A Peculiar Tea Mystery Dinner | Belfast Whiskey Week 2023

Name: Belfast Whiskey Week 2026
Start: 2026-07-24
End: 2026-08-01
Location: Belfast

Filed: 15 Jul 2023
By: Belfast Whiskey Week
Read: 5 min
Ref: BWW/23/468

There are events you attend knowing exactly what to expect, and then there are evenings like this one — where the not-knowing was half the pleasure. On Tuesday 25th October 2023, Belfast Whiskey Week handed over the reins to the formidable team at A Peculiar Tea for a four-course mystery dinner that kept guests guessing from the first pour to the final dram. Great British Menu chef Gemma Austin was at the stove, BBC Radio presenter Anne Marie Wallace was at the mic, and the only thing anyone knew for certain was that something special was afoot.

About This Event

An Absolute Treat of a Collaboration with Great British Menu Chef, Gemma Austin, at A Peculiar Tea. Unfortunately we can’t Disclose the theme yet or the menu or give away the Game, but we can assure you that this is a Bespoke 4 Course Meal with Whiskies included and a twist that will keep you guessing all night. Our host for the evening is BBC Radio Presenter, Anne Marie Wallace, who will Guide us through the evening's Programme. You are in for a Treat and of course a Show from the talented team at A Peculiar Tea, with Gemma designing a delectable menu. Timeslot: 6pm-9pm Start Time: 6pm Duration: 2.5hrs Venue: Peculiar Tea Drinks: 4 Drinks Type: Dinner Disclaimers Please note that individual dietary requirements are not being catered for with any food at this event. Each Brand/Distillery and Collaborative Partner have agreed to our Min/Max Pour Policy. Please Respect this, and enjoy your festival responsibly. Festival Participants who are deemed to be too inebriated, or are not respecting themselves, will not be permitted into events and venues. ALL Hosts/Ushers/Collaborators and Venue Staff have the right to refuse participants without question and recourse. Please Drink Responsibly. All events are only available to those 18 years old and over. Do not purchase tickets if you are under the age of 18. Be prepared to produce ID if required. Venue staff & ushers may ask you to provide ID when showing your valid tickets. You may be refused enter to events if you can’t prove your age. Some venues may change, if they do, you will be notified. All events are subject to changes out of the control of the festival organisers. Any issues, please contact us @belfastwhiskeyweek on socials, or via email on marketing@belfastwhiskeyweek.com or 07773675179 (8am-8pm) to discuss. NO Refunds will be given. Please only buy tickets if you are prepared to attend the event. Tickets are transferable. If you are going to transfer tickets please email, marketing@belfastwhiskeyweek.com

Looking Back

A Peculiar Tea has long carved out a reputation as one of Belfast's most characterful venues — a place where the unexpected is the house style and the hospitality is anything but ordinary. So when Belfast Whiskey Week announced a collaboration dinner there for 2023, with a theme so deliberately withheld it became part of the spectacle itself, the tickets were always going to move fast. At £65 a head, covering four courses and four whiskey pairings, this was one of the festival's more considered evenings — unhurried, theatrical, and generous in spirit.

The secret, of course, was the point. Gemma Austin — whose presence on Great British Menu had already established her as one of the most exciting culinary voices working in the north of Ireland — designed a menu that couldn't be revealed in advance without giving away the game. And what a game it turned out to be. Each course arrived with its own quiet reveal, its own layer of narrative. The whisky pairings weren't incidental — they were woven into the story, each dram chosen to illuminate something in the food, or the food chosen to coax something new from the spirit. This is the kind of considered thinking that separates a good dinner from a genuinely memorable one.

Anne Marie Wallace, a natural on any stage or broadcast, anchored the evening with warmth and wit. Her role wasn't merely ceremonial — she guided guests through the programme with the ease of someone who understands that a room full of people sharing whiskey and good food needs a conductor as much as it needs a chef. The result was an evening that felt cohesive, curated, and — crucially — fun. The mystery conceit never felt gimmicky because the substance behind it was so assured. BWW 2023 was rich with ambitious dinner experiences: those who enjoyed the theatrical side of things might also look back fondly on the Titanic Distillers Taste of the Shipyard or the elegant RedBreast Fine Dining at Waterman Restaurant — but A Peculiar Tea brought something altogether more playful to the table.

What the evening captured, perhaps more than any other dinner in the 2023 programme, was a particular kind of Belfast hospitality — the duchas of a city that knows how to make a stranger feel like a regular and a regular feel like a guest of honour. The uisce beatha flowed responsibly, conversation rose and fell between courses, and by the time the final glass was raised there was that collective sigh of a room that had genuinely been transported somewhere for a few hours. Sláinte to Gemma Austin, to Anne Marie Wallace, and to the whole A Peculiar Tea team for pulling it off so beautifully.

If an evening of mystery, craft food, and carefully chosen whisky pairings sounds like your kind of festival, keep an eye on the BWW Whiskey Map as we build out the next programme. And for those who want to explore the full range of dinner and supper club experiences that made 2023 such a landmark year, the Urban Scullery Supper Club is well worth a revisit.