Posted on May 11th, 2009

My subscription to Gourmet arrived in April. I always want to eat my
lunch alone on the day it arrives, so that I can pour over all the
articles and photos without interruption. I love to see new trends, new
places to eat, see what old friends are doing, wonder why Gourmet has
never called me up and wanted to do a photo shoot of our bakery/cafe,
and especially arm-chair-travel.

This last month in April the picture on the front of the magazine was of
french fries wrapped in white paper. I slowly turned the pages as I ate
my Salade Parisian with chicken. When I came almost to the end of the
magazine there was a splendid travel article on an area of France that I
enjoy, the Dordogne. Mark and I almost bought a stone farmhouse there in
1984 for $13,000 U.S. dollars. So much money, we thought, for the work
it needed, plumbing and electricity. Would we really ever visit it
enough to make it worthwhile? We never found out. We drove away from the
farmhouse in our rented Renault and have dreamed often of that crumbling
structure.

This article was about a summer time series of dinners in several towns
in the Dordogne. They call them "Night Markets" They are dinners that
are much like farmer’s markets, except that the vendors sell prepared
dinner foods and desserts. Wine is also sold.

I was immediately in love by the idea of this "Night Market". I allowed
my self to talk to Mark during my religious reading of Gourmet. I told
him about it and suggested that we have one of our own here at Kelly's
during late June when the sun stays up late and school is out.

So we are now having it! We are calling it the "Dinner Market", as to
have less confusion to what it actually is. So far we have six vendors,
Kelly's, New Leaf Market, Feast for King Catering, Cafe Limelight, Bonny
Doon Vineyard restaurant The Cellar, Everett Family Farm. I am still
working on getting at least three more. I would like to get Hollins
House and Cafe Brazil, and Cafe Ella.

The idea is that we will close off half of our parking lot and line it
down the middle with tables and chairs. The vendors will be under
umbrellas in the parking lot. Some will be cooking food on grills and
others will have the food prepared and will be serving it. We will
encourage patrons to arrive with their own plates, utensils, and
glasses. Patrons will go to the various vendors and purchase the food of
their choice. For example Kelly's will be serving up a warm German style
potato side with onions and bacon as well as dessert. Cafe Limelight is
going to make gumbo and sweet tea. Everett Family Farm will be serving
salad from greens that they have grown. New Leaf Market is talking about
grilling tri tip. And Feast for a King Catering is thinking about
grilled artichokes. There will be lots of other items, these are just a
few tempting examples.

I will encourage all the wineries to stay open, but Kelly's sells wine
and Santa Cruz Mountain Brewery will be serving up their delicious
brews.

I love community events. This is not a fundraiser only an evening of
fun. It is for our enjoyment and celebration for being here. I encourage
you dear reader to come to our Dinner Market, June 27th from 6pm-9pm.
Bring your family, plates, utensils, glasses, and napkins. We will have
lots of tables and chairs as well as music for after dinner dancing?