Less than a week ago Gabriella Gershenson, a senior editor at our fellow food magazine Saveur, gathered together a group of New York City food writers and farmers’ market friends and produce nerds who’d been discussing by email the brand new reports of serious flood and damage after Hurricane Irene outside of the city. We were fine, obviously, but our farmers were not. Greenmarket, for example, estimates that 80 percent of their farmers have been impacted, with about 10 percent reporting severe loss, meaning to 80 to 100 percent of their products, and this report in Saturday’s Times outlines how the storm might affect our foodshed in months to come.
So what could we do? The result, as spearheaded by Gershenson, is Dine Out Irene.
On September 25th, participating restaurants around the city will donate up to 10 percent of their sales to Just Food and GrowNYC to benefit NY area farmers hard hit by the hurricane. The list of where to eat that day is still growing by leaps and bounds–and if you work for a kitchen, we’d encourage you to join; just email dineoutirene@gmail.com to do so. Even so it’s already an impressive list of places to eat, as per below. And you can stay on top of the updated list at the Dine Out Irene site right here. We also think you should RSVP to Dine Out on Facebook, so all your friends will get the gist. Then you can all go out to eat together in honor of the folks who really feed us on September 25th.
Participating Dine Out Irene Restaurants as of Wednesday September 7
Aldea (participating Monday, September 26)
Asia de Cuba
A Voce Columbus (brunch)
Bar Basque
Bistro de la Gare (dinner)
Blue Hill
Brindle Room
Buttermilk Channel
China Grill
Ed’s Chowder House
Ember Room
The Green Table
The Hurricane Club (dinner)
ilili
Jack the Horse Tavern
James Beard Foundation (brunch)
Kefi
La Gazzetta
La Palapa
Macao Trading Co.
Monkey Bar
The National
Northern Spy Food Co.
Olives (dinner)
Osteria del Circo (dinner)
Palo Santo
Park Avenue Autumn (dinner)
The Plaza Food Hall (dinner)
Red Farm
Red Rooster (dinner)
Riverpark
Robicelli’s
Salumeria Rosi
SD26 (dinner)
Spot Dessert Bar
Tanuki Tavern
Telepan
The Trilby
The Waverly Inn
‘wichcraft (all NYC locations)
Wonder City Coffee & Donut Bar
