That’s right friends. You heard me correctly. THE Bobby Flay loves Greenhouse Tavern chicken wings. THE Bobby Flay who runs 400 million successful restaurants, is married to my favorite ex L & O DA (if you can figure that out then we should be bestest friends), & THE Bobby Flay who made over 15 gazillion million dollars last year, LOVES LOVES LOVES our chicken wings.
Evidence:
I know the above fact because as a Chef’s Widow sometimes I get lucky enough to be invited to some really fucking awesome events. One of these events happened last Sunday at Lola and then later at The Greenhouse. The event was an event that Mike Symon does every year and holds near and dear to his heart. Share Our Strength is an organization whose goal is NO KID HUNGRY. A beautiful goal. The entire evening was very inspirational and quite emotional. Listening to the cold facts about hungry children in our country is devastating and somewhat hard to believe. The whole night got me thinking about charity. As a restaurant we are given many opportunities to participate alongside charities. We do benefit dinners, we give away gift certificates & cooking classes, and we participate in other restaurants charity events. We haven’t however really aligned our restaurant with any particular charity. Symon does an SOS dinner every year. This year alone he raised $55,000 $95,000 (early morning text from Symon letting me know my faux pas)for the cause. Way awesome. We support Slow Food however that is more of an organization (an awesome one at that) than a charity. This leads me to believe that we (as a business) need to align ourselves with a charity. But how do we choose?
I have always been a write the check kind of girl when it comes to charity. When Global Green sends me a letter, I send them money. When the (RED) organization asks me to buy (RED) products like computers & clothes, I do. I would like to choose an organization that we can support year round. We could have events, drink specials, or even classes were a portion goes to our charity of choice. I suppose that is something that I should start to research. I (and the Chef) wholeheartedly believe in giving back to the world that gives us so much. And we are very fortunate enough to have a tool to do so. I would love suggestions of strong organizations (local, international, and national) that are sucessful, beneficial, and true. xoxo
Now back to Bobby Flay.
The SOS dinner was delicious and beautiful, however the afterparty was the funk. Symon asked the Chef to host it at The Greenhouse Tavern and host he did. The tavern rented a Slushee machine and made Dark & Slushies and Watermelon Coolers. Afreakinmazing. At the afterparty I watched Bobby Flay inhale a plate (s) of chicken wings, I played Bocce Ball against Jonathan Waxman (and won!), and I was 1/3 of a Nolan sandwich(see below). Not bad for a night in the Cleve.
The lovely Ms. Symon, myself, and Nolan enjoy a little sandwich time
***There is exactly 33 minutes left to try and wine a kickass swag bag from Chef’s Widow. Bonne Chance.
***And if you are feeling so inclined please check out Bon Appetit’s Top Ten Best New Restaurants and leave your comments about your GHT experience.
It seems we’ve got a hater on our hands. Someone’s getting crazy with the haterade.
I need to make it down to the GHT, and I will leave my haterade at home. I love some chicken wings! momo71 can play a game i like to call, hide and go fuck yourself!
Screw the haters, it’s all just petty jealousy. You two worked hard for what you’ve accomplished so don’t let some jackhole ruin it.
How amazing that Bobby Flay came to town for the event. Did he bring Stephanie with him? btw, I’m sitll kind of bitter about NBC canceling her show, Conviction. I liked it and still catch reruns when they’re on. But what do I know? I’m not some fancy exec at NBC, just someone that loves TV.
How wonderful! Heard the event was a great sucess. Negative people have nothing better to do with their time, don’t pay them any attention! If you are interested in supporting a local charity and the fight against hunger in our community, you should consider the Cleveland Foodbank.
You can always look at it this way, you aren’t doing it right if you aren’t pissing someone off. And as you, my credit card company, and the internet know….you guys are doing it right!
Law and Order District Attorney?! Used to watch L & O constantly! She is so adorable! How amazing that Bobby Flay came to the event…I’m jealous! Good luck finding an organization to support. It feels good to give back, doesn’t it?!
Congrats Amelia to you and Jon on the BonAppetit Top 10! Great to see it in print.
My two very favorite charities are Heifer International and Donors Choose. Heifer provides farm animals to families in poverty-stricken areas of the world, teaches sustainable agriculture techniques and requries each family that receives an animal to “pass on the gift” of its first offspring to another family in their village. It helps whole villages lift themselves out of poverty, and it just a great organization. They’re at http://www.heifer.org
Donors Choose is a website that lets donors choose a specific school classroom project to donate to. You can pick from across the country (local or anywhere else) and teachers list what they want to do and how much money it will cost. After you donate you get thank you notes from the kids about what it means to them, which is just awesome. I helped provide a magazine subscription to a classroom in Austin and one of the thank you notes that I got from a 4th grade girl said that she’s thinking of becoming a scientist. Pretty wonderful. They are at http://www.donorschoose.org.
Awesome, fantastic, perfect, joyous news! What an amazing, fun day. Huge congrats to you and your chef.
As a cook, I love what you guys are doing. I’m moving back to Cleveland in about a month and can’t wait to stop in for a bite.
As for the charity, check out The $10 Club (http://thetendollarclub.org). It’s a charity based out here in DC. It’s amazing the good that can be done for basically the cost of two packs of cigarettes.
Love all around for you and your chef. Let the haters bring their own water. Or better yet, go somewhere else to moan and groan. They must have hate every resto in NYC then since they only serve straight -from -the -pipes -tap. Oh, and thanks Cara, for being a part of DonorsChoose.org. Last year I applied for a grant and was given over $350 in math manipulatives for my second grade class. I can’t tell you how useful they are and the K, 1, and 3rd grade teachers were always borrowing them. LOVE donorschoose.org.
Those chicken wings are really exceptional. Bobby Flay has the right idea. I have eaten them every time I’ve been to the GHT. They go great with that tomato/crouton soup!
I work for a library, love books and love kids so I think the charity called “First Book” is super cool.
http://www.firstbook.org/site/c.lwKYJ8NVJvF/b.674095/k.CCA8/First_Book_Homepage.htm
Check it out!
The Cleveland Food Bank is a wonderful organization that has long done important work in our community. What better charity for a restaurant to align with than one that feeds those in need?
Your locks are GORGEOUS!
I agree with Bobby! We tried the Greenhouse Tavern for the first time earlier this week. Everything was awesome – including the chicken wings. Congrats on the Bon Appetit Top 10.
I know of two organizations you may want to consider. From reading your blog over time, I know that your family has been affected by pancreatic cancer. Last summer it also claimed my very brave brother in law (he was 31). When he was diagnosed and I started learning more about the disease, I was amazed at how limited the treatment options are due to lack options at this point in their research. Two great organizations that are working hard to find a cure are the Pancreatic Cancer Action Network (PanCan) and Lustgarten Foundation. I pasted their links below if you want to check them out.
http://www.pancan.org
https://www.lustgarten.org
Long time reader, first time commenter.
I love the blog and your perspective as the wife of a chef/restauranter owner.
As a fan of Symon I am extremely jealous that you guys get to hang out with him on a regular basis.
On a side note: Cabot is back on SVU. After the DA they got to replace Novak more or less sucked they temporarily wrote her out of an episode by saying Jack (McCoy) had sent her to Washington but had sent a replacement, and the replacement was Cabot who had come out of witness protection because the guy who tried to kill her had died. She showed up in 4-5 more episodes as a “special guess star” the “new DA” never came back and shortly after the season ended it was announced Cabot was back as a regular.
So yeah, that was a little bit more of a tangent than I meant to go on, but I still love the blog
~Tim
Thank you for all the suggestions. I am so excited about them all don’t know how we are ever going to pick just one. Tim & Kelly we are so besties. I didn’t know she was back but I am stokked.
And again thank you for reading and for supporting this little ‘ol blog I call home. xoxo
I love me some chicken wings!
She was my fav on SVU, too!
If you wish success in life, make perseverance your bosom friend, experience your wise counselor, caution your elder brother and hope your guardian genius.
Regardless if I work with computers, with high technology, I always try to put in the feel of the hand.