Get out and Eat!!

Guess what started this week?




The next couple of weeks offers an opportunity to do something good for yourself and good for the community. The good for yourself part is that you will get a nicely prepared meal featuring locally grown/harvested/captured items that tastes fresh. The good for the community part is that each participating restaurant will make a donation to two of our local so-called “soup kitchens” that help people get nutritious food that they might not otherwise be able to have. What could feel better than that?

And, besides just having some good meals, it just might take you to restaurants that you may not have been to before, and discover there is food that doesn’t come wrapped in paper or from endless salad bowls, and dishes with ingredients made who knows where and from what. Using local ingredients means they will be fresh and healthy. If you buy your own, you can meet the actual growers, which is always fun.

All of the participating restaurants are locally owned and operated. Somebody sent me some statistics the other day that show while the chain restaurants are generally surviving the economy, the locally owned ones are being hit and closing. As I’ve mentioned before a struggling restaurant in St. Mary’s County can’t be bailed out by one in California. If a local restaurant has to close, it ripples throughout the community. Jobs are lost, local farmers lose business, local services (plumbers, HVAC) suffer and so on. So it is important that local restaurants get support. I have been fortunate enough to know several of the restaurateurs around here, and I am certain that they sincerely want you to have a good experience. It’s their livelihood (it always comes down to money), and they depend on your business for their business. They don’t want you going out the door mad because your appetizer took 25 minutes to hit the table, or the veggies were cold. I know it’s hard to do, but you can find a way to let them know without being mean. Their part of this bargain is that we hold them accountable for wanting to make us return. If they can’t do that, they’re on their own. Sorry for sliding into a rant….

So, go visit the Savor St. Mary's website, it’s a neat one with lots of information on the restaurants (and their special “local dish” for the week) and even good pictures of their chefs, along with a nifty description of some of the farms around here that grow and raise products. For instance, I didn’t know you could get fresh eggs in Mechanicsville.. There’s also some promotions (see the “cool giveaways” tabs – save your restaurant receipts) and other events. The site will remain after the initial week(s) so hopefully it will evolve into a center for local dining info.

Oh, did you notice the appropriate footwear of “Chef Tomate”?



We’re making our initial foray tonight. And, try as I might, I just couldn’t make them include an admonishment to

DFD