#fbf2017

We’ve had some fantastic Riverhead Tables over the past year. From taking over Ruffian Wine Bar & Chef’s Table for a Pakistani feast with Mohsin Hamid to cooking an Eat, Pray, Love inspired meal with Elizabeth Gilbert in her home kitchen, we consistently found new and creative ways to celebrate our authors and their books through food. 

Earlier this month we took things up yet another notch with our very first public event at the 2017 Food Book Fair, which was held at the famous Ace Hotel in Manhattan. If you’ve somehow never heard of the Fair, it’s the one weekend a year when famous chefs, food + drinks writers and restaurateurs come together to celebrate food in print. There are book signings, panels, cooking demos…the works! To be included on the same event schedule as, oh, Food52, Cherry Bombe, Mario Batali, April Bloomfield, Melissa Clark and so many others was MIND BLOWING. 

We invited Riverhead authors Emma Straub and Katie Kitamura to help us host a boozy Greece-Meets-Brooklyn brunch party inspired by their novels MODERN LOVERS (representing Brooklyn) and A SEPARATION (representing Greece). We served small bites of sausage, spanakopita, parfaits, mimosas and more to a room full of book lovers, foodies, and friends. Even April Bloomfield stopped by to check us out! It’s an overused expression but we believe it’s a fitting one to use in this case: 

We. Couldn’t. Even. 

Since we weren’t able to cook the food as we normally would, we decided that the next best plan of action would be to ask some of our favorite Brooklyn based food businesses to help us out by donating some of the main ingredients. And, girl, did they deliver. We want to give an enormous THANK YOU to The White Moustache, The Meat Hook and to our dynamite friends at Jones of Boerum Hill for helping us make the event a success! And we wouldn’t have been there at all if the Food Book Fair organizers hadn’t invited us to participate in the first place, so THANK YOU to Kimberly, Amanda and the #FBF2017 team for everything.   

Thanks to everyone who decided to spend their Food Book Fair experience with us. For those who didn’t, check out our photo recap below! 

The Menu

A Do-It-Yourself Mediterranean “Avocado” Toast Bar

Spanakopita

Breakfast Sausages

Toasted Fennel & Garlic Sausages

Greek Yogurt with Fresh Berries, Honey and Granola

A special tasting of The White Moustache’s new line of probiotic tonics in various flavors (yum!)

Mimosas

April Bloomfield and Emma Straub. 

Sentences about breakfast from Modern Lovers and A Separation.

Breakfast sausages from The Meat Hook! We also served their Toasted Fennel & Garlic sausages. 

Fruit parfaits featuring Greek yogurt from The White Moustache! They’re based in Red Hook, Brooklyn but you can find their delicious products in a store near you. 

The White Moustache also just launched a new line of refreshing probiotic tonics in different flavors. Guests at our event were able to try honey lime (our favorite!), passion fruit, honey lime and fresh ginger. 

What food item is more “Brooklyn” than avocado toast? We wanted to put a Riverhead Table twist on the concept, so we created a DIY Mediterranean toast bar packed with hummus, tzatziki, figs, olives, cheese, eggplant and more for people to use to create their own personal toast masterpieces. 

The spanakopita (Greek spinach pie) was a hit, too!