GENTLE READERS:
The beginning of May always strikes such a strange pose.
Why, just last week, on May 1, Miss Dish found herself caught
between planets. Now, Miss Dish isn't one to lay all her
fortunes on astrology, but she does recognize that sometimes
gravity plays a trick or two.
Take the cruel hand of fate that guided organizers of the
annual Chef's Night Out (this year renamed Taste
of the Nation) to slate it for the first of May. This
event, held for the past 12 years in our fair city, brings
together the leaders of Portland's restaurant community
to fight hunger. Held at the Performing Arts Center, the
fund-raiser features many of the city's top restaurants,
vintners and breweries offering tasty samples to people
who pay $60 to $85 for the right to roam the halls with
plate in hand. Unlike many charity events, this one gives
100 percent of ticket sales to its beneficiaries. This year
the Oregon Food Bank, Sisters of the Road Cafe,
St. Vincent de Paul's Food Train and Klamath and
Lake Counties Food Bank will get some dough from the
shindig. Last year the event raked in $66,500 and was filled
to the gills with people delicately attempting to stuff
their faces. But things were different this year.
Miss Dish was waiting for her Taste of the Nation escort
to arrive when she was swept up in a crowd of people rakishly
dressed in black with bandanas tied smartly about their
faces. They were chanting slogans and singing songs about
helping the working poor. As a former cheerleader, Miss
Dish is a sucker for a rhyming couplet and jauntily joined
the group. While there was no pole with streamers to help
celebrate this May Day, people were certainly dancing.
It was nice of the police to block off the streets like
they did, but when Miss Dish finally made it over to Taste
of the Nation, she could see that this impromptu street
party had made it difficult for anyone arriving at the event
by car. While last year there were lines wrapped around
the sides of the building, this year there was hardly a
line at all. "I thought it was a funny juxtaposition," said
Bruce Fishback, who owns Bread & Ink Cafe
and was offering marjolaine cake to all takers. "People
are protesting hunger outside while this event inside was
designed to help hungry people." Event chairwoman Lori
Casebeer almost didn't make it to the event because
all streets leading there were cut off; she chucked her
car and walked. Casebeer says that even though the final
tallies aren't in, she doesn't think Taste of the Nation
reached its goal of $100,000. "We usually sell 200 'day
of' tickets and I don't think we even sold 100," she says.
"The protests prevented a lot of that traffic." Still, even
though the beneficiaries might not get all the cash they
had hoped for, the riders of St. Vincent de Paul's Food
Train (this organization redistributes surplus food from
restaurants to people in need) got lucky--all the leftovers
went to them.
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Willamette Week | originally
published May 10,
2000
|
