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Attendance down this year, but lots to eat and drink
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MAY 08 13 – 3 PM — With two whole roast hogs, sliders, ribs, baked beans, crostini, soup, smoked salmon, cakes and lots of beer and wine (and, this year, newcomer Harvey & Vern’s Olde Fashioned Soda) to wash it all down, no one left the Ernst & Young Centre hungry Tuesday as Bon Appetit rolled out its 17th tummy-filling edition.
But …
Where the charity fundraiser in three previous years sold out more than a week in advance, attendance of about 1,500 (plus 300 volunteers and food staff) was down by as many as 200 people, which will doubtless give organizers pause as they consider remedies to make next year’s eat-and-drink fest a bigger success.
Doubtless many factors came into play to explain the slump. For starters, it doesn’t help that the city’s biggest employer is in the throes of major downsizing in the federal public service. Still, at $85 a ticket Bon Appetit remains a great deal considering buyers get a $50 charity tax receipt — in addition to all the food and drink they can manage.
Above, from the folks at Les Fougères in Chelsea, Que., delightful tandoori-spiced grain-fed chicken with spring salad dressed with organic yogurt, extra-virgin olive oil, fresh herbs, peanuts, and Charlie’s sweet and sour sauce.
Yes, a playoff Senators game that same night may also have dampened attendance a bit.
However, I noticed with some exceptions much of the food seemed a little too familiar. I wonder, how many sliders and crostini hors d’oeuvres can folks swallow without feeling bloated, if not a tad bored? At what point do people think they’ve been there, done that?
The venue isn’t anything to ring a gong about, that’s for sure. By any measure, the Ernst & Young Centre is a yawning abyss that resembles an airplane hangar with industrial carpeting, and inadequate fluorescent lighting high overhead that casts a pale blue-green hue over what should be colourful food. While the hangar presents ample space to set up and move freely about, it offers none of the intrinsic ambiance of the former historic Cattle Castle venue at Lansdowne Park, now undergoing a major facelift.
Traffic tangles to get to Uplands Drive can be frustrating, especially at rush hour. And while folks are used to coughing up $5 for parking at Bon Appetit when it was at Lansdowne, the goosed $7 fee at Ernst & Young Centre seems excessive to plant a car for an hour or two in the middle of, well, nowhere.
Don’t misunderstand: Bon Appetit remains a superlative event that offers terrific value, raising something like $140,000 each year to benefit 25 local charities. It’s just that, in my mind, the Ernst & Young Centre seems better suited for tractor shows and home and garden exhibits, devoid of intimacy one might expect at the city’s biggest cocktail party. I hope — dearly — for Bon Appetit’s return to the Aberdeen Pavilion when renovations at Lansdowne are complete. And, more variety would help …
Clockwise from top left: Triple Threat slider with pulled pork, brisket, peameal bacon from Real Sports Bar & Grill; roast pork slider (from whole hog) by Meatings BBQ Catering; sauced side ribs with beans kicked up a notch by jalapeño peppers from SmoQue Shack; maple-cured wild boar peameal slider with Boston lettuce, tomato, smoked tomato chutney from Courtyard restaurant.
Clockwise from top left: Always-delicious hickory-smoked salmon from Pelican Fishery & Grill; Harvey & Vern’s Old Fashioned Soda (the ginger beer is a standout with spicy notes); Frosting shots with strawberry lemonade from The Flour Shoppe; Spiced IPA caramel corn with Big Rig garam masala and candied ginger, also from The Flour Shoppe.
Among standouts this year was the tandoori-spiced chicken served on a spring salad with Charlie’s sweet and sour sauce by Les Fougères restaurant of Chelsea, Que. I also enjoyed chef Warren Sutherland’s superlative, spicy baked beans and sauced side ribs from SmoQue Shack, new this year.
Also there for the first time was Real Sports Bar & Grill with a tasty Triple Threat slider of pulled pork, brisket and peameal bacon by chef Carl Baptista, and two roast hogs from Meatings BBQ Catering. Not to be missed was a new ginger beer soda by Harvey & Vern’s, the latest brainchild of Kichesippi brewery owner Paul Meek, with delightful spicy notes that well in the mouth moments after you drink it.
Pelican Fishery & Grill’s Jim Foster always delivers what is arguably the best smoked salmon in town, while Fatboys Southern Smokehouse served a tasty pulled pork and beans with Tennessee sweet sauce. Returning again this year was Courtyard restaurant with a slider of maple-cured wild boar and peameal with Boston lettuce, smoked tomato chutney.
The crew from National Arts Centre with grilled cheese “lambwich” brioche with braised lamb shank, aged cheddar, arugula.
Clockwise from top, Timothy Van Dyke from Lunch food truck; chilled pepper tomato soup with ferme Lève-Tôt arugula pesto from Stone Soup Foodworks; selection of Italian cured meats, cheese, olives from Fratelli; pulled pork, beans, slaw with Tennessee sweet sauce at Fatboys Southern Smokehouse; porchetta from Bootleg Porchetta Co. with gremolata, arugula pesto on crostini by Lunch food truck.
Clockwise from top: Crostini, gorgonzola, speck prosciutto, arugula, roasted red pepper from Mama Grazzi’s; red velvet cupcakes with roasted white chocolate butter cream by The Flour Shoppe; maple carrot cake, maple soak, walnut and cranberry crunch, cinnamon sugar crumb, pineapple curd, maple cream cheese icing from It’s a Matter of Cake; wild Oregon shrimp, red pepper, dill, chives, onion stuffed in cucumber hollow by Fresco Bistro Italiano.
Above, fun people shots at the event Tuesday.
Immediately above, that would be me (always) taking pictures of the food. Photocredit, my friend Lois Siegel. Thanks, Lois!
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Twitter: @roneade
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