It's tomato time!!

Yessiree! Tomatoes abound, fill our lives, fill our deli case, fill our hearts.

These are one day's haul from my tiny collection of plants at my house. I bought a handful of cherry tomato plants and stuck them in the ground around my garden guardian. She quickly was overtaken by the greenery and now is covered with bowls full of these bright beauties. For awhile I ate a bowl full with pasta or on a salad or simply right out of the bowl. But I have finally slowed down and have been hauling them in to work where I deposit them on an unsuspecting coworker's desk. Yesterday I took a BIG bowl full of them to Jubilee and tucked them into a nook on the altar. During the sharing of the peace we ate them.

This month is the offical month to celebrate the tomato in Asheville. Our local group, Appalachian Sustainable Agriculture Projects does a promotion of a specific product each month. Now is tomato time. And someone, perhaps someone from ASAP came up with the very smart idea to have a Tomato Walk. A bunch of us Independent Restaurateurs will feature this beauty during a 2 hour Tomato Happy hour.

We'll have Foccacia slices with heirloom cherry tomatoes; Gazpacho; Heirloom Tomato salad; Pasta Salad with Cherry tomatoes; beer specials; and a whole lot more.
Stroll on by this Thursday (the 20th) between 5 and 7. Nice!

And if you can't make it during that time, fear not - we're well-stocked with tomatoes of all kinds. And will continue to do so.

In other news:
We've been enjoying being open later. Do feel free to come by in the evenings as we're now staying open until 8, Monday through Friday. You can have your dinner to go right here (which makes it dinner to stay) or you can browse our deli case for evening offerings that are the result of the mood of our cooks and the mood of the day and the mood of the weather.

And yes we have beer. And wine.

Oh - and finally, our Farmer's Dinners are gaining in popularity. Put September 17th on your calendar. We'll have three of our farmer friends join us for an evening of Dinner and Conversation. I cook. They talk. You eat. Sound fun? We think so. Reservations are required for these. 828-252-1500.

See you then if not sooner.