is the attendee list full?

If not, I'd like one ticket, no beer (as I've actually got a group going the night after the 14th for beer )

Confirmed Attendees:
ronnie_suburban +1 (nominator)
boudreaulicious (nominator)
stevez +1 (nominator)
dicksond
turkob (nominator)
snap203
David Hammond
Santander
pairs4life +1
The GP
Mr. X
JoelF
RAB (nominator)
REB
Darren72 (nominator)
PitaChip
nr706
moetchandon
DClose +1
mgmcewen +1
lemoneater +1
Jazzfood +1
petite_gourmande
Cathy2
milz50 +1 (nominator)
mbh +1
Teresa
laikom (nominator)
fropones +1 (nominator)
Jefe +1 (nominator)
edc +1
tapler +1 (nominator)
Suiname +1
Cinnamon Girl
FrankP
paperfragment
BR (549 )
Siun
pudgym29
Sweet Willie
Lerdawg
Pigmon
Trixie-Pea
glennpan
Barry Sorkin - brisket carver extraordinaire
-59-

Awardees
El Ideas - 3
Scofflaw - 3
Nightwood - 3
Monti's - 3
New England Seafood Company - 3
Go 4 Food - 2
-17-

=R=

Hi all,

As posted up top, ticket sales are set to close automatically at 11:00 am on Friday 4/12. If you plan to attend and you haven't purchased your tickets yet, please do so by that time.

We absolutely cannot accept cash at the door at this event, so you must purchase online -- by 11 am tomorrow -- if you plan to attend.

In addition to the 2 spots that are already reserved but not purchased, we have room for 4 more people. If you want to attend, please post here or PM me asap.

Thanks!

=R=

Thought I would post while my belly is still full of delicious food from this event and it's still fresh in my mind. Thanks so much to everyone who coordinated tonight, and the GNR process in general. On a day like today when my faith in humanity was skidding toward an all time low, the couple hours I spent at half acre tonight made me feel a little bit better.

It was nice to finally meet some of you LTHers in person and can't wait to try the new GNRs.

From the highly curated selection of first-rate vittles (special thanks, Jen) to the entertaining awards ceremony, this was truly an outstanding LTH event.

I had a few nice chats with some of the honorees who expressed how grateful and touched they were to have been selected for this award.

Thanks to everyone involved for making this the wonderful event that it was...including the Half Acre Beer Company.

Also, congrats to turkob who I'm sure will do a great job heading up the GNR committee and to Mr. Dickson for his years of GNR service.

Looking forward to next year's festivities.

I ate too much

I've had the brisket at Smoque plenty of times, last night was by far the best product I've had.

Hummus and Chana Masala were terrific.

I also can't believe I enjoyed that slider as much as I did, will have to get to Bad Apple for a full size.

It was great to catch up with and meet some new faces.

Big Thanks to all whose efforts that made last night a success!

Sweet Willie wrote:I've had the brisket at Smoque plenty of times, last night was by far the best product I've had.

I agree and I know at least a few others who felt the same.

Great food! Great beer! And great to meet you all! Overall one of the best food events I've been to in a long time!

Does anyone know the name of the brewer who was giving tours? He gave me some spent grain and I'm going to try growing oyster mushrooms on it and he asked me to bring him some if I'm successful.

mgmcewen wrote:Great food! Great beer! And great to meet you all! Overall one of the best food events I've been to in a long time!

Does anyone know the name of the brewer who was giving tours? He gave me some spent grain and I'm going to try growing oyster mushrooms on it and he asked me to bring him some if I'm successful.

Maurizio Fiori--he's one of the owners. Glad you enjoyed!

Sweet Willie wrote:I also can't believe I enjoyed that slider as much as I did, will have to get to Bad Apple for a full size.

They're even better hot and juicy.
If you had one with goat cheese on it, it was probably the Chupacabra, also featuring goat-meat chilli. Num!

Well,

I had a wonderful time last night. The crew from scofflaw were immensely wonderful & I'm holding them to showing at the picnic for a good time.

I spent a bit of time with Jason H, Jason V & Marianne & what a joy that was. Yes, again, they've got the date for the picnic because they were genuinely curious as to how these folks, LTHers, do it.

Boudreaulicious was amazing with location and showcasing the food from current GNR's, a great turn that I think bolsters the sense of community, not just for LTH Forum, but also for our GNR recipients, current & brand spam in' new.

The committee, the mods, the Coronation of the Sultan, & a special shout out to mbh for a job well done!

Thanks to all who made last night such a terrific event. Even though the whole evening was such a smooth running operation, I realize that many of you spent considerable time to make it seem so simple, and for that I say "thanks" and "great job!" I also really enjoyed meeting some LTHers for the first time whose content I have enjoyed reading for so long. That's one of my favorite aspects of LTH - meeting new people who share great passion for food, even though we don't necessarily share the same opinions about the food we eat.

As for Half Acre, the Tap Room made for a truly fantastic location for this event, and Half Acre's staff was terrific as always. I particularly enjoyed the tour, a first for me. I look forward to sharing many more meals with my LTH friends.

What a terrific evening, especially after a very sad day, this was a truly wonderful GNR dinner. It was not only the amazingly curated choice of foods and the joy and passion of Maurizio for his brewery, but being able to connect with fellow LTHers. I met faces to put with names and opinions I'd been reading, and engaged in some wonderful conversations with posters and chefs.

Thanks to the committee, especially boudreaulicious and stevez who pulled it all together with help from many dedicated committee members. The list of winners seemed tighter this year with every one truly deserved, it felt like a reawakening of the community after a period of change. Thank you again for all your hard work.

boudreaulicious wrote:Maurizio Fiori--he's one of the owners. Glad you enjoyed!

I was actually at Half Acre last night as well, having a bring your own food dinner. Maurizio could not have been more helpful in terms of cleaning up our plates. Wasn't his job to do so, we would have cleaned up ourselves, but just a nice move on his part, our group was very pleased w/Half Acre and the bluegrass band playing last night was nice !

I had a very nice time at the GNR Award Banquet on Monday.
From chatting with a few people there, including Ronnie_Suburban , I uttered I would refer in some pictures I have taken.
These four are of Keizo of "Ramen Dreams", and the Bassanova ramen shack in Tokyo, when he produced a bowl of ramen at El Ideas (November 2012).

Here are six images of the setup and layout at the Half Acre Tap Room on Monday night.

This is a previously-posted {but not referred into here} image of the "NOTICE" sign in the packaging room at Half Acre.

This is Milo from Go4Food. Thank you very much for having me for the banquet! We look forward to seeing you guys around again!

As others have posted, it really was a great event. I want to give a a huge thank you to everyone who pulled it together; especially boudreaulicious for wrangling the logistics and assembling an absolutely stellar meal. But so many other people contributed to the success of the evening and every one of those contributions made the event a very special one:

Barry Sorkin from Smoque BBQ for supervising the carving and serving of the brisket

Danny Beck from Toons for delivering our wings personally and setting up the chafers

mbh for driving all the way down to Bridgeview to make the Al Bawadi pickup

Maurizio, Jake and Elisa from Half Acre who were spectacular hosts

Alicia, Brittney, Ben and Rich from Wes Swanon's crew, who did sensational work setting up, cleaning up and managing the buffet all evening

All the GNR recipients who joined us for the evening

All the GNR nominators and LTH members, whose enthusiastic participation helps make the GNRs the most special awards in town

All the GNR Committee members and Moderators who contributed in innumberable ways

I'm probably leaving some people out and if so, it's only because there were so many people who helped. I'm truly sorry if I've forgotten someone.

As for the food, I ran out of room long before I could try everything I wanted to but everything I ate was terrific. I especially enjoyed the unplanned cross-pollination of GNR delights that took place on my plate . . . Smoque's brisket kissed with run off from Spoon Thai's Chinese broccoli w/crispy pork, a little motawma from Al Bawadi schmeared on a veggie slider from Bad Apple, Toons' buffalo wings wrapped in a torn off piece of onion naan from Khan BBQ. Great stuff all the way around.

Below are a few shots from the evening. I apologize for the delay in getting them posted. It was a very busy week. Please, let me know if there are any errors, typos, or other misinformation . . .


pudgym29 takes a few shots before the crowd arrives



BR, mbh & Alistair (left to right)



The Scofflaw crew -- Danny Shapiro, Kris Nagy, Andy Gould and Mandy Tandy -- checks in with The GP



JoelF



Maurizio and Jake from Half Acre work the taps



Andy Gould (left) and Danny Shapiro of Scofflaw



Danny (left), Jennifer Monti and James Gottwald of Monti's



mgmcewen (right) and her friends Ashley (left) and Loni



Dining at the Hi-Boys in the Brewery



fropones (left) and laikom



Pigmon (left) along with Danny, Kris, Mickey and Katie from Scofflaw



Christina and turkob



Teresa (left) and Evelyn



moetchandon (left) and nr706




Jason Hammel (left), Marianne and Jason Vincent of Nightwood



boudreaulicious (left) and petite_gourmande



lemoneater and Mr. lemoneater



Barry Sorkin of Smoque BBQ (left) with milz50 and Lisa
We were truly honored to have Barry and his cohort there in person slicing and serving brisket for us.



Milo from Go4Food (left) and edc



pairs4life, glennpan, petite_gourmande and mbh (left to right)



Jefe & Jessica



Jeffery Mazza (left) and Robert Mazza of New England Seafood Company



David Hammond, Cathy2 and Cinnamon Girl (left to right)



Andrew Iacono (left) and Joe Gancarz from El Ideas



DClose (left) and Clayton enjoy a brew



RAB & REB



Jazzfood and Theresa



The GP & Mr. X



Scoffaw chef Mickey Neely traverses Half Acre Brewery



Matt DuBois from El Ideas (right) accepts the GNR award from milz50



Milo Chan from Go4Food (right) accepts the GNR Award from nominator Jefe



stevez (right) presents Jennifer Monti and James Gottwald with the GNR for Monti's



boudreaulicious (second from left) presents the GNR Award to the crew from New England Seafood Company



Chef Jason Vincent of Nightwood (left) accepts the GNR Award from yours truly



Chef Mickey Neeley of Scofflaw (left) accepts the GNR Award from nominator fropones



Half Acre Brewery's Tap Room
The crowd gives all the GNR recipients a round of applause.



turkob (left) and dicksond
David Dickson passes the GNR leadership torch to Onur Usmen.



Our awesome host, Maurizio Fiori from Half Acre, graciously thanks us for coming
I cannot say enough about what a great venue this was and what great hosts everyone from Half Acre was.

=R=

A big THANKS for including our wings from Toons at such a great event. Means a lot to us for being asked. Hope to see some of you out soon.

Danny

Congratulations to Cafe Orchid and thanks to Tapler for the nomination.