Over the course of an intensely sucky non-spring in Minnesota, a bit of an obsession developed among the Minnesota Food Bloggers for gathering on a patio. It began on Twitter with the wistful hashtag #BigPatioNight, while the average high temperature was 40 degrees at best, and roared into a full-blown fantasy when we were generously invited to spend May 23 on the brand-new patio at Heidi & Stewart Woodman's lovely restaurant, Heidi's 2.0.
Would it be a nice night? I'll confess...I thought no damn way. The forecast was for clouds at best, rain at worst.
I was ready for the worst.
But then...a stroke of luck! The clouds drifted away, the sun shone forth, and we all gathered outside, for real, on the patio, for real. For real!
It was...magical.
The sense of sparkle was enhanced, I suspect, by the absolutely delicious - and KILLER - cocktails being concocted and named by bartender extraordinnaire Johnny Holder (@film_cocktails) and sommelier James Parsons (@jsommplus). Several drinks were named, of which I sampled (inhaled) two. The first was The Stephanie, named for Minneapolis/St. Paul Magazine food editor Stephanie March (@stephmarch), an evilly fabulous mix of Makers Mark, chartreuse, brandied cherries, with muddled orange, sugar cube, and tobacco banana bitters.
Ka. Blam.
The second sashayed around after Tracy Morgan (@segnavia) & Molly Herrmann (@tastebudtart) of Kitchen in the Market (@KitchenInTheMkt) - two girls who know their way around a cocktail - challenged Johnny to create a champagne-tequila beauty. Dangerously comprised of champagne, tequila, ginger syrup, celery bitters, and lime juice, The Blonde Bombshell kind of blew everyone away, both at the party, and on Twitter the next day. I've been thinking about her ever since...
Platters of lovely food made the rounds as well, escorted by servers in "Cheese is the New Black" t-shirts. Awesome. Salmon spring rolls, blue cheese-topped poundcake, tender rabbit meatballs, lamb, and a serious chocolate mousse (on gluten-free spoons, for me, how sweet!) were devoured. There might have been some licking going on.
The best part of the night? The Minnesota Food Bloggers raised $500 for Emergency Foodshelf Network plus an additional $205 for American Red Cross Minnesota for North Minneapolis tornado relief. Amazing.
Huge thanks to the Woodmans, JSomm, Johnny, Liz, and the whole Heidi's team for hosting such a beautiful party.
Happy Patio!
