Live from Penn's Landing, It's Friday Night!

Very busy week, three of my clients are doing food booths at Wawa Welcome America's Taste of Philadelphia event. We have been planning the best items to serve, how to serve them, and how to do it at the lowest cost in order to hopefully make a profit. This is another collection of restaurants serving food, but the twist here is that the event is free to attend, and you pay for sampling size portions of food. Great entertainment is provided, tonight the headliner is Gerald Veasley, he is an amazing jazz bass player. He played in a band called Reverie in the 80's and 90's and we were lucky enough to have them play many nights at our restaurant Bala Rouge in Bala Cynwyd. I just saw Gerald backstage, and I am listening to his band as the sun sets over Center City and boats float by to listen to the sweet sounds, it's a great scene. Tomorrow night Aaaron Neville headlines, it's still free and there are fireworks to end the evening.

I got a call from one of the event organizers yesterday asking if I could find a suitable restaurant or caterer to sell burgers at the Taste of Philly as the one they had backed out at the last minute. I thought about it for a few minutes and called one of my favorite chefs, Jon Spivak, my younger brother. After a few calls and some arm twisting, Jon & I are selling burgers; we are calling them "Colorado Burgers". Come visit Saturday & Sunday and find out what makes a burger a Colorado Burger. Jon flips a mean burger and I'm no slouch either.

Great day today seeing a selection of the who's who in area event planning and production. Scott Mirkin (Exec. Producer), Nicole Cashman (In charge of Taste), Rob Carachilo, Ira Rosen, Fred Stein, Drew Pompilio, Liz Trasmundi are all handling some aspect of Welcome America, and the Taste event gets better every year. Thanks to all of you, the city should be proud, as a native Philadelphian I am.

Some of the other restaurants and caterers serving food are GiGi Restaurant, Lounge & Catering; Feast Your Eyes Catering; Innovative Catering Concepts; Tiffin; Stella Jeannes; Cuba Libre; Chenango; Karma; Sampan; Hard Rock Cafe; Jamaican Jerk Hut; Keating's River Grill; Marabella's Meatball Company; Darling's Diner; Kuzina; and a number of cool food trucks. Lots of yummy treats, very reasonably priced, great family event.

On another note, I interviewed Steve Poses yesterday as the first inductee into my informal Philadelphia Catering Hall of Fame. Look for the interview in my blog sometime later next week. A big thank you to Mr. A.D. Amorosi for the write up about the blog in his Icepack article in the City Paper this week. Best part? Having my dad mentioned in the same article as me, I teared up a bit.

Happy Weekend! See you at Penn's Landing?

Harry 6/24/11

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