Thanks to everyone who came out to Bazaar Bizarre last weekend! It was a great way to kick off the holiday season, despite the one vegetarian heckler who visited our booth. We thankfully had some beers from nearby City Beer Store so the awkwardness quickly faded.
Would you rather have some delicious food and tasty beverages while you shop? Well, this is your weekend for sure.
On Friday, December 9th is the 3rd annual La Cocina Gift Bazaar, from 5pm to 9pm, at the Mission Cultural Center for Latino Arts (Mission, at 25th). La Cocina is an awesome local food business incubator, which provides support to low-income food entrepreneurs as they formalize and grow their businesses.
If you love food, or are shopping for a food lover, you seriously don’t want to miss this. In addition to food vendors (both take-home and eat there, like Wise Sons Deli pastrami, mmmmm….), there’s going to be a “tamale alley”, featuring tamales from around the world (there’s no way that it won’t be delicious) and a pretty crazypants live auction. This should honestly be a ton of fun. There is also a silent auction going on RIGHT NOW online.
We’re talking things like:
- The ultimate picnic courtesy of Delfina – including a pig roast, side dishes, a keg of freshly brewed beer and maybe even some square dancing.
- Evening with a Monger at Bar Bambino
- Cocktail class for two at Beretta
- Private tour of Blue Bottle Coffee’s Oakland Roastery, followed by a single origin cupping, demos and half pound of beans for each guest.
- In-home ramen and kimchi class from Hapa Ramen’s Chef Richie Nakano followed by, well, ramen!
- Be a brewer for a day at Magnolia Pub
- Dinner for two in the Chez Panisse kitchen
And like, a WHOLE lot more. Insane, right? You should totally come. Check out more details, including information on the eBay aution, here.
After you’ve had your fill at La Cocina, you should also hop on over to the Holiday Market Market trunk show at Rare Device, from 6pm to 9pm, featuring work by my biz ladies pals, lemonade handmade, Kendra Renee, Sharon Z Jewelry, 1.by.liz, Casa Murriguez, Bird vs. Bird, and Noteify. There will also be a raffle and a paid gift wrapping station to benefit 826 Valencia. Rare Device will also be offering 15% off all of their regular merchandise (excluding the trunk show and art show). At 1845 Market Street @ Guerrero.
And Saturday afternoon is the final New Taste Marketplace of 2011, at St. Gregory’s Church, 500 De Haro, from 12 to 5 pm. This will be the normally awesome foodie grazing paradise, but now we’ve stepped up our game and have transformed this into another one-stop-shop for the food lover on your holiday shopping list. This market, there will be arty vendors, including Geraldine Adams Art (selling food related art prints of illustrated recipes, vegetables and wine map of France), The Heated (durable, non-toxic and good-looking flour sack towels and market totes), Faerie Goatmother (all natural organic goats’ milk soap and face masks), Flock Home ( hand-printed linen dinner napkin sets, cocktail napkins, coasters, pillow shams, pin cushions, and tea towels), Buttons & Pears (funky aprons and hot pads), and me! You can also meet Anthony Myint and Karen Leibowitz, authors of Mission Street Food Cookbook, and pick up a signed copy.
There will also be over 30 food vendors, selling take home treats like bacon caramels from Nosh This, pickles, coffee and tea, as well as “eat it there” food, like pastrami from Jablow Meats, dumplings, cheese balls and more. Check out the full line up here. There is a sliding scale entry fee for $0-$10, with proceeds going to the Food Pantry at St. Gregorys.
Whew! I guess I better get back to work now! Hope to see you there.
