The mini’s went to the March of Dimes Signature Chef’s Auction last night and were beyond well behaved. C-Money helped his dad hand out olive oil cake, while Biggie and I hit the auction tables. We even got to go on stage and accept the Honorary Chef award. Catcher had his moment when he got behind the mike and said to the crowd ‘thank you.’ Congrats to the March of Dimes for raising over 100K for babies born prematurely!
Your response to the Blog It Forward Happy Hour benefit for Anissa Mayhew is PHENOMENAL. We have had so many people asking how they can help. The human spirit is so absolutely beautiful and I am so proud that so many people in our city are eager to help someone out they have never met. Cheers Cheers Cheers. Can’t wait to meet you!
Two months ago I met a woman named Justine. She asked me if I would like to become a Gap Brand Enthusiast. Not knowing what that was I said yes immediately. I dig the Gap and I dig enthusiasm so it just made S-E-N-S-E.
After agreeing to the role of a GBE I found out what exactly that role entails. Jeans, jeans, and more jeans! I would be given the opportunity to try out Gap’s new Born to Fit jeans and throw a party for my friends. Because my life revolves around the restaurant, I thought it would be badass to have the party there. Then I thought why not have the party for the restaurant? An idea was born.
The people who work at our restaurant have become our family. There would be no restaurant without them. There would be no Bon Appetit mention if we did not have back waiters and servers, chefs or dishwashers. There would be no trip to Epcot for the Food & Wine Festival if we had no bartenders and no managers.They make this restaurant. Their beliefs in what we do here inspire me everyday. They are passionate about The Greenhouse Tavern and it shows every time someone writes something kind about us. The Chef and I are extremely lucky to have such a phenomenal set of people making up our Greenhouse family.
The Greenhouse Family (and Potato)
With that in mind, I contacted Justine to see if it may be possible to have a slightly larger party then the one she first offered. I told her my plan, she called The Gap peeps, and gave me the ok to have a Greenhouse Tavern staff Born to Fit party. The Gap sent me TONS & TONS of jeans in all different sizes and flavors. Skinny, straight, loose, and athletic jeans all showed up at more door a few weeks back. Needless to say I was WAY excited for my Gap Born to Fit party.
The party went off without a hitch. The Chef & I wanted to keep it a surprise so we told everyone we were having a staff meeting. All 40 people who work at the restaurant showed up and I was so so so stoked to tell them about my big surprise. We popped some champagene (a 1988 Henriot mind you) and I let the cat out the bag. Awesomeness followed:
My Gap Born to Fit party was too cool for school. And the jeans, well, I’ll let the jeans speak for themselves:
Chris models his Gap Born to Fit Straight Jeans…wowza!
Watch out world, Keri shows her Born to Fit skinnies! A-M-E-N!
Corrine models her kicks and her Born to Fits!
I am so proud of our staff here at The Greenhouse Tavern and I am so grateful that I could share such fantastic and cool jeans with them. I am dead serious about the jeans being cool. Since the party, not 1, not 2, but every single person who celebrated with me at my Born to Fit party has come up to me at the restaurant and told me how magnificent their jeans are. I kid you not. My (and everyone else’s) ass looks fabulous in them. Even the boys. They are truly born to fit.
Feeling lucky? I have a few pairs of doodes jeans to giveaway. There are a few ways to win:
Follow me on Twitter, retweet about this gapalicious giveaway, and leave me a comment with your RT
Leave a comment telling me what your favorite article of clothing is and why
Check out my entire set of Gap Born to Fit Party pictures and leave me a comment on your favorite. And while you are visiting be my homey.
I will pick TEN lucky Born to Fit Jean* winners and for some extra reader loving, I will also be picking THREE peeps** to receive a gift certificate for a pair of FREE Gap Jeans.
PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE make sure to leave a comment on this post of the link to your RT, Flick comment, or FB add. xoxo
*The giveaway will end next Friday the 28th at noon. The jeans giveaway is for mens jeans only, sorry ladies! But the gift certificate giveaway is for the hot mammas!
That’s right friends. You heard me correctly. THEBobby 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
My apologies to those who have already seen this movie. I tried to make a new one but am just too damn tired to follow thru;)
I haven’t been able to collect my thoughts about the restaurant opening. Actually I haven’t even been able to comprehend the idea that the Chef & I(and countless others) actually opened a fucking restaurant. I just cannot fathom it. But we did. And it was is pretty RAD. The past week has been one of the most surreal experiences of my life. I cannot even begin to explain the way I feel about my husband. The pride is so overwhelming that the second I begin to focus on anything chef or restaurant related, a tsunami of tears appear.
I took several videos throughout the week and I had hoped that they would convey what I had experienced. They don’t even come close.
Everyone keeps asking me how excited I am. And I am. But it is SO freaking weird. It absolutely DOES NOT FEEL REAL. I have never had this kind of experience. A dream realized. A dream complete. It may take awhile for me to get used to that fact.
In the meantime I will enjoy the ride of a lifetime.
