Earlier this week, a plan one year in the making came to fruition. Last fall, two of my foodie writer friends Rachel Gillman Rischall and Molly Each joined me for dinner at Embeya, and the conversation led to food and writing, two of my passions. We started talking about live City Lit events, and how there weren’t any devoted to food writing. Somehow the conversation continued and morphed to the point where we decided to put on our own foodie reading event. It would be called Between Bites (this official name actually came later), and there be a charity aspect; we’d charge guests for a night of donated food, drink and words, and proceeds would go to the charity of the hosting chef’s choice. We talked and emailed and met for more planning dinners, lunches and drinks and got excited about it, then got too busy in our own lives to move forward with it, then got excited again, pushed the date back a few times, and lamented over writers, location, ticket price…mic or no mic? Finally, 6 talented food writers, 71 guests, Terlato wines, the staff of TWO restaurant joined us for what was truly an awesome inaugural event. $1400 was raised for un86’d, a local charity that helps restaurant works in need. Guests wanted to know when the next one would be (January), how they could find out more (check out our Facebook or Twitter pages), what the next theme would be (TBD). We truly couldn’t believe the response and cannot wait for the next installment in the winter. We plan to hold Between Bites seasonally, in a different location, with different writers, food, wine, charity and who else knows. What was amazing was that all of that planning came together on a mild Monday night that was infused with an energy and organic magic I can’t really explain. As we said our closing remarks and thank-yous, the guests just stared at us from their seats, even an hour of essay-reading and not a glazed-over look in the house, they couldn’t wait to hear more, and we’ll be back…follow us @between_bites.com to hear about the next installment, we truly can’t wait.
ELIZABITES 