American authors, and adaptations of the work. Some participants even regaled the group with their own ghost stories.
At the culmination of the night, some attendees headed off to the Eveningstar Cinema to catch a screening of the 1999 film Sleepy Hollow.
“We’re all coming here because we wanted to hear a good story. And I think it’s also the link between generations,” Echeverria said. “I think fiction can be a great connection.”
