@JimmyJamesSRT Buongiorno Fritatta, a #DoggieAstrology Coffee w/a nod to @jamieoliver @sandrashm

spoiled rotten.  4 hour body frittata made in about 15 minutes by my husband James (@JimmyJamesSRT).  along with some great coffee in my Aquarius Doggie Astrology Coffee Mug (our catahoula Pierre’s sun sign).

honestly, I put all dishes up against what I am very lucky to be served all the time in our (JimmyJames’) kitchen because he is amazing, is a locavore at heart and we are spoiled by living in Sonoma County (land of the farmer market and many places where some of the best product in the world is created, farmed and grown ala “Organic-land”).

JimmyJames Buongiorno Fritatta - 1/4 bag o’ sautéed spinach, 1 can of cannellini beans, 2.5 chicken italian sausage & 6 eggs.  couple decent shakes of Tuscan Italian seasoning. cut sausage, saute spinach in EVOO, drain beans, whisk eggs – dump all in a bowl with the eggs, put in a frying pan and bake till done (about 25 minutes) – top off with some red sauce upon removing from oven.  optional sprinkles of parm on top.  serves 4-6.  Coffee:  make your favorite flavor and pour into a DoggieAstrology.com cup, simple…

My husband is a mix of Sandra Lee’s Semi-Homemade and Jamie Oliver’s Naked Chef - he can look in our pantry and refrigerator (like he did this morning) and knock it out of the park.  Few insider tips:  Sausages were cooked in sauce in a slow cooker a few days ago – so both sauce & sausages were super flavorful.  If you don’t have a crock pot - go buy one they make everything taste better.  Also:  cook up a few items for the week and you will then have them to put in a myriad of dishes. (sausages in sauce, taco or turkey meat, spinach or green in bacon, sautéed root veg.)  Also on a fritatta, don’t open the oven or move it till its done.

mangia, mangia.

cheers!

also if you don’t know about Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution - you should check it out.

Seattle Restaurant Week at Spur Gastropub – Fantastic! @McCrackenTough

Happened to be in town this week for Seattle Restaurant Week. And my Mom scolded me for not blogging about all the places I get to go – so – back on the blog bus y’all.

10 days. Over 150 Restaurants. 3 courses for $28.

Dine out and celebrate the spring run of Seattle Restaurant Week, April 8-19 (excluding Friday, Saturday, and Sunday breakfast/brunch for some restaurants). More than 150 local restaurants are serving up three-course dinners for just $28* – and many of them are offering three-course lunch for $15*.

*Price is per person and does not include drinks, tax or tips.

Landed with my colleagues at Spur Gastropub and it was out of sight.

On the Heddanewman Tablesmacker Scale of 1-5 (5 being the best) – we gave it a high 5 smacks.

What we had and highly recommend…  These items are also on the regular menu (not just restaurant week)

Empress (David Nelson, Spur 2008.)   $12 jamaican rum. grapefruit. st. germain.  (everyone at the table ordered this and loved it, repeatedly)

Tagliatelle   $14 duck egg. oyster mushroom. pine nut. (and a parmesan foam which was unbelievable, the waft of parm coming in as the plate goes down makes your mouth water).

Ice Cream   $7 playful accompaniments.  (most of us had the Bananas Foster ice cream, down to the last drop in the bowl)

The servers were great, the ambiance is terrific (stunning black and white artsy photos change every so often to give the small-ish restaurant some depth.)  Along with beautiful mirrors, exposed edison-like fixtures and bulbs, I’d go back here again and again.

The bartender let us stay till fairly late on a week night and again were fun and didn’t take years to make specialty mixologist cocktails which is a huge plus in my book.  Mixology is fun, waiting hours for someone to snottily chip ice is not.  Spur brings it with super tasty, layered flavorful food, seriously yummy cocktails and a high-end feel with a laid back attitude.

5 smacks, ya’ll.  check out Spur’s blog, Twitter – @McCrackenTough and Facebook

Here is the dish on the place from the Seattle Times:

At this artsy, urban-industrial haunt, Brian McCracken and Dana Tough dabble in the shape-shifting world of molecular gastronomy, finding new ways to manipulate flavor and texture. But they do so judiciously, not just for effect. Try such dishes as the tagliatelle with parmesan foam or carpaccio with fried béarnaise. The art of alchemy also extends to the bar, where house-made tinctures and bitters flavor classic and contemporary cocktails.

113 Blanchard St. Seattle, WA 98121

Phone: 206-728-6706

http://www.spurseattle.com

Hours: Dinner: Daily, 5p.m. – Close

Reservations: Recommended

Average price of a dinner entrée: Under $10 $10 – $15 $15 – $25 $25 and over

Note: Price reflects average breakfast or lunch entrée if that is restaurant’s primary meal.

Meals available: Dinner

Alcohol: Wine, Beer, Liquor

Payment forms: All major credit cards

Parking: Paid parking

Disabled access: Yes

Features: 21 and over

Viral Events – What is a @SharePint Event?

With high-tech event season upon us I keep getting asked about this so I thought I’d repost a comment I made on Christian Buckley’s blog awhile back.  Being an event producer – I love these events and their viral nature.  SharePint events have no barrier to entry and a strict no vendor policy which keeps things pure and agenda-less.  I have made a few venue calls for a number of these in conjunction with events officially and unofficially shall we say and I agree with many of the “musts” that are being formulated into lists.   

-No vendor support.

-No marketing agendas.

-No one owns SharePint. Anyone can start their own SharePint event and recruit others to join.

-No members-only jackets required.

-You may only drink Guinness per Mike Ferrara – great post here

-Use the #sharepint Twitter hashtag and send the info a few times and be super clear about where and when.

-Share the information with speakers or other community members directly for retweets.

Venue Pitfalls:

Because conferences and trade shows are so jam-packed, there is usually only time for one SharePint event and the attendee number will be more than 100 people.  Most bars/venues love their places full of paying customers.  However without either someone local who knows the scene or someone to do a bit of groundwork – you can end up with a venue that isn’t big enough,  has bad flow,  not enough standing room, doesn’t have enough bar/wait staff or decides to pull out karaoke or trivia in the middle and then no one can talk.

– Opentable.com is a great resource – you can do a quick search to see if they have a private room or seating for large parties.  Many times these are free you just have to ask.

Finding a Venue & What to Ask Them:

– What is going on in the bar the night you picked?  If its trivia night or karaoke, and its a one room bar avoid it, no one will be able to talk.

– Avoid venues that require a contract for a private room, you don’t need a private room.

–Alert them of the onslaught of people coming in - they will thank you, may put up a sign and may bring on extra staff.

–Venues that typically have bigger space:  sports bars, any of the Lucky Strike Bowling Venues, Irish or English pubs, venues close to sporting arenas.

–Most people are starving after working an event all day, having a place with the grill open is awesome!

–To register or not to register, this goes back to this being loose and easy, no reg and no fees.

–If guests are cool, tip well, pay their tabs, etc… the venue will remember.  They always do.  The opposite is true though as well.  They remember…

No Pay to Play:  In my opinion, one way SharePint events could get ruined is if an event producer decides to add this to their list of “Sponsored Items” ala they start to sell “SharePint” like they do a breakfast or attendee party as a sponsorship.   Better if someone in the community hosts or sponsors. The only way to combat that would be for the community and vendors to not buy the sponsorship.  Hopefully that doesn’t happen, and it stays organic, of the community and for the community. 

History:  March 5, 2008 –  ”SharePoint By Day, SharePint by Night” – 2nd SharePint happened during the SharePoint Conference 2008 in Seattle.  It was hosted by Bob Fox and Andrew Connell and was held at Kells Irish Pub.  It was a great night and this concept took off from there.  From then notifications about SharePint events were from AC’s and other SharePoint MVP blogs.  With the dawn of Twitter and Facebook, the #sharepint hashtag took off and there are now SharePint events being held in and around hundreds of  high-tech conferences and trade shows all over the world.  Joel Oleson recaps that second SharePint event.

 Twitter - Search on #sharepint in and around an high-tech event near you….

Hope this helps those of you who are planning a SharePint!

cheers

heather

Head Maven, www.creativemaven.com

@creativemavens

Kogi Where Tweetin Meets Eatin – Tablesmackin via @whereLA

Video maven, Allison and I were walking up to the Golden Gopher (my favorite downtown LA faux-dive) one night to check it out for a potential after party place about two years ago and we were not thrilled that there seemed to be a line out the door on a weeknight.  We soon discovered it wasn’t for the bar, but for the Kogi BBQ truck parked outside. At this point Kogi was still a brand new concept and was funny to see Louboutins and Manolos in line for it that night. Kogi is still all the rage and the way you find out where they are is to follow them on Twitter.  @kogibbq or their website – http://kogibbq.com/  Kinda reminds me of my favorite street meat in NYC (Halal on 52/53rd and 6th Ave), I’ve stood in the rain and snow for that myself.

Props to @WhereLA Magazine Editor Katie McCarthy who coined “Tweeting meets eating” – for this month’s Where Magazine (my bible when I come to any city) the article is all about food trucks and curbside eating and is great.

Kogi is damn awful good and definitely part of the zeitgeist of LA, along with tons of other fun, quirky purveyors, I’ll let you know where we end up this week and who we try…. 

What are your favorite street vendors or trucks… in any city – love to know!

Happy Late Night Curbside Eating y’all!

Mavens on the Town in NOLA

About Heather Newman, Owner & Head Maven, Creative Maven Inc.

@creativemavens, @heddanewman



Bocce & Great Zin In The Neighborhood – @Gratonridge

Had a ton of visitors to the house over the last two weeks and we explored a bunch of lovely family owned wineries within a few miles of the house.  One of our favorites:

Graton Ridge – http://gratonridge.com/  We had a lovely tasting at Graton Ridge – Barbara was so sweet and their Pinot Noir and Zinfandels were wonderful.  They have a gorgeous picnic area and bocce court.  I cannot wait to bring friends and come back soon. 

If you are in the area, do go say hello!

Technorati Tag – SCHPZ3C6RDVK

American Grocery Takes Its Vege Seriously – Maven Foodie Fav

Maven Foodie Favorite (Dec 4, 2010) - American Grocery Restaurant is featured in a new video for an upcoming show of Palmetto People, a local South Carolina cable show for Time Warner.  Video shot and posted by one of the hosts, Richard Green –  RTGreenSc on You Tube.

Congrats Darlene, Chef Joe and the fine staff of American Grocery Restaurant! 

I hope Eater National digs this!  AGR serves tablesmacking* food. 

*a creative maven term for food that is so flipping good that you smack the table with your hand, sometimes with or without words (with is usually something profound or profane).

AHungryArtist – Great Miami Blog on Food & Culture

We read a ton of blogs here at Creative Maven and this one has a great outlook on food and sits close to my heart as they are “ahungryartist”.  I smiled reading their post on 2010 Food Year in Review as I agreed with many of their positives  (Power of Pork) and negatives (oversaturation (Crisco-style) of Food Zines, Blogs, TV) for 2010.  If you missed the South Park episode of Creme Fraiche oh you should, you really should.

ahungryartists pretty blog header

Let me know if you liked ahungryartists’ post, always curious…

Enjoy and Happy New Year to all!

Favorite New York Dives Closing Doors – Stoned Crow

ultraclay dot com – breaks the news of the closing of one of my favorite New York Dive Bars, The Stoned Crow.  I was first taken here by dear friends Joe & Darlene about six years ago.  Ever since, I’ve taken many clients, friends and even New Yorkers here for the great burgers and colorful clientele.  I had a long talk with Betty, the owner last time I was in town –  per usual she was holding court with her fire engine red hair in a little cubby closet before you went into the dining room.  I make it a point to stop in every time I go to NYC.  I didn’t make my Winter trip this year, so I’ll have to say goodbye from afar. 

Mind your head

ultraclay dot com gives a lovely tribute… check it out. 

gothamist gets to the nitty gritty – should have known it was a rent hike… boohiss!

Friday Maven Foodie Alert – Executive Dinners – AGR

Happy Foodie Friday!

One of the hats we Mavens wear as corporate event producers is to choose venues for executive dinners.  On Fridays, I thought it might be fun to share some of our favorite venues and restaurants from around the world with you. 

A corporate dinner, whether it is a bunch of CEOs talking shop or a company hosting its top customers and partners has a few key components that we always check off our list.

Geographic Ease:  Meaning, how easy is the space to get to and if you are planning in conjunction with a larger event like a tradeshow or conference, is it walking distance or a quick cab ride away.

Maven ABC List:   ”Ambiance”, “Beverage”, “Cuisine”.  Sometimes one will outshine the other but if we nail all three we are golden.

The Fine Print:  Sign and seal the deal up front, contracts signed, per person pricing agreed upon, wine chosen, etc…  no surprises are what we look for with a venue event management team.  The word for the “bill” translates to “a reckoning” in German, and we don’t ever want that at the end of a great event.

Everyone wants ultimately wants to be “cool”, “cutting edge”, and “hip” while of course being professional - so we look for restaurants and venues for our clients that reflect high marks on the ABC list above.  We research trends and keep in the know about chefs, public opinions and food in general. Zagat, Yelp and Open Table are all great resources for this information.  I also personally watch Top Chef, the Food Network and subscribe to Food and Wine Magazine (which if you happen to be of an iPad persuasion, it is a free app download as is Travel +Leisure) and its gorgeous. 

Ultimately a killer venue provides elegant without being stuffy ambiance, tablesmacking food, a carefully chosen wine list, and an unobtrusive noise level.   The icing on the cake is to look for places that have that extra special something (an amazing amuse bouche, a signature dessert, flaming drinks,   etc…) that makes the evening utterly memorable.

To that end – here is the first of our Friday Foodie Favorites.

Cheers!

Friday Foodie Alert #1 – American Grocery Restaurant

 AGR is run by a husband and wife team, natives of South Carolina who lived and worked in Los Angeles in the film and theater industries for over a decade and came back home to fulfill their dream of opening a locavore, farm to table establishment.

Lovely Dining Room at AGR

I’ve had the pleasure of dining at AGR in its wonderfully elegant and cozy dining room and also in New York City for a James Beard Foundation Multi-Course, Wine-Paired Dinner where the AGR team created an amazing nose to tail pork extravaganza.   



The BEST pork belly & scallop I have ever eaten

 

American Grocery Restaurant strives to serve the finest in refined American Seasonal Cuisine, featuring products sourced from local and regional farms and from artisan producers from within the United States.  Their menu changes frequently based on the freshest products they can procure from our local purveyors and the bounty of the seasons. Chef Joe Clarke believes it is a restaurants responsibility to understand where their products come from, how they came to be, and the love with which those products were raised; to AGR there is no other way.

Custom wine room designed by Certified Sommelier, Darlene Mann-Clarke holds over 100 hand-picked artisan boutique wines from all over the globe, unique quality-crafted wines that exhibit the same level of distinction as their daily menu.

AGR has all the ABCs we look for in a venue and Chef Joe and Sommelier Darlene always bring something special to a meal and their food makes me smack the table.  We highly recommend you give them a shout.

Cuisine: Contemporary American

Neighborhood: Greenville

Website: http://www.americangr.com

Email: info@americangr.com

Phone: (864) 232-7665

Hours of Operation: Dinner : Tuesday – Thursday: 5:00pm – 9:00pm, Friday – Saturday: 5:00pm – 10:00pm

Payment Options:
AMEX, MasterCard, Visa

Dress Code: Business Casual

Accepts Walk-Ins: Yes

Additional Details: Bar Dining, Beer, Chef’s Table, Farm to Table, Full Bar, Non-Smoking Restaurant, Patio/Outdoor Dining, Personal wines welcome (corkage fee applies), Private Room, Wheelchair Access, Wine

Parking: Public Lot

Parking Details: Free parking is available on the north side of the building in a public city parking lot and on the street.

Private Party Facilities: American Grocery Restaurant offers private dinners in our intimate private dining room designed specifically for smaller business or personal affairs. Our private dining room will accommodate up to twelve comfortably with a variety of menu options we will tailor to your preferences. Additionally, our entire facility is available for buyout to accommodate larger events.  Joe Clarke (864) 363-2862.

If you are in the Greenville SC area – this restaurant is a gem and worth the drive from Charlotte if you so choose.

Dry Creek Day

The first crisp autumnal Saturday arrived here in Sonoma County and I love a drive around the neighborhood.  Twas a perfect day to pop up to Dry Creek to sip some vino.    So… we grabbed the in-laws and headed up to West Dry Creek Road and visited three lovely wineries.

The turnoff to Pretty Preston

Preston Vineyards - 9282 W Dry Creek Rd – Beautiful gardens & picnic area, organic vegetables for sale, cute cats, $10 tasting fee waived if you buy, bocce court – and tasty affordable wine.  Preston only distributes in California and is a favorite among locals.

Tried the 2008 Carignane & 2008 Zinfandel – both fantastic.  They specialize in Rhone varietal blends and for locals on Sundays they fill a jug with 4 bottles of wine for $32.  Great place! 

Quivera Winery - 4900 West Dry Creek Road - Impeccably landscaped picnic area, biodynamic farming and 93 acres of estate vines and huge organic vegetable garden.  Quivera wines

Getting a Taste

 have been a go-to for me for a while for executive dinners and events.  They have a great price point and many clients already know the name.  

We took home the 2007 Anderson Ranch Zin, which I love.  We drank a bottle of this later with bratwurst, sauerkraut and potato salad – Yum!!  We also liked the 2009 Fig Tree Vineyard, Sauvignon Blanc, which was refreshing with a hint of fruit (would be great with Thai food, sushi or some fresh veggies & dip).

 

Last was Teldeschi Winery - 3555 Dry Creek Rd – Maybe one of the best views in Dry Creek and Dan the winemaker is hilarious and the wine is terrific.  Zinfandel, Petite Syrah are best here and the tasting room is simple and utilitarian.  Dan pours from funky bottles and has a lovely sense of humor.  We took home the Home Ranch Zin.

Dry Creek Wineries tend to be family run, multi-generational, perfect for picnics, and Zinfandel territory so they are right up my alley.  Healdsburg, CA anchors the wineries of Dry Creek and is a great place to visit.

Here’s to another lovely day in California