I’ll be volunteering Monday night at the 3rd Annual Mac Off to benefit The Food Bank of South Jersey. Rumor has it that John and Lisa from Eating in South Jersey will be there to support the Food bank, too. If you plan on being there, too, let me know.
Chef Mark from Tortilla Press was on Fox 29 this morning, promoting the event.
I can’t wait to try the buffalo mac-n-cheese. I love anything with blue cheese.
It’s been a slow quiet week news and event-wise (except for the wine shipping bill news, of course), so I don’t have any odds and ends for you this week. Enjoy your weekend, and hopefully I’ll see you at the Mac Off!
It’s time to plan to hop back on the Patco again and head into Philadelphia for Center City District Restaurant Week. Many of the fine, independent restaurants in Center City will be offering three-course meals for $35 in 124 participating restaurants and three-course lunches for just $20 in 54 of them. The week is actually two weeks minus a Saturday night and runs from January 22 – 27 and January 29 –February 3, 2012.
Philly Homegrown is once again working with the Restaurant Week organizers to bring locally produced items to the menus. Items with a little red tractor next to them on a menu include locally grown, produced or sourced ingredients.
I already have my Center City District Restaurant Week reservations that I made on Open Table. To make sure you don’t get shut out of the restaurant you want to dine at, make your reservations early.
Where are my reservations? I’m not going to tell you unless I absolutely love the place. If I do, you’ll hear about it here. If not, I’ll keep my mouth shut.
The shipping bill will allow wine to be shipped to and from NJ residences, but more importantly it will allow winery tasting rooms to remain open and allow our wineries to thrive.
Congratulations to the NJ state wineries on their well-deserved victory late last night!
I spent most of the day yesterday checking Facebook and Twitter for updates on what was happening with the wine shipping bill that was being voted on in the Assembly. Finally, at a little after 11pm, Sharrott Winery tweeted this:
Bill passed the assembly! Just waiting now for the senate to concure tonight since there was an amendment.
and a little after 11:30 came the second and most exciting news:
The winery bill has passed!!! Just needs the governor’s signature and he has said he will sign.
It was a little tough getting to sleep last night; I was pretty excited.
It’s been a long, difficult uphill battle for the representatives who have sponsored this bill and the New Jersey State Wine Growers Association and the individual wineries to get this bill passed. At times, the future of the wineries seemed very uncertain. I can imagine the winery owners and their employees felt discouraged each time a version of this bill got stalled in the Assembly.
But now, Victory is within reach. Governor Christie has said he’ll sign the bill. Let’s all contact him and tell him we are thrilled that the legislature has passed this bill and let him know you want him to sign it.
This Saturday, January 14th, 8 of our state wineries will be at the Winter Wine Festival at Renault Winery in Egg Harbor. If you’re going to the festival, make sure to congratulate the wineries on a fight well fought and a victory well deserved. I can imagine there will be quite a celebratory atmosphere at the festival.
