We’ve decided, in the interest of safety, to be closed on Monday, October 29th. We hope for the best for everyone potentially in harm’s way as Sandy gives us her best shot. We expect to be open for normal business hours on Tuesday, October 30th.
We’ve decided, in the interest of safety, to be closed on Monday, October 29th. We hope for the best for everyone potentially in harm’s way as Sandy gives us her best shot. We expect to be open for normal business hours on Tuesday, October 30th.
On Monday, November 19, 2012, we are hosting a Monday Benefit Dinner for Naturestage.
Naturestage is an uncommon nonprofit that seeks to “build empathy for other species and care for the natural world through arts and film.”
Join founder Miranda Loud in celebration of Naturestage’s first six years. Ms. Loud will share the latest news on three of Naturestage’s current projects: The Elephant Project [strictly a happy coincidence, I assure you!], the One Language Project [“For the Love of Dogs’}, and Park Dreams.
If you love animals and the arts, I urge you to visit naturestage.org to watch some moving videos and to learn more about their project.
And, by all means, please attend our Monday Benefit Dinner for Naturestage!
Tagged: animals, art, Benefit, Benefit Dinner, charity, civic engagement, dogs, elephants, film, philanthropy
This is a special collaboration I have been working on with the assistance of the friendly farmers at Waltham Fields Community Farm. It’s a new signature cocktail for our Food Day Benefit dinner Wednesday, October 24th. We’re using two of their fresh farm ingredients: their incredibly fragrant Asian basil and a chili that I had previously never heard of, but am very happy they introduced me to, the fatalii pepper.
I infused Edinburgh Gin, which is extremely aromatic and has great citrus and juniper notes, with the fatalii pepper for a very short time (just under an hour). The gin took on the heat from the fatalii, which you’ll experience as a surprising tingling on the back of your palate while sipping the drink, as well as the unique fragrance of the fatalii, which stands apart from the gin’s own aromatics.
Next I made a “simple syrup” with the Asian basil. While reducing on the stove the basil released into the syrup its beautiful aroma and pigment. The result is a sweet, savory and rich green syrup that contrasts wonderfully with the heat from the fatalii. The last step was to add some acidity to bring the cocktail into balance; for this I simply added some freshly-squeezed lemon juice.
In the process of this collaboration I reached out to Claire Kozower, the Farm’s Executive Director with whom I have been planning this dinner, for help naming the cocktail. We both laughed that we had arrived at nearly the exact same name. She had “farm fatalii,” which I had simply translated into French. Prediction: People are going to love the Ferme Fatalii.
As I write this, there are still seats available for this special benefit dinner. So, please join us as we celebrate National Food Day with our friends from the farm. We will be serving several of our classic Elephant Walk dishes, each prepared with fresh produce from the farm. So come by, have a great meal and a cocktail, and – here is the best part – know that half of the proceeds from the dinner will go directly to the farm in support of their food access and educational programs, and that we continue to have great local produce again next year!
To reserve your seat at the dinner, please click here. I hope to see you there.
Father, mother and son: Joel, Avelina and “Joelito” – all hard workers at The Elephant Walk in Waltham [mom and dad have been with us for over a decade!], and Waltham residents – shared a meal together at the bar at the end of Sunday’s dinner shift.
Maddie jumps into the frame!
It was honored and privileged to attend The White House Forum on Social Business and Innovation last Thursday, September 27, 2012 in Washington D.C. The meeting took place in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building, adjacent to the West Wing. [No, we didn’t meet President Obama, but we were all very aware of his return from a Virginia campaign trip as Marine One rumbled in for a landing on the South Lawn next door!]
The event was a meeting of more than 150 business and nonprofit leaders with a full roster of Obama Administration and federal government department officials. Its stated purpose was to discuss how American businesses are using social innovation to generate economic return and community benefit. Our host, Jonathan Greenblatt, Deputy Assistant to the President and Director of the White House Office of Social Innovation and Civic Participation, made it clear that it was his goal to leave the meeting with fresh, clear ideas for new policy and legislation to support companies that are strategically integrating social impact into their operations.
So, why was this owner of a small, independent restaurant in Waltham, Massachusetts there? Though no one ever told me explicitly, I believe I was included in this meeting because of the Benefit Restaurant® Project, the new model for philanthropy I founded in 2009. Benefit Restaurants seeks to grow the pool of funding available to nonprofit organizations, with a bias toward those fighting aspects of poverty. It is a synergistic model that strengthens the restaurants and the nonprofits through a co-marketing effort. As a Benefit Restaurant® we give a percentage of our sales to a different nonprofit each month. In turn, these nonprofits simply inform their stakeholders that we are doing this. The result? Our business improves and our donations increase.
Prior to the White House event I attended a meeting at the Case Foundation’s Washington offices of a small group of members of the Social Enterprise Alliance [SEA]. It was clear early on that we were all more or less in the dark about what to expect, and this uncertainly added some levity to the occasion, I think. – I was very impressed by the work being done around the country by my SEA colleagues. That pre-meeting and The White House event that followed sent me back to Boston very inspired, and now CONVINCED that we are on the right track!
I took copious notes at The White House Forum. If you’re interested, I’ve posted a fairly organized transcription at benefitrestaurants.org.
Thank you for YOUR continuing support of The Elephant Walk in Waltham. It is you, our guests, who make it possible for us to contribute to ending poverty as we know it.
Our annual giving cycle at The Elephant Walk in Waltham kicks off in the Autumn Quarter when our cause is Hunger Relief – a natural choice for restaurants during the season of harvests and feasts. We seek to help eliminate poverty. We’ve chosen to begin that process by helping make sure everyone has enough to eat.
We are very proud to renew our support, for the third consecutive October, for Waltham Fields Community Farm. As beneficiary of our 38th month as a Benefit Restaurant®, WFCF will receive 3% of our October 2012 gross sales!
Located on Beaver Street in Waltham, near Bentley University, Waltham Fields Community Farm [WFCF] is a local treasure. Teaching children of all ages about the joys and profound value of farming, Waltham Fields Community Farm is a nonprofit organization supporting farmland preservation, hunger relief, and education.
WFCF’s Hunger Relief work includes providing “fresh produce to emergency food programs in the Greater Boston Area, operating a special farmer’s market for low income residents of Waltham called the Waltham Fields Outreach Market, engaging in farm-to-school distributions with the Waltham Public Schools, and offering subsidized Community Supported Agriculture shares.”
Remember: When you dine at The Elephant Walk in Waltham in October, we ALL support Waltham Fields Community Farm!
Tagged: Benefit, charity, community supported agriculture, CSA, hunger relief, philanthropy, waltham
For the next week or so we encourage you to try our delicious specials which include the long-time favorite starter “Nom Pan B’kong Chean” – or “shrimp toasts,” in the vernacular, which are subtly seasoned, minced shrimp over baguette toasts, then fried and served with a mouth-watering spicy-sweet Sriracha-hoisin sauce:
We’re also offering the following two delicious entrées – pan-seared haddock with a sauce of white wine, butter, and fresh basil with sautéed corn and cherry tomatoes:
…and one of my long-time personal favorites: “Kari Tieh,” or duck curry in a succulent, spicy green curry sauce over shredded Napa cabbage and topped with grilled eggplant. Yum!
Someone’s taken notice of our work. Our commitment as a Benefit Restaurant® somehow got me an invitation to a meeting at the White House next week. It’s an honor, and a privilege, and definitely a thrill, no question about it.
But I’m also finding it a huge challenge to prepare myself for it mentally. I discuss some of what I’m chewing on at benefitrestaurants.org.
If you were lucky enough to attend any of the three Spring talks, you know how great Brandeis Café Science at The Elephant Walk in Waltham can be! The new 8-talk series runs the first Monday of every month [except January] from now through June 2013.
This new series kicks off with “Timing Is Everything: Your Biological Clock(s) and Circadian Rhythm” by Michael Rosbash on Monday, October 1st!
To reserve your seat, please call the restaurant at 781-899-2244. – The cost is just $10, and includes your first drink! If you stay for dinner, you’ll receive a 15% discount on the food portion of your meal!
But, there’s one important rules about reservations for Brandeis Café Science: Be on time! – Since this is a presentation, and not a meal, you really must be on time and seated so the speaker can get started on time and deliver his/her talk without commotion or interruption. Thus, in this case, on time means 10 minutes early. All reserved parties who’ve not checked in at least 10 minutes prior to the talk’s start time will release their seats, which will then be given to individuals on the waiting list.
We’re excited about this new series of Brandeis Café Science at The Elephant Walk in Waltham and hope you are, too!
Tagged: Brandeis University, Café Science, science, waltham
The Elephant Walk in Waltham is joining the nationwide celebration of Food Day on Wednesday, October 24, 2012 by hosting a benefit dinner for Waltham Fields Community Farm – a nonprofit we love!
Helping us celebrate Food Day with Waltham Fields Community Farm will be none other than Frances Moore Lappé, who will give a short talk to help us understand the significance of Food Day and our participation.
From her groundbreaking 1971 book, Diet for a Small Planet to last year’s release of EcoMind: Changing the Way We Think to Create the World We Want, Frances Moore Lappé has dedicated her life to informing the public about issues surrounding food, nutrition, and agriculture. Ms. Lappé has co-founded three organizations, including Food First, The Institute for Food and Development Policy, and, more recently, the Small Planet Institute, a collaborative network for research and popular education seeking to bring democracy to life. Ms. Lappé promotes the idea of “living democracy,” inspiring us to vote daily with our dollars and actions to create healthy communities and solve today’s social and environmental crises. – You can learn a great deal more about Frances Moore Lappé from her Wikipedia bio,
The cost of this benefit dinner is $45, which covers passed hors d’ourves, a three-course dinner, meals tax and gratuity. Fifty percent (50%) of the restaurant’s proceeds will go to Waltham Fields Community Farm – including 50% of all The Elephant Walk gift cards sold that evening!
Please CLICK HERE to jump to our online store to purchase your tickets to this great event!
Tagged: Benefit Dinner, charity, civic engagement, food, local food, waltham