Monday, May 21, 2012

City Market Dinner


This isn’t exactly my regular type of post, but I wanted to let you all in on something I have been working on for the last couple of months—an idea from Brad Gates that we talked about back in February when he was dropping off our annual Valentine’s Day dinner.  This past Saturday, I helped to organize what I hope with be the first of many market dinners at the City Market downtown.

We kept it fairly small for the initial attempt. I invited several people I know and several of you I feel like I know through the blog.  There were about 30 of us and we sat upstairs at large tables at the market and enjoyed food from Brad Gates Catering, Circle City Soups and Sweets, Fermenti Artisan, and pastry chef Pete Schmutte.   

Photos courtesy of Brown Sugar Meatloaf


I love the fact that we got to sit in an historic Indianapolis building eating local seasonal food prepared by market chefs—and we tried to keep the price reasonable at $45 per person.  We wanted the dinner to be accessible to lots of people in terms of price and formality.  I think people genuinely enjoyed themselves and it was great to interact with both old and new friends.

Dinner started with cheese and various pickled veggies.  The next course was homemade beet pasta with housemade salmon pastrami and a fennel cream sauce. The main course was bison medallions topped with cabbage, favas, pea shoots and a Vidallia onion demi glace and a baby root vegetable pot pie topped with Capriole farms goat cheese. Dessert was a lovely chocolate namelaka with passion fruit ganache (with lots more to it). The dessert was almost too pretty to eat.  Almost.  We were also treated to a plate of various flavors of macaroons and even more cheese. 

The dinner was even better than I hoped for food-wise, the setting completely casual, and it was great to bring various Indy food loving people together over a meal.  I know the market vendors hope to make these types of dinners recurring events and that is why I am doing this post.  I want to help them compile an email list for future dinners of anyone who might be interested in attending that I can pass along to them (and also for purely selfish reasons—I want to attend more of them myself!)  When they’re announced, the menu and the price are set (and payment is made in advance).  If you are interested in being included in the mailing list for future dinners, please leave me your contact information in a comment below (or if you were there, let me know what you thought about it) or email me at erininindy@gmail.com.  I can’t wait for the next one and I can’t wait to meet more of you!

***Special thanks to Brown Sugar Meatloaf for having the good sense to take some proper photos (I took a couple, but hers are so much prettier).  The photos here are her work. 

Brad Gates Catering
Indianapolis City Market
222 East Market Street
Indy  46204
317/445-0105

Circle City Sweets
Indianapolis City Market
222 East Market Street
Indy  46204
317/632-3644

Circle City Soups
Indianapolis City Market
222 East Market Street
Indy  46204
317/956-2395

Fermenti Artisan
Indianapolis City Market
222 East Market Street
Indy  46204
317/493-1652

Pete Schmutte
Pastry Chef


19 comments:

  1. Please keep me posted of any future dinners like this. Sounds fun.

    David

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  2. Erin! It was a great dinner -- and a great way to see so many food lovers come together! We liked it because we could bring our own wine to share and try (because we are geeks that way), but I also noticed a lot of people enjoying beer and other beverages. A great time all around! Thanks for organizing it and I'd love to be on the list for future dinners.

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  3. David, please send me your email address and will keep you in the loop.

    braingirl, glad you guys had fun!

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  4. I am happy to hear the event went well. I will definitely be attending the next market dinner!

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  5. It was so good-- my husband and I are STILL talking about the meal. Can't wait for the next one!

    Suzanne

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  6. Thanks for the shout out Erin & for the invite to the dinner. We had an amazing time and can't wait for more!

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  7. Would love to be included :)
    brittctaylor@gmail.com

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  8. This event was a lot of fun to be a part of! We've been talking about doing a pop-up at the market for a while and it was great to pull it all together, and I look forward to doing it regularly. It's always fun doing pastry for people who appreciate good food, and who are willing and excited to see something a little different.

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  9. Count me in! bethany.jane.anderson@gmail.com

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  10. I would love to go to something like this! Karen12677@gmail.com

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  11. Top shelf post and thank you for highlighting one of the unappreciated and ecliptic group of businesses at the Market. Love the facelift Stevie has given the Market. And chefs such as Mr. Gates, and Chef Hawkins are making the food scene very bright.

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  12. Good times my friend. Thanks for the invite.

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  13. thanks for all the positive feedback you guys. can't wait for the next one!

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  14. I would also like to hear about these--thanks!

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  15. My wife and I would love to do something like this! Please keep us in mind!

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  16. My wife and I would love to be kept in the loop for this kind of event! Sounds like something we would really enjoy!

    Thanks for doing the dirty work to find out about it! Haha!

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  17. I would love to know about the next one! erinshea17@yahoo.com. Thanks Erin!

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  18. I would like to be on the list to learn about future events! janschmutte@gmail.com

    Thanks.

    Jan

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  19. would love to hear about future events!
    Sounds terrific!
    kathy@sociallegends.com

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