If it's mid-November in Boulder, it's time for a good deal at local restaurants.
Now in its sixth year, First Bite Boulder, Boulder County's restaurant week, will begin Friday and last through Nov. 19. The event offers a $26 fixed price meal of three courses at some of Boulder's best-known restaurants and a few in East County and Longmont. The event, which was designed to bring in customers at a time of year when restaurant business is historically slow has proved a success, says Kate Lacroix of Dishwire, who along with Josh Dinar of Dining Out Magazine, created the event. New participants this year include The Mediterranean and Pizzeria Locale.
"This is a great value to the community," Lacroix says. "We still have over 40 participants. In years past we've seen restaurants get very competitive with creative menus. Now, they're finding a way to extend or enhance the life of First Bite."
One such extension is a decision last week by Mateo Restaurant Provencal and Radda Trattoria to offer the $26 pricing on a lunch for two. At Radda, that will mean the lunch is the same as the $26 dinner, albeit with smaller portions of the three-course menu: a pasta course with a choice of ravioli with butternut squash, brown butter and sage or pappardelle with Colorado lamb ragu and fresh mint; a second course with a choice of shaved Colorado pork, fennel and black olives; grilled Colorado beef ribeye, fingerling potatoes and greens or crispy polenta with tomato, capers, olives and grana padano. The third course is crostata with Munson Farms apples and vanilla gelato.
Justin Anthony, general manager and beverage director for Radda, says the restaurant created dishes especially for First Bite rather than simply using on-menu items.
"We have fun with the week," he says. "There's a lot of interest (in the community.) We get to introduce ourselves to a lot of people who don't go out to eat that much."
That introduction can lead to return customers.
"(First Bite) definitely helped bring some business right away," says Jason Hein, the acting general manager of Café Aion, which had been open about six months when it participated in First Bite last year.
Choosing a menu is a challenge, Hein says, since the restaurant seeks to encapsulate what it's all about with a few select dishes for those who haven't dined there before. Seasonality and local sourcing is a big driver at Café Aion, as it is at many local restaurants, as well as representing the restaurant's specialties.
For example, Café Aion's first course is a choice of Isabelle Farm pumpkin fritters with walnut aillade; house-cured salami with Cure Farm dilly beans or Isabelle Farm winter squash soup with wild rice, almonds and parmesan. In the second course, diners choose form Frank Silva's braised oxtail with figs, cinnamon, chickpeas and couscous or delicata squash tagine with apricots, saffron and pistachios. Dessert is a choice of a chocolate torte with Noosa Honey yogurt or a Colorado apple crostata with whipped cream.
2011年11月9日星期三
2011年9月14日星期三
Rehab For Kids
Stand up straight. Don't talk with strangers. Never chew with your mouth full. Say "please" and "thank you." Don't shoot heroin. These maxims have been repeated by every responsible parent since time immemorial. No one would disagree with such basic nuggets of advice. Except, perhaps, the city fathers of San Francisco, where I once saw a billboard advising junkies that when they shoot up, they should do so with a friend. You know, for safety's sake.
On my first trip to the City by the Bay about ten years ago, I not only saw this billboard, but witnessed two men following the sage advice. One was plunging a hypodermic needle into the eyeball of the other. Sharing is caring, kids. I should have known I was in a shady area by my surroundings; the men were performing this act in the doorway of a Bloomingdale's, that most obvious sign of urban blight. When I see upscale department stores, the second thing I think of (after being waterboarded with cologne samples) is retinal drug use.
I returned to San Francisco this past weekend, and was confronted with a different, even more obnoxious face of addiction. While wheeling my suitcase into the hotel lobby, I was greeted by hundreds of unruly kids ranging in age from 13 to 18. They were pierced, tattooed, mohawked, and generally attired in the kinds of clothing that teenagers who claim that they don't want attention wear when they are desperate for it. Many were loitering outside the building chain smoking. I asked the woman at the check-in desk what convention was booked for the weekend. She failed to understand that I was discreetly asking about the group of Red Bull chugging brats and so mentioned a conference of German scientists. I did not see any future Wernher von Brauns among the pint sized punk rawkers. But then the woman mumbled something vague about a group of young people.
I spied a conference lanyard for ICYPAA, and through the magic of Google was introduced to the International Conference of Young People in Alcoholics Anonymous. The group is billed as being for younger AA members and anyone with "some growing to do." I can assuredly say that they have some growing to do. They spent the weekend holding loud parties in rooms all over the hotel and abusing energy drinks as ersatz booze. I cannot imagine how these children must have partied on a bender, because they were thoroughbreds even while sober.
ICYPAA was first established in 1958 at a meeting of young Alcoholics Anonymous members from across the country. The group claims to have been "founded for the purpose of providing a setting for an annual celebration of sobriety among young people in AA." Ironic, then, that the group spent the weekend acting decidedly intoxicated. During one meeting, hundreds of conventioneers kept up the mood by listening to the dance hit "Like a G6" by Far East Movement. Lyrics include a reference to sizzurp, a mixture of codeine and promethazine favored by hip hop artists, as well as the boast that "when sober girls around me they be actin' like they drunk." Perhaps the girls in question are ICYPAA attendees.
I spent several hours in the lobby one night people-watching and conversing on Twitter with fellow hotel guests besieged by this odd convention. One of these strangers, a friendly woman by the name of Klaudia Kelly, turned out to be an actress of the adult cinema -- to put it politely. She was dumbstruck by the intensity with which the youngsters of ICYPAA partied, and found it incongruous that they would engage in such behavior as a substitute for substance abuse. Given Ms. Kelly's line of work, I am inclined to trust her professional opinion.
I'm all for self-improvement and I generally have nothing against AA. Thanks to several close friends who are social workers, as well as encounters with substance abusers in my personal life, I know that breaking free of addiction is difficult if not impossible. If you are an addict, the blunt truth is that you are statistically unlikely to recover. AA and other recovery programs have the potential to give people tools to save their own lives. But I can't help but be skeptical of this particular group.
On my first trip to the City by the Bay about ten years ago, I not only saw this billboard, but witnessed two men following the sage advice. One was plunging a hypodermic needle into the eyeball of the other. Sharing is caring, kids. I should have known I was in a shady area by my surroundings; the men were performing this act in the doorway of a Bloomingdale's, that most obvious sign of urban blight. When I see upscale department stores, the second thing I think of (after being waterboarded with cologne samples) is retinal drug use.
I returned to San Francisco this past weekend, and was confronted with a different, even more obnoxious face of addiction. While wheeling my suitcase into the hotel lobby, I was greeted by hundreds of unruly kids ranging in age from 13 to 18. They were pierced, tattooed, mohawked, and generally attired in the kinds of clothing that teenagers who claim that they don't want attention wear when they are desperate for it. Many were loitering outside the building chain smoking. I asked the woman at the check-in desk what convention was booked for the weekend. She failed to understand that I was discreetly asking about the group of Red Bull chugging brats and so mentioned a conference of German scientists. I did not see any future Wernher von Brauns among the pint sized punk rawkers. But then the woman mumbled something vague about a group of young people.
I spied a conference lanyard for ICYPAA, and through the magic of Google was introduced to the International Conference of Young People in Alcoholics Anonymous. The group is billed as being for younger AA members and anyone with "some growing to do." I can assuredly say that they have some growing to do. They spent the weekend holding loud parties in rooms all over the hotel and abusing energy drinks as ersatz booze. I cannot imagine how these children must have partied on a bender, because they were thoroughbreds even while sober.
ICYPAA was first established in 1958 at a meeting of young Alcoholics Anonymous members from across the country. The group claims to have been "founded for the purpose of providing a setting for an annual celebration of sobriety among young people in AA." Ironic, then, that the group spent the weekend acting decidedly intoxicated. During one meeting, hundreds of conventioneers kept up the mood by listening to the dance hit "Like a G6" by Far East Movement. Lyrics include a reference to sizzurp, a mixture of codeine and promethazine favored by hip hop artists, as well as the boast that "when sober girls around me they be actin' like they drunk." Perhaps the girls in question are ICYPAA attendees.
I spent several hours in the lobby one night people-watching and conversing on Twitter with fellow hotel guests besieged by this odd convention. One of these strangers, a friendly woman by the name of Klaudia Kelly, turned out to be an actress of the adult cinema -- to put it politely. She was dumbstruck by the intensity with which the youngsters of ICYPAA partied, and found it incongruous that they would engage in such behavior as a substitute for substance abuse. Given Ms. Kelly's line of work, I am inclined to trust her professional opinion.
I'm all for self-improvement and I generally have nothing against AA. Thanks to several close friends who are social workers, as well as encounters with substance abusers in my personal life, I know that breaking free of addiction is difficult if not impossible. If you are an addict, the blunt truth is that you are statistically unlikely to recover. AA and other recovery programs have the potential to give people tools to save their own lives. But I can't help but be skeptical of this particular group.
2011年8月7日星期日
Heroin user discovered sleeping in doorway
Police allegedly found a hypodermic needle, 10 empty baggies and a glass pipe in a woman’s purse after she was found sleeping in front of Ace Bail Bonds, 1317 Capouse Ave, Scranton, on Aug. 1.
Lauren Rae Yun, 18, listed as homeless, faces one charge of possession of a controlled substance and three counts of possession of drug paraphernalia for the alleged incident.
According to the affidavit:
A police officer arrived to the office Monday morning following a report of a woman sleeping in front of the doorway. After the officer woke her up and asked her why she was sleeping there, Yun allegedly told him that she was waiting for a ride.
The young woman told police she had no identification. When she was asked to look in her purse for something with her name on it, the officer spotted a hypodermic needle. Yun allegedly told the officer that the needle was for a heroin. She then confessed to having empty baggies of the drug. Officers also discovered a glass pipe in her purse.
Yun told the officer that she was trying to get help for her addictions, and she allegedly confessed to prostituting herself to support her drug habit.
Yun was arraigned on Aug. 1, and held for $1,000 bail. A preliminary hearing is set for Aug. 8.
Lauren Rae Yun, 18, listed as homeless, faces one charge of possession of a controlled substance and three counts of possession of drug paraphernalia for the alleged incident.
According to the affidavit:
A police officer arrived to the office Monday morning following a report of a woman sleeping in front of the doorway. After the officer woke her up and asked her why she was sleeping there, Yun allegedly told him that she was waiting for a ride.
The young woman told police she had no identification. When she was asked to look in her purse for something with her name on it, the officer spotted a hypodermic needle. Yun allegedly told the officer that the needle was for a heroin. She then confessed to having empty baggies of the drug. Officers also discovered a glass pipe in her purse.
Yun told the officer that she was trying to get help for her addictions, and she allegedly confessed to prostituting herself to support her drug habit.
Yun was arraigned on Aug. 1, and held for $1,000 bail. A preliminary hearing is set for Aug. 8.
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