The Majestic, Sou'Wester, and Restaurant 3

[DonRocks]

I want to write and say "thank you" in advance to Brian Robinson of Restaurant 3, Rachael Harriman of Sou'Wester, and Shannon Overmiller of The Majestic for generously pitching in and helping our 2009 Autumn Picnic.

Brian is going to be contributing deep-frying equipment, maybe a surprise dish.

Rachael is going to be making fried chicken

Shannon is going to be making vegetarian casseroles.

Several weeks ago, I was a bit worried about the participation at this year's picnic, and I dreamt up this bright idea to have sponsorship for future picnics. It seemed like a win-win situation for everyone: If a restaurant is generous enough to contribute a dish, we'll bow down before them and kiss the ground, plus give them all sorts of attention and publicity to repay their generosity. But there wasn't time this year to sound a general clarion call, and so we just decided to ask a few of our favorites.

There's nothing in it at all for these restaurants, so please say "thank you" by repaying them with your future business. Incidentally, we didn't strike up any kind of "deal" with them; I merely wrote them and said "our picnic could use a shot in the arm," and they responded with open arms and generosity, expecting nothing at all in return, not even publicity. Which is why I feel doubly inclined to ask all our readers to acknowledge them (*). Once again, thank you to:

The Majestic

Sou'Wester

Restaurant 3

Next year, assuming there even IS a next year, we may expand this to any restaurant that wants to participate. Or, (he says, famously) ... we may not.

Cheers, and thank you once again to Brian, Rachael, and Shannon.

Rocks.

(*) Which makes this post essentially a "commercial," but none of the restaurants asked for this - it's my doing entirely and there's no way I'm not going to say "thank you." If we can implement a more comprehensive version of this in the future, i.e., restaurants "sponsoring" our picnic, I'll make sure it's a more organized effort without crossing the boundaries into tackiness or annoyingly poor taste.

[DanielK]

Just adding a note to our industry members:

One of the biggest reasons we've always gone with Sunday rather than Saturday for the picnics is so that those members "in the biz" could participate, since Saturday night's dinner service isn't looming.

You're members of our community; you don't have to do anything special (extra thanks to Brian, Rachael, and Shannon for that), but please feel free just to come, bring your families, and join the festivities.