Hi there!
I’m Mariel Kramer, Events Coordinator with Downtown Boulder, and I’m very excited to be joining you all here in the blogosphere!
One of the best parts of my job is the opportunity to play an active role in building community in our public places by creating shared and inclusive experiences for locals and travelers alike. I know that it’s not a shock to any of you that this year has been particularly strange for our events team to manage questions surrounding gatherings, often asking ourselves how we can still facilitate that fulfillment of our human need for connection while prioritizing what is safest for our community.
No one knows this struggle better than our restaurants, who bring a passion for hospitality and creating beautiful gathering spaces to work with them each day. The work accomplished by downtown restaurants in community building and gathering is at the heart of what they do. In order to offer the members of our hospitality industry, who work tirelessly to create warm and welcoming places for us to gather, some much-needed love and support right now we are excited to launch an inaugural culinary celebration, Taste of Downtown Boulder.
Running for the week of November 16-22, Taste of Downtown is designed with the intention of celebrating our local restaurants as safely as possible. You will have the opportunity to enjoy many dine-in or carry-away offerings from over 30 downtown restaurants. For those of you home chefs (or aspiring home chefs) we have a series of virtual cooking classes featuring guest chefs from downtown restaurants, thanks to our friends and partners at Food Lab. Finally, feel free to peruse our downtown videos page, where you will find a series of short interviews with some of our local chefs and restaurateurs from several of your favorite restaurants discussing just what it is that they love about what they do.
As a piece of the celebration of all things food in Downtown Boulder, we will also be giving away A Bite of Boulder, FirstBite’s new cookbook on each day of Taste. As an alternative to their traditional restaurant week that is held annually around this time each year, the FirstBite cookbook accomplishes what we set out to do with Taste of Downtown Boulder in book form. It’s full of great recipes from your favorite Boulder eateries (downtown and beyond), but it’s also full of great stories. Stories of the people behind the food, the local Boulder food scene, and the importance of local food itself. It’s a beautiful love letter to our Boulder restaurateurs and their businesses. Check out how you can participate in the giveaway to win your own copy on our website. Starting Thursday, November 12th, they’re available to purchase at all participating restaurants, Boulder Book Store, Cured, Peppercorn, and Savory Spice. 50% of proceeds from the sale of these books go back to the restaurants highlighted therein.
I have been lucky to have had the opportunity to sit down to talk with several of downtown’s local restaurateurs and chefs. A common theme in these conversations with folks from our wide variety of 94% locally-owned downtown restaurants, was the genuine love these individuals each hold within themselves for their work. They each view hospitality and cooking as a way to share goodness, nourishment, and love with another human being in their community.
For me personally, this concept really struck a chord. Restaurants in downtown Boulder have been the backdrop of so many beautiful memories in my life - where I’ve shared laughs with my loved ones, times of sadness, and just the simple joy that only a delicious meal together can provide. I know that I’m not alone in this. With this in mind, we hope to offer Taste of Downtown Boulder to the community as a way for you to safely support your local restaurants so we can all gather together around their tables again very soon.
Bon appétit!
- Mariel
Mentioned in this Post: Boulder Bookstore, Peppercorn, Savory Spice
Tagged: Dining