One of the projects I founded with We Heart Astoria is the Queens Blogger Social. Every other month, we gather bloggers and writers based in Queens and meet up at a local restaurant or bar, for conversation, socializing, networking, and eating delicious food. These events are a lot of fun and it’s been great to meet other bloggers in our fair borough.
Last week we were honored to work with Tamara Reynolds of the Sunday Night Dinner, a private supper club in NYC. The idea sprung up at our last blogger social at Ornella, a local Italian restaurant (I’m working with them to do a dinner for my traditional foods meetup group – more on that later), and it was a tremendous one. She put together the menu and we put together the guest list.
I think there were close to 20 of us that night, and it was a very friendly and enthusiastic crowd. I love bringing people together and seeing them have a good time with each other.
Everything was delicious – local produce purchased that day – but the real standout element of the meal for me was this beautiful bouquet of candied bacon lollipops. Basically they were chunks of pork belly glazed with something sweet and then cooked til they were glistening and caramelized, and speared with a bamboo skewer. They were a marriage of smoky, savory, and sweet; I just loved them. I could have eaten a dozen of them! But I showed restraint – it was difficult, but I did it.
I documented the evening, which you can see in my Sunday Night Dinner with the Bloggers photoset. The heirloom carrot salad was also a knockout for me.
If you would like to attend the Sunday Night Dinner, or would like to hire Tamara to cater your next event (she’s skilled and fabulous), contact her by email for more information.
Inspired by your Blogger Social. What a great idea. The candied bacon lollypops are a creative twist. Love it!
Thanks, Kelleigh! The blogger socials really are a lot of fun. We’re in the midst of planning our October gathering (the Sunday Night Dinner was a special event), and expect it will be a good time as well. It will be interesting to see how far we come after a year’s worth of socials – who knows what good things we can do when we network together!