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Feast and Raffle with Prizes at Cafe Parizäde November 27, 2008
Thanksgiving was again a big success. We had 578 people in attendance and about 50 on
the wait list. This was again a record for us and I believe again the country's largest
vegetarian Thanksgiving. We gained nineteen new members. 171 people were first-time
guests. We opened reservations at 8a on November 6th; over 200 reservations came in the
first day, including the first one at 8:06a from Joy Coker.
We had guests from more than 40 cities and 7 states, including Chicago, Cicero NY, and
Austin TX. We had good print press coverage before the event, including in the Raleigh
News & Observer, Durham Herald-Sun, and the Independent, and were on the Thanksgiving
evening news (I think on channel 14).
Everybody seemed to love the food - our menu is listed below. Check-in lines moved fairly fast and there never seemed
to be much of a wait for food. Many thanks to the staff at Café Parizäde, especially manager
Igor Gacina, chef Robert Adams, pastry chef Lou Mincey, and owner Giorgos Bakatsias, as
well as manager Ricardo Granillo and the many others who worked on Thanksgiving.
A big thanks goes to TVS webmaster Ken Guttman, who again tirelessly created an excellent
web-based reservation system. Brian Donlon kindly took reservations by phone.
Michael Pocinki of Michael's Music DJ Service provided the sound system.
Many people helped with the raffle, especially Jenny Finn and her family (Alex, Erin, Dory,
and Guy) - Jenny didn't even sit down to eat till I did after the event ended. Others that helped
with the raffle included Pravin Shah, Beth Levine, John Davis, James Balfour, Fabiola
Anderson, Stephanie Hodges, Valine Zeigler, Joy Anandi, Jennifer McDuffie, and Carrie
Burke.
Special thanks to Jim Hart who recently moved to the area and asked if he could help - he
did quite a bit before attending his first Thanksgiving with us. And my apologies for those
whom I may be inadvertently leaving out; if you email me, I would be glad to
acknowledge your efforts.
Menu
Fall Antipasto Buffet Table Main Courses Desserts
Drinks Photographs from Thanksgiving 2005 courtesy of Keith Dixon of Picture Perfect Photography and Videography Services from South Carolina, and used with his permission. (More pictures available online.) Anna Creissen of Anna Creissen Photography took pictures at the 2007 event; see her TVS photo gallery. |
Event summary written by Dilip Barman:
Putting together such an event couldn't have been possible without the help of many
additional people (especially with a new baby in the hospital!). Ann Creech, Jim Hart, and
Jenny Finn called and made arrangements for raffle prizes. Brian Donlon, Allen Creech,
Evelyn and El Giefer, Jim Hart, Tracy Morris, and Angela and Brandon Becker helped to
setup the restaurant. Check-in was done by Angela and Brandon Becker, Allen Creech, Eric
Zeigler, Kathy and Linda Borkowski, Radha Patel and Deepak Suryanaryanan, and Jody
Hamilton-Davis.