Tidbites | Week of October 03, 2013

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Chautauqua will host an Oct. 8 flood benefit.

Dining to donate

Farm-to-table dinners are a dime a dozen — well, not literally — these days in Boulder County. But they still deserve headlines, especially when they combine fresh, locally grown food with fundraising for a good cause.

That’s the setup at the Oct. 4 Harvest Farm Dinner at Pastures of Plenty in Longmont, which is being held in honor of Domestic Violence Awareness Month. The dinner, hosted by Pastures of Plenty and Big Bang Catering, also of Longmont, features local vegetables, fruit, meat and cheese, as well as artisan breads and desserts from the bakery of the Mediterranean Restaurant in Boulder.

Proceeds from the dinner will benefit SPAN, the Safehouse Progressive Alliance for Nonviolence. Headquartered in Boulder, the group offers resources and support to victims of domestic violence. The dinner is $80; an ad on www.safehousealliance.org directs viewers to the registration page.

Five courses for flood relief

The Chautauqua Dining Hall is no stranger to the harms of September’s flooding. As a part of Three Leaf Concepts, the dining hall gets most of its produce from Three Leaf Farms. However, due to the flooding from nearby Coal Creek, the farm has been forced to discard the entire year’s harvest due to contamination.

But that won’t stop The Chautauqua Dining Hall from hosting a Flood Relief Dinner Tuesday, Oct. 8, benefiting the Foothills Flood Relief Fund through the Foothills United Way. The dinner costs $95 a person and consists of a five-course harvest menu and wine pairing prepared by dining hall Executive Chef Brian Horton. The ingredients for the dinner will come from other local providers. Reservations can be made by calling 303-440-3776.

Eat up with Berkshire and Golden Road

Timed to coincide with the parade of rarities that is the Great American Beer Festival, Boulder’s OAK at Fourteenth will host a pork-centric five-course menu with some notable rarities: Berkshire pork, a rare British breed, and Golden Road beer, a rare Los Angeles breed.

Berkshire pigs, listed as “vulnerable” by a British farm group, are highly prized for their marbling and tenderness. And just because a breed is “vulnerable” doesn’t mean it can’t be eaten, by the way.

Steven Redzikowski and Bryan Dayton of OAK at Fourteenth | Photo by Justin Lee

The five-course dinner, taking place Oct. 9, makes use of the animal in all five courses, including candied bacon alongside chocolate custard, graham cracker crumble and spiced marshmallow in the s’mores dessert.

OAK will serve beer from Longmont’s Oskar Blues as well as Los Angeles brewery Golden Road Brewing, which only distributes in California. Golden Road, which like Oskar Blues packages its beer in cans, will be serving at the GABF. OAK Beverage Director Bryan Dayton will be speaking about the beer/pork pairings, as will representatives of Golden Road and Oskar Blues. The dinner is $65; reservations can be made by calling the restaurant at 303-444-3622.

Boulder chefs get together to benefit Lyons

Six well-known Boulder chefs are banding together to support the community of Lyons the best way they know how: Making food.

The proceeds of an Oct. 8 benefit dinner at Pearl Street’s Mateo will go to Lyons-area farms and ranches that were affected by the flood. But the charity doesn’t stop there: Mateo is offering a complimentary community table for Lyons residents at both seatings, 6 p.m. and 9 p.m.

The seven-course meal with cocktail and wine pairings will cost $150. More information is available at www.mateorestaurant.com.

Featured chefs are Nate Bychinski of Mateo, Kelly Whitaker of Basta, Ann Cooper of the Boulder Valley School District, WIll and Coral Frischkorn of Cured, Bryan Dayton of OAK and others to be announced.

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