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That's all the invitation we need, thank you.
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Only a smidgen of the candy available at Global Foods Market.
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The interior at Katie's Pizza & Pasta Osteria in Rock Hill.
SLM contributor Byron Kerman weighs in regularly on local food events, happenings, and dining news of note. Look for his wit, wisdom, and whimsy every other week both here and in SLM's e-newsletter, On the Burner.
Gin Rummies
Natasha Bahrami likes gin – a lot. The namesake of South Grand’s Café Natasha has opened the Gin Room within the Mideast restaurant, and this month’s series of Grand Opening Events for the “speakeasy” should prove to be two solid weeks of fun. Check out a Gin & Cigar Pairing Patio Party with reps from Pinckney Bend Distillery and The Hill Cigar Co. (July 15); an Italian Wine & Spirits event (July 17); a tasting by Square One’s Spirits of St. Louis Distillery (July 24); and other events, including a tasting of barrel-aged gin from Café Natasha’s cellars (they have 14 flavors!), and a workshop where guests learn how to make tonic (they have nine flavors of tonic!). “It’s my mission to make you fall in love with gin,” said Bahrami. Visit the Gin Room’s Facebook page for more details.
The Ultimate Candy Trap
If you love candy, you already know where some of the city’s best candy shops are. But you might not realize that one of them is actually inside of Global Foods Market. The international supermarket in Kirkwood has multiple aisles of nothing but candy near the front of the store; it’s a seriously tempting “candy trap.” We’re talking Scottish shortbread, chocolate-covered German biscuits, Japanese matcha-flavored KitKat, Cadbury bars from the U.K., chocolates from Poland and Finland – thousands of choices. All this is in addition to the candy in pretty much every other aisle of the market, shelved according to country of origin. This much candy exerts its own gravitational pull on kids of all ages.
Katie and Her Big Heart
There are a number of restaurant nights for charity around town where a portion of the night’s take goes to a worthy cause. But Katie Lee, owner of Katie’s Pizza & Pasta Osteria in Rock Hill, is upping the ante. Her new monthly Katie’s Causes benefit pledges every last bit of what’s in the cash register to a different non-profit each month. The inaugural event, on Tuesday, July 22, funnels all the proceeds from lunch, dinner, drinks, carry-out, the works, to the Operation Food Search food bank for the needy. Katie’s will do this the fourth Tuesday of every month. So get on in there and try her decadent fried burrata with wood fire-roasted tomatoes; a pizza topped with Salume Beddu’s finocchiona salame, caramelized fennel, burrata and arugula; or a watermelon salad guest-starring ricotta salata (a harder, saltier ricotta), Kalamata olives, basil, pine nuts, arugula and balsamic vinegar, to name a few goodies.
