Upcoming Eating

It's Halloween weekend, which means that I, along with most of America, am going to eat an unnatural number of tiny candy bars and then, for the next week, I'm going to find their little wrappers all over my house (courtesy of both Dixon and  Cooper).

But candy is not all I'll eat over the next few days - I also have a couple seriously amazing dinners lined up.

Today, I'm heading to Richmond, just for the night, where I will get to spend some QT with my new-ish niece, Virginia Catherine (she was born in July) - and where I will eat. Erin and Cail and I are going to a Fire, Flour and Fork dinner at Southbound tonight.

Fire, Flour and Fork is a multi-day food-oriented event that includes a bunch of lectures and tours, plus tons of collaborative dinners that bring together chefs from all over the place. The Southbound dinner, called Beardbound, includes four awesome chefs: Travis Grimes (the Exec Chef at Husk in Charleston), Justin Carlisle (the chef/owner of Ardent in Milwaukee, WI), Lee Gregory (owner of The Roosevelt in Richmond) and Joe Sparatta (owner of Heritage in Richmond). The Roosevelt and Heritage are two of Cail's favorite restaurants in Richmond and - overall - this dinner is sure to be incredible.

Speaking of collaborative efforts, one of my very favorite things about the Baltimore restaurant scene is how our chefs can't get enough of each other. I'm not sure if this happens in other cities, but the number of collaborative projects happening at all times in Baltimore makes me smile.

On Tuesday, we're going to the final Fork and Cork dinner. The series is a collaboration between Fleet Street Kitchen (where this one is held), Aggio and Wit + Wisdom. The chefs at all three (Chris Becker, Bryan Voltaggio and Zack Mills), along with their sommeliers (Tim Riley, Chris Coker and Julie Dalton) get together to put out serious meals, and serious pairings. We couldn't make the first two for logistical reasons and I am beyond excited to get to this one.

When chefs collaborate - whether they're from across the country or across the city - everybody really does win. In this case, I feel like I'm the biggest winner of all.