Dear Feastlings,
Scattered and overworked isn’t the best combination, but it’s a spot in a Venn diagram where I usually find myself since opening Feast. I’ve always jumped between tasks, and when I was young, it worked pretty well. I was a solid saute cook who could handle eight burners at once in a busy restaurant, and I was a grad student who could juggle taking a few courses, teaching a couple and still managing sous chef responsibilities five nights a week.
The older I get, the more I realize I was probably deluding myself into thinking I did all of it- or any of it- well. Now I’m old and tired enough to see where at least some of my shortcomings are, and I’m discovering more all the time. I’m convinced they’re multiplying at the same time I’m developing more self-awareness, and that’s a whole different Venn diagram, one that’s- well, let’s just call it disheartening.
Anyway, here I am, scrambling to knock out an email two days later than I intended to, to tell you what’s up this week. Granted, it’s not entirely my doing, but in the end, it mostly is. Tuesday sent me to Banner South Campus to donate meals with the remarkable help of our exceptional guests, then to the Crisis Response Center, then back to Feast to pick up more food that was left off my truck. Another jaunt to the Emergency Department at Banner South, then a return to Feast to deal with the repercussions of the quarrel we got into over doing a job correctly, taking responsibility for one’s mistakes, and my ever-shortening fuse and tantrummy nature.
Today is chockablock with appointments, so rather than write you a tipsy note at 5 pm as the dinner rush begins (it’s wine rep day, and even spitting every drop, I’ll feel it. I’m unquestionably a lightweight when it comes to beverage consumption;) here’s a speedy note to tell you what I’d intended to tell you Tuesday, then yesterday.
This Saturday’s wine tasting is all about springtime, so even though Tucson’s season for Great Big Reds is painfully short, those of you whose thoughts turn to springy lightness and freshness won’t want to miss what we’re tasting on Saturday.
I’m also taking up a relatively last-minute collection to bring meals to St. Luke’s Home on Saint Patrick’s Day. Forgive my ignorance of how it all fits together- I’m likely to offend someone, I’m sure- but Saint Luke, despite what I’ve now learned is his Greek heritage and massive contribution to the New Testament, and Saint Patrick, whom I’ve now learned was never canonized, but sure did a lot for Catholicism centuries later, seemed like a good enough fit for me to bring corned beef and cabbage to the people living there, and working there, on Saint Patrick’s Day.
You’ll be pleased to know that if you were too late to get into the dinner with Mary Taylor next week, there are more wine dinners fast approaching on the horizon, so I’ll tell you now: Mitch Cosentino, formerly of Cosentino, and now of PureCru, will be here with wines in tow on April 20, and that one hasn’t already been swarmed with fans like Mary’s dinner is. I’ll tell you this: I’ve tasted two of the wines so far in order to write the food pairings, and they’re downright exceptional. You’ll continue to hear more about that dinner over the coming weeks.
Now: make your reservation, be it for the wine tasting, the wine dinner, or Saint Patrick’s Day. It’s your moment.
Love,
Doug