Candi Dailey Is Turning Dinner Into A Cultural Movement

Candi Dailey’s model of hospitality is about greater than meals. The founder and CEO of Potomac Hospitality Group (PHG) has spent practically a decade constructing experiences that honor tradition, neighborhood, and connection — from Prince George’s County kitchens to luxurious eating activations that would sit comfortably beside any five-star vacation spot.

Her signature occasion, the Fried Chick’n & Champagne Secret Supper Expertise, began as a small, heartfelt celebration for native changemakers. Right this moment, it’s one of many DMV’s most anticipated cultural dinners — a night that blends consolation meals, magnificence, and storytelling in a approach solely Dailey may think about.

“We do a whole lot of work locally all year long,” she says. “We wished to have fun different folks and corporations doing the identical factor. So we requested ourselves, how will we merge the consolation meals folks know us for with the posh experiences we additionally create? And actually, what’s higher than champagne with fried rooster?”

This 12 months’s sold-out Secret Supper carried a “Juke Joint” theme — a nod to the Southern areas the place meals, music, and reminiscence as soon as lived facet by facet. The occasion took over Hennessy Creek in Brandywine, Maryland, the place greater than 200 company gathered for an evening that felt nostalgic and forward-moving on the identical time.

“For us, the juke joint was like dwelling,” Dailey says. “However actually, this one was tougher for our workforce as a result of these are issues folks could already be aware of. So we had to determine the best way to elevate that have.”

The night rolled out in three “actions,” beginning with a bluesy cocktail reception earlier than company moved throughout the grounds for dinner. Chef Saon Brice (Meals Community, Blk Swan) designed a menu that honored the period whereas pushing it into fine-dining territory, paired with Ezra Allen’s cocktails from CAnECollective. Later, “The Voice” alum Tamara Jade lifted the power even increased with a dwell efficiency earlier than the gang entered the juke joint area to bop the night time away.

“We’re capable of inform tales by meals,” Dailey says. “Once we work with cooks, we inform them: you will have a narrative to inform, and that is your probability to shine a lightweight on a second in our historical past.”

PHG’s dinners have explored themes ranging from Moroccan traditions to farm-to-table cooking, at all times with an eye fixed on the African diaspora. The juke joint dinner, held in a renovated barn on Black-owned land, captured that duality: honoring the previous whereas making area for the current.

“It was our approach of celebrating who we’re as a folks and the way far we’ve come,” she says. “The area was lovely, however determining the best way to rework it — that was the attractive battle.”

Past the meals, Dailey is intentional about how company interact with each other.

“There’s energy in serving another person,” she says. “Our dinners are family-style on function. If you cross a plate to any person, dialog begins. You ask the place they’re from. And earlier than it, you’re constructing neighborhood.”

Typically these connections develop into one thing even larger. At PHG’s first Fried Chick’n & Champagne dinner three years in the past, two company — a politician and a businessman — met on the desk. They later partnered on a $90 million growth challenge in North Carolina.

“That’s to not say that occurs at each dinner, nevertheless it goes to indicate you the true energy of connection, proper?” Dailey says. 

Dailey and her husband, Jason, launched PHG in 2016. Right this moment, the corporate has 42 staff and a footprint that reaches far past its Prince George’s County roots.

“When considered one of our staff buys a home or sends their youngster to varsity, I’m actually blissful,” she says. “It means as a enterprise mannequin, we’re doing one thing proper. Individuals rely on the work we’re doing — and that retains us going.”

For Dailey, hospitality is in her blood. She traces it again to the tables of her childhood, her father plating mac and cheese, fried rooster, and all of the fixings for anybody who wanted a meal.

“A few of my first actual reminiscences are soul meals and the artwork of internet hosting and taking good care of folks as a result of my dad and grandmother have been at all times cooking for folks within the neighborhood,” she remembers. “My core reminiscences are these issues, serving folks after which meals. I’m very lucky I get to do what I at all times was round since I used to be a child.”

PHG places that very same spirit into the neighborhood it serves. The group helps native faculties, leads gardening applications, hosts a Senior Friendsgiving dinner annually, and throws one of many space’s most beloved cultural occasions: Ruby’s Household Reunion, named after Dailey’s grandmother. For simply $20 a ticket, practically 20,000 folks collect every summer time to have fun with meals, music, and household.

“I hope folks notice it’s extra than simply about serving meals,” Dailey says. “It’s about actually making an impression. Our objective is to serve for the larger good — by meals and storytelling.”

As PHG approaches its tenth anniversary, Dailey is already planning the following chapter. In 2026, Fried Chick’n & Champagne will increase to California, with plans to host a Secret Supper expertise at a Black girl–owned resort and vineyard close to Sacramento. Extra dinners are slated for Martha’s Winery throughout Black Movie Competition Week.

“We’ve already acquired 4 on the calendar, together with all the opposite occasions we do,” Dailey tells BLACK ENTERPRISE.

Past 2026, Dailey stays clear about what she hopes the long-term legacy of her enterprise can be. 

“The legacy is that we care,” Dailey tells BE. “We’re making folks really feel good by meals, by connection, by tradition. I hope on the finish of the day, folks are saying we do these wonderful occasions which are intentional about celebrating who we’re as a folks, by meals and the way we assist join the dots for others. I’d love for that to be our legacy.”

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