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SF’s Urban Eating League is Eastward Bound

By Underground Eats on February 20, 2013 / No Comments / Categorized Featured, Unique Dinners

San Francisco’s favorite underground dining club the Urban Eating League is finally coming to Brooklyn! And they’re looking to find one more house located in the Park Slope/Gowanus area (roughly near 4th Ave between Atlantic and 9th St) to host brunch for a traveling gaggle of gourmands from 1-4 pm THIS SUNDAY Feb. 24th. You’ll be engaged in a little friendly competition with two other hosts to see who can put on the best brunch experience! Festive eaters will come by in three groups of six to sample your fare and delight you with their own creativity. (All the food is paid for. Most fun ever.)

For more information feel free to contact morgan@wiggparty.org or call 419-351-0466. They need to make a final call on the event by the end of today!

Jordan Ferney's pop-up dinner party on a rooftop (every dinner party should come with a bubble blower)
Nikki Croft's winter solstice dinner party in the woods
Jordan's pop-up dinner party by the Golden Gate Bridge at dusk
...and at night
Jordan's pop-up dinner party on San Francisco's Aquatic Park pier
Jordan's pop-up dinner party with the San Francisco skyline at night

DIY Pop-Up Dinners

By Julia Blanter on July 25, 2012 / No Comments / Categorized Featured, Photos, Pop-Up Dinners, Unique Dinners

Outstanding in the Field, meet Martha Stewart.

Instead of going out for dinner, party planner Jordan Ferney sets up fancy dinner parties for her friends in the middle on nowhere, like under the Golden Gate Bridge, piers and rooftops (complete with bubble blower to brighten up the concrete space).

We also love this pop-up winter solstice dinner in the woods by Nikki Croft.

The logistics can be tricky (just how do you get a six-foot dining table down to an isolated beach? Keep the food warm? Stop the candles from blowing out?), but it’s a dinner you and your friends aren’t likely to forget. Inspired to DIY your own pop-up dinner? Jordan has a guide on how to do it right here.

Erik Shirai's film, "The Last Meal," asks the tough question, "If you were to die tomorrow, what would you have as your last meal?"
Studiofeast's Mike Lee is featured in the first episode of the "I Am What I Eat" series, "The Last Meal"
"The Last Night of Service at Chez Gourmet"producer ,Darin Bresnitz, and choreographer, Cecilia Rowlson-Hall
One of the performers from "The Last Night of Service at Chez Gourmet" cooking an omelet on set
Last year's Bike-In Theater was a success as many showed up on their bikes to watch projected flicks
Good movies need good food for proper viewing. Last year Forking Tasty provided movie-goers with yummy snacks

Kicking Creative Food Projects in Gear With Kickstarter

By Mikaela Flynn on July 24, 2012 / No Comments / Categorized Featured, Food Trends, Good Reads, Photos, Unique Events

Kickstarter, the fundraising website that generates crowd funding for various creative projects, has taken a leading role in the creation of not only art, music, and film start-ups, but also some very unique and inspiring food-related projects. And it’s not just Kickstarter now, either. Many other sites, like Indiegogo and the soon-to-launch Yum Spring offer similar fundraising platforms. From funding a new restaurant, to starting a new food truck concept or jarring business, there are copious amounts of interesting and exciting food start-ups hoping to generate enough buzz and funding to make their awesome idea into a reality. Here are three of our favorite foodie projects.

Erik Shirai, one of Anthony Bourdain’s cameramen, has started creating beautiful short films as part of a series based around food and its important role in human culture. The film series, “I Am What I Eat,” launched with the first episode, “The Last Meal,” which features Studiofeast’s Mike Lee and focuses on the question, “If you were to die tomorrow, what would your last meal be?” For his next episode, Shirai plans to travel to Japan where he will be telling the story of Buddhist temple cuisine, “shojin ryori.” Underground Eats wants to ensure this project achieves its full funding so on August 1st we will be throwing a delicious fundraising event to help raise money for the film’s production. Learn more and buy tickets for the fundraising party here. Support Erik’s “I Am What I Eat” on Indiegogo here.

One unique project found on Kickstarter combines the elements of dance, theater, and food. ”The Last Night of Service at Chez Gourmet” is a theatrical pop-up dinner written and in production by Darin Bresnitz, one half of Brooklyn’s Bresnitz Twins, the duo behind Heritage Radio’s Snacky Tunes and Dinner With the Band. Darin is collaborating with choreographer, Cecila Rowlson-Hall, for this creative project where guests who attend the “pop-up” will experience being part of an elaborate theatrical performance by tasting food that is prepared during the play itself. Have you heard anything like this? Nope, neither have we. Help make this crazy (awesome) idea happen here.

Forking Tasty, the Brooklyn-based food blog and supper club, is hoping to set a date for their next collaboration with Bike-In Theater. Last year Bike-In Theater, a concept based on the classic drive-in (but with bikes, obviously), organized a perfect summer evening of biking, movies, and good food for their first event. They are now ready to get 2012′s event in motion, and plan to expand to the West Coast to throw not one, but two Bike-In Theaters in NYC and San Francisco. Learn more and help these athletic, movie-loving foodies fulfill their dream here.

Californians are finding ways to get around the July 1st ban on the deliciously decadent foie gras

“Duckeasies” Serving Up Forbidden Foie in Cali

By Mikaela Flynn on July 19, 2012 / No Comments / Categorized Featured, Food Trends, Unique Events

“I live in a state where I can buy marijuana down the street, but I can’t buy foie gras. There’s something fundamentally wrong.” This surprisingly true statement made by Sean Chaney, executive chef of Hot’s Kitchen in Hermosa Beach, CA, highlights the topic everyone seems talking about in California now that the July 1st ban on foie gras is officially in play. Pot but no duck liver. However, just like marijuana use continues to exist where it is still illegal, foie gras will continue to be enjoyed by chefs and food enthusiasts in California. Where there’s a will there’s a way.

On July 15th about a dozen foie gras fans gathered in a small San Francisco restaurant for a “private event.” Behind the closed doors however, this was no ordinary dinner party. Rebellious, daring guests feasted upon the forbidden fruit that is now foie gras, for what was called a “duckeasy” event. Turns out “duckeasies” are now popping up all over California as chefs and foodies find ways to get around the ban without technically breaking the law (while others do and either don’t get caught or just don’t care).

One way to get past the new law is by hosting these type of ticketed “events” so that the item on the menu (foie gras) is not being directly bought/sold. Aha, clever. Another loophole, as done at Chaney’s Hot’s Kitchen, is to offer “complimentary” foie gras so that technically no one is purchasing the banned duck liver. For example, the Hot’s Kitchen menu offers a burger that is served with “complimentary” foie gras. The menu item is listed for a higher price than other burgers, but it does not indicate that you are paying for the addition of foie gras.

One lucky San Francisco restaurant doesn’t even have to actively find a loophole. They are sitting on it. Presidio Social Club is located in Presidio National Park and claims the restaurant does not have to abide by the new state ban since it technically sits on federal land. Lucky ducks.

Rows of pretty Miette cookies (try the walnut chocolate chip)
The Gefilteria's black and white cookie stick (so you get black and white in each bite!)
First Prize Pies' luscious s'mores pie
Mile End providing some savory relief amongst all the sugar with bagels and lox
Over 30 vendors to check out at Super Duper Market
Don't leave without trying Tartine Bakery's blueberry coffee cake

To Market, To Market We Go

By Julia Blanter on July 13, 2012 / No Comments / Categorized Featured, Photos, Pop-Ups, Unique Events

You can’t help but have high hopes for a market that calls itself not just super, but super duper.

Paper Magazine‘s fun three-day pop-up, Super Duper Market, has brought over West Coast favorites like Tartine Bakery, Miette and Boulette’s Larder, and set them up alongside tasty local vendors including Liddabit Sweets, La Newyorkina and Danny Macaroons.

Yep, Super Duper Market is like a candy store for grown-ups, with all sorts of sweets, cakes, cookies and ice creams. Thankfully there’s Mile End schmearing bagels in the corner so you can balance out the sugar overload.

So why are all these cult San Francisco eateries in New York for just three days? Tartine, Miette and Boulette’s Larder all said the same thing: “we love Kim (Paper Magazine Editor Kim Hastreiter) and we’d do whatever she wants!”

Don’t leave without trying Tartine’s ethereally-light blueberry coffee cake (there was a rush for it as soon as doors opened this morning at 11am), Brucie‘s house-made ricotta, and Gefilteria‘s deliciously refreshing kvass lemonade. Kvass? Eastern Europeans will remember this elixir from their childhood, and it’s worth revisiting – if only as a base for cocktails. Gefilteria make their kvass using beets and recommend mixing it with white whiskey and mint. Nazdarovye!

Pop in to the pop-up if you’re heading to the High Line or Chelsea Market this weekend. If enough New Yorkers show our San Francisco friends some love, maybe they’ll be convinced to set up shop here. And once you try Tartine’s coffee cake, you’ll know why that would be a very good thing.

Super Duper Market, 410 West 16th St, NY. Friday, July 13th, 11 a.m.-4 p.m., Saturday, July 14th, 11 p.m. to 6 p.m. and Sunday, July 15th, 11 p.m. to 4 p.m.

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