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Wednesday, January 21: Super Hunger Chef Fundraiser

New Year, new you. No, we don’t mean a slimmed-down, super-chic, ultra-organized version of your old self (though that wouldn’t be so bad). We’re referring to the do-gooder, do-unto-others type who’s resolved to volunteer some time at a food pantry, or at least donate some gently-worn clothes to Goodwill. Use the Greater Boston Food Bank’s fundraiser, Super Hunger Chef at the Four Seasons (200 Boylston Street, Boston, 617.338.4400), as a very worthy excuse to give your life a little charity-driven purpose. At this year’s installment of the annual epicurean battle, see chefs Anthony Susi (Sage), Gabriel Frasca (Straight Wharf), and Will Gilson (Garden at the Cellar) duke it out and whip up dishes using only ingredients stocked by the Food Bank. Tickets ($200) include cocktails, hors d’oeuvres, and a multi-course meal and are available at www.gbfb.org/shm; all proceeds benefit the GBFB.

Green Room: 11.18.08

 

If the idea of vegan food brings to mind frozen cardboard-flavored dinners from the earthy-crunchy section of Star Market, it might be time to expand your horizons with a visit to the Soiree Room at UpStairs on the Square (91 Winthrop Street, Cambridge, 617.864.1933). The whimsical Harvard Square restaurant continues its vegan dinner series on November 25 at 6:30 p.m. with a menu featuring locally sourced veggies, including sunchokes from Eva Sommaripa in South Dartmouth and butternut squash from Sudbury’s Siena Farms. The four-course dinner ($45; $65 with wine pairings) combines good-for-you food with necessary indulgences (wine and dessert among them). For reservations, call 617.864.1933.

Fresh City

Irish Twins

It Takes Two

Green Room

They say you are what you eat. If that’s true, then at Via Matta (79 park plaza, Boston, 617.422.0008) you can be green, organic, and entirely local. On October 15 at 7 p.m., Eero Ruuttila, manager of Nesenkeag Farm in Litchfield, New Hampshire, joins diners for a five-course, all-locally-grown meal, plus a discussion about New England’s farm industry. Ruuttila certainly has the know-how: Nesenkeag provides local produce to some of Boston’s most notable restaurants — Via Matta, excelsior, and harvest among them — and serves as a model for sustainable agriculture. Via Matta executive Chef Mike Pagliarini will create a totally spontaneous menu using only the week’s harvest from Nesenkeag. Share in the harvest by calling 617.422.0008 for reservations; the cost is $100 per person.

Triple Threat

Supposedly, the third time’s the charm. In the case of the South End’s go-to Franklin Café (278 Shawmut Avenue, Boston, 617.350.0010), we think chef/owner David Dubois hit the mark the first time. Now he’s using that success to propel a third Franklin (the second one’s in Gloucester) into the Allele condo complex in South Boston. The new restaurant, slated for a mid-November opening, will be called Franklin-Southie (152 Dorchester Avenue, South Boston) and will feature a small outdoor seating area, weekend brunch, and late-night plates served until 1:30 a.m. Chef Brian Reyelt is on board, but don’t fret: he’ll continue in the South End kitchen, too. And while the menu is still in the works, Dubois assures us that we’ll see some old favorites from the original Franklin list.

Palm Sunday (and Monday and Tuesday and...)

Some of us are very lucky. Short of showing up in our pajamas, we get to wear pretty much anything we want to work; no suits, ties, or stockings here. But mostly we’re just lucky we have a job to go to each morning, particularly in this economy. The Palm Restaurant (Westin Copley Place, 200 Dartmouth Street, Boston, 617.867.9292) and Dress for Success Worldwide share our sentiment, so they’ve partnered to help women around the globe get the professional clothes (read: suits, dresses, shoes) and career development skills that will help propel them into the workforce. Want to help your fellow working woman? Through the end of October, order your next lunch or dinner from the Palm’s Fall for Success menu — including Nova Scotia lobster nachos ($18), Ahi tuna burger ($16), and molten chocolate cake ($10) — and the restaurant will donate 10 percent of the proceeds to Dress for Success. The Palm Restaurant Group is holding this fundraiser at more than 25 restaurants nationwide in hopes of topping the $60,000 they rounded up last year. That’s a whole lot of pencil skirts. 

Around And Around We Go

Crash Courses: A writer returns to Boston to brush up on the latest in local dining and drinking

Okay, here’s a math problem for all you clever so-and-sos crawling one of the world’s most educated cities: if a food writer travels 1900 miles from her new hometown of Denver to her old one of Boston to catch up on the current dining scene, how many days does it take her to hit 10 restaurants, down 30 drinks, sample 25 dishes, and gain five pounds?

If you guessed two and a half, you get a gold star. But so do I. I took a crash course in multicourses and passed with top honors. For that matter, so did the chefs, bartenders, and servers I tested in turn, dishing up as they did the creamiest of this summer’s crop. Now it’s time for you just-returned vacationers and brand-new arrivals to brush up on the latest in local dining. So here are the Cliffs Notes — and here’s hoping my crash diet goes half so swimmingly.

Hot duo: Beer pairings

Hot meat: Off-cuts of lamb

Hot carbs: Breadbasket at Scampo

Don’t be a hermit

They take a licking