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PLAN: 2011 Heartland Gathering


NancyH

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Being somewhat new to EG what are the pre-requisites to come to a gathering?

Hi Princess - there are no pre-requisites (unless we set up advance pay for some of the events). We'll post a schedule of events (and cost) and ask for advance headcounts. Some events will be pay at the door or pay as you go. And some will probably be pay in advance. And some won't cost anything at all - just bring yourself! Looking forward to meeting you.

"Life is Too Short to Not Play With Your Food" 

My blog: Fun Playing With Food

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Would folks be interested in visiting an old world sausage/charcuterie shop? We have several that are EG worthy and I'm sure that could be arranged. Perhaps the one Tony Bourdain visited when he was here - when the owners retire or pass, it will be gone, as it has been out-zoned with no grandfathering possible.

This place is a treasure. It's just a few miles from the West Side Market, so it would make for an excellent side trip during the Saturday morning shopping. The Sausage Shoppe

I'm leaning towards Greenhouse Tavern for Friday dinner -I can talk to Chef Sawyer about doing a tasting dinner for us featuring his most food forward dishes such as the pig's face and beef tartar. Happy Hour at VTR before dinner.

Before the non-red-meat eaters panic, we should note that they are very accommodating of vegetarians and vegans. Jonathon Sawyer is young, but he's got quite a resumé. GHT is Cleveland's first LEED certified restaurant, and Chef Sawyer has gotten a lot of press since being named a Best New Chef by Food & Wine.

So yeah: good Chinese or Asian would be fantastic, and other than that, I just don't want to go to "Bob's Cheese Wheel" or something like that. I still almost universally hate cheese. Being that Cleveland is basically directly on Lake Erie, what's the local fresh seafood selection like? It's probably akin to Detroit's, but to me, that ain't half bad!

Unfortunately, fresh fish and seafood are hard to come by in Cleveland.

There's a vendor at the West Side Market that has quite a nice selection of fresh seafood. There's a second that looks pretty decent (but I'm not as familiar with), and a third that is best avoided. That last one is pretty easy to detect. :wink:

There is some "local" fish - mainly Walleye Perch. I used quotes because I'm told that the commercial Walleye fisheries are in Canadian waters on the opposite shore of Lake Erie.

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Thanks everyone for the congratulations. Rona, we have family in the Cleveland area and if we get that close, they'll never let us hang out with all of you for the weekend! I'll be watching the planning and event threads a bit enviously to see what you all are up to.

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How are the dates August 4-7 for everyone?

I've already got it on my calendar and in the roster of vacation requests from work to join you all in Cleveland.

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I'm roughing out the restaurant schedule - any thoughts on other types of activities for Thursday and Friday between lunch and dinner, and/or Friday morning? I'm thinking a Polish Boy tasting crawl and visit to The Sausage Shop on Friday. If we tour Polish Boys, we could also build in time to shop at Dean Supply, a fabulous restaurant supply store that hosts the Seti's Polish Boy truck.

Tom - would you be willing to do a bread workshop, and when?

Edited by NancyH (log)

"Life is Too Short to Not Play With Your Food" 

My blog: Fun Playing With Food

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Can I get a sense of whether people will be in Cleveland for dinner on Sunday? We must have a meal at Crop, and if folks can't stay for Sunday Dinner, I'm thinking Friday or Saturday lunch.

Sunday breakfast for sure - but not dinner for me.
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I'm late to this thread but am glad people are coming back to Cleveland and I hope to attend at least some of the festivities.

Various comments - I def. think a visit to the sausage shoppe on memphis is worthwhile. Do NOT bother with Maha's restaurant on 25th. Outside of the falafel, their food is awful, awful, awful, which is too bad as the owner is a nice guy. I've tried it 3 times and every meal was a bust.

Love the idea of something at Greenhouse Tavern and Sterle's, and I vote for B-spot over Lolita if we're going to a MS place, though I think Lolita has a private room upstairs which could be very helpful; either one is probably fine. I most strongly vote for Chinato to be part of the weekend (a Bruell restaurant), they are just fantastic. As to Crop, I'm not sure that they're open for lunch on Saturday so if you do lunch there, it would have to be Friday. I know I probably wouldn't be able to do sunday dinner there and I'm local - I can only play around so much on the weekends with a 19 month old baby and a FT job to tend to.

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NancyH -- I'd be happy and honored to do a bread workshop whenever it fits best into the schedule.

I should've been more precise in my answer. I'd be happy to put on a bread workshop, but would need a kitchen (professional or otherwise) in which to hold the class and bake the breads. Also, if we can manage to locate a space for the Saturday event that had an available kitchen in the morning (Tammy's co-housing complex was perfect for this!), I could bake the breads on location instead of having to bake them prior to my arrival on Saturday afternoon for the beginnings of our communal dinner.

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Aug 4-7 is ok for me!

Is your mother coming, too? I miss my biggest fan.

If possible, we'll both be there (but no guarantees for either of us).

If she is there, don't be too great, though. She gets super annoying when she raves about you. :rolleyes::laugh:

I'll attempt to be less inspirational. Ain't gonna be easy though. :rolleyes:

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NancyH -- I'd be happy and honored to do a bread workshop whenever it fits best into the schedule.

I want in on this. That bread that you brought to the Feast in A2 was just unfair...I haven't had its equal since.

You don't do French pastries as well, do you? ;)

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NancyH -- I'd be happy and honored to do a bread workshop whenever it fits best into the schedule.

I want in on this. That bread that you brought to the Feast in A2 was just unfair...I haven't had its equal since.

You don't do French pastries as well, do you? ;)

Thanks for the compliment. I actually baked that bread on-site last year. I started the pre-ferments in my hotel room the night before, brought them with me to Tammy's co-housing unit on Saturday morning, and baked off the bread right before everyone returned from the Saturday morning shopping at the farmers markets.

As for French pastries? While I certainly love eating them, I'll leave the making of them to those with much more adept skills.

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Can I get a sense of whether people will be in Cleveland for dinner on Sunday? We must have a meal at Crop, and if folks can't stay for Sunday Dinner, I'm thinking Friday or Saturday lunch.

I will most likely be heading back West on Sunday.

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The early august dates should not be a problem for me.

As far as picking a Michael Symon spot.. What if it were possible to arrange for a pig roast over the weekend at Lolita? Greenhouse Tavern sounds good too. When I was in Cleveland in 2009, the plan was to go there for some pre-dinner snacks and drinks before dinner at Lola. But they were closed for a private event. I was really bummed!

Jeff Meeker, aka "jsmeeker"

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