Secret Supper Society
Artisan West Hartford
West Hartford
May 15, 2026
People often refer to special or memorable evenings as metaphorically magical, but I had a literally magical evening that pleased my palette and blew my mind.
Magician and mentalist Jason Bird was the entertainment for the Secret Supper Society, an evening of fine dining and magic at the Artisan West Hartford. Jason is a veteran performer, having spent 25 years wowing crowds in Las Vegas before relocating to the East Coast during the pandemic. If Jason was dazzling crowds in Sin City, you better believe he rocked the intimate gathering in West Hartford.
But first, the food. The Artisan is a lovely restaurant, tucked away in the corner of the Delmar Hotel in West Hartford Center. We were treated to a three-course meal as part of the show. I selected the chilled Andalusian gazpacho as an appetizer, and the grilled black angus New York striploin for my entree. The steak was cooked perfectly at medium temperature, tender and juicy. The gazpacho was a surprising taste for me, as I’d never had cold soup before; fresh and tangy, it went well with the rest of the dinner.
I attended the event with my good friend, Indya, who ordered the crispy goat cheese salad. She runs her own catering company called Refined Twist, and is as demanding of other people's food as she is of her own. She had me try her salad, which she didn’t stop raving about. The cheese was the star of the plate, with the crispy outer shell giving way to the creamy, flavorful cheese within.
Dessert was espresso mousse, which managed to be both rich and fluffy and light at once. Speaking of espresso, Artisan made the best espresso martini I’ve ever had, bar none.
Jason Bird worked the audience as we ate dinner, taking the opportunity to perform some up close magic. Aside from being a talented magician, he was funny and generous. Yet this was the ultimate test: Could he manage to pull off his magic while my friend and I watched like hawks, looking for any clue as to how he made his tricks work?
After some great card tricks and a truly mind-bending trick involving a lighter, I was more stumped than ever.
I participated in one of the tricks. I was called up, given a piece of paper, a clipboard, and a marker. Jason had the same. We positioned ourselves across the room from each other.
“Think of your dream vacation, some place you’ve already been or some place you’d love to go,” he said. Alaska popped into my mind. Don’t ask why, but I’ve always wanted to take a cruise to Alaska.
“Now that you have the place in mind, I want you to draw that place as best you can. And I’m going to read your mind and draw what you draw.”
How does one draw Alaska? Should I draw the Iditarod? A vast tundra? Sarah Palin? I finally settled on drawing snowcapped mountains under a snow storm, the internationally recognized symbol for the state. When I finished, Jason beckoned me towards him, and said we would reveal our pictures simultaneously.
When we did, they were almost exactly the same. Look for yourself in the picture above – my drawing is on the left, and Jason’s is on the right.
Jason pulled off some of the most mind-boggling tricks I’ve ever seen, but I don’t want to ruin the surprise by describing them.
I can tell you about his final trick of the evening, which turned us all into magicians. Jason is unabashed in his love of card tricks. He gave everyone in the audience their own pack of cards. He then instructed us carefully on cutting the deck and flipping cards over like a professional. Once he was done, we’d all found the ace of spades in our decks.
There’s really only one question to ask about the evening: how? How did Jason Bird guess what I drew? How did he get a room full of people to pull the same card at the same time? How did he do any of the incredible things he managed?
Well, if you really want to know, I’ll tell you.
It’s magic.
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