 www.brewersplatetoronto.org |
On April 6 the Artscape Wychwood Barns hosted the fourth-annual Brewer’s Plate fundraiser, this year in support of Not Far From the Tree.
Guests were greeted by a mime on stilts. A nice, festive touch, I admit in hindsight but too much to process for those of us made ravenous by our preparatory hunger. So, instead of making polite (silent) conversation and fully returning his greeting we rocketed our way towards the heart of this room full of enticing aromas.
Stop number one was to grab a delicious lamb dog from the Buddha Dog station. A freshly-grilled hot dog, with accompanying sauce, on a bun is the perfect walking around food for two hungry party-goers and our strength returned I resolved to visit all the food stations and take as many pictures as possible before the natural light disappeared.
This whirlwind tour left little time for eating (at that point) other than a couple of cones of the spiced nuts being offered at the Railway City Brewing table. Chef Shehata (The Ballroom) was good enough to call me on the fact that I was carrying a plate of the vegetable skewers from Chef Breton’s (Gladstone Hotel) station but we did make it up to him by returning later to try his very good fish tacos.
Once the room had filled and the sun had set we eased in to a more casual and determined campaign of eating that included my favourite dish of the night. I’m not usually a soup guy but the broccoli cheddar soup with shredded, Great Lakes beer-braised bbq pork from Chef Steh (Reds) had me rolling my eyes and making that face dining companions find either entirely inappropriate or hilariously entertaining.
Pictures taken and most of the fare sampled we made our way to one of the barn’s second-floor balconies for a better view of the whole space. From this perspective it was easy to tell that even though the event was sold-out crowding was not an issue and I can’t remember any beer or food line-ups that were more than one person deep. The full room was also kept well-entertained by the band and spirited live auction.
Other highlights from the second stretch of eating were Chef Kennedy’s (Gilead) pork tortiere that was perfectly-spiced and suffered not at all from room temperature service and Chef Kirk’s (Ruby Watchco) braised pork belly that matched so well with baked beans featuring Hoover’s maple syrup.
Craft beer and great food are two things that life would not be the same without but, it should be said, the even bigger draw was a desire to support Not Far From the Tree. NFFTT organises volunteers to pick fruit, that would otherwise have gone to waste, from Toronto’s backyard fruit trees. A third of this harvest goes to the volunteers, a third to the home owners, and a third to one of a variety of charitable community organisations. Last year they managed to pick almost 20,000 pounds of fruit and plan to continue expanding and diversifying into other projects like their Syrup in the City programme.
Full to the gills and happy to have witness such enthusiastic support for a great cause we said our goodnights to the stilted gentleman and were happy that the evening was nice enough to walk off all the excellent food.
Brewer’s Plate 2010
Brewer’s Plate 2009
A list of participating chefs, paired beers, and other donors is below:
Jamie Kennedy (Gilead Cafe and Bistro and Jamie Kennedy Kitchens) with County Cider Company
Lora Kirk (Ruby Watchco) with Black Oak
Brad Long (Veritas and Cafe Belong at Evergreen Brickworks) with Beau’s
Michael Steh (Reds Bistro and wine bar) with Great Lakes
Mark Cutrara (Cowbell) with Mill Street
Marc Breton (Gladstone Hotel) with Cameron’s
Tawfik Shehata (The Ballroom) with Steam Whistle
Brook Cavanagh (La Palette) with Wellington’sChris Brown (The Stop) and (Magical Catering)
As well as: Barley Days Denison’s Flying Monkeys Nickel Brook Railway City Brewing Stonehammer Grand River Brewing Southbrook Vineyards Applewood Farm Winery ChocosolNinutik Maple Sugar Buddha Dog Ace BakeryMonforte Dairy Maple Dale Cheese Evelyn’s Crackers Daily Apple
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