Looking for us on Twitter or Facebook?

My buddy Lamaya who is also on the Taste of the Town committee is in charge of all things social media around here at Family Services, Inc. You'll be able to keep up with what's happening at the agency as well as Taste of the Town!

Meanwhile, we're very excited to announce that Triad Community Kitchen will be returning to the Taste of the Town this year! Triad Community Kitchen is a program of the Second Harvest Food Bank. It is a cooking school and caterer; last year they took the top prize from our illustrious professional judges, Al Romano, Instructor in GTCC's Culinary Technology Program; Chef Darren McCorkle, Executive Chef at WSSU; and of course Michael Hastings, Food Editor for the Winston-Salem Journal.

William Webster is Triad's Catering Chef in charge of this year's team as he was last year when they won. We have used Triad Community Kitchen to cater events here at Family Services, including our Christmas party for staff. They do a wonderful job!


More later....

The flavor is building at Taste of the Town!

Can you smell it? Can you taste it? No? Well you haven't been hanging out where I have in that case. We have added a couple more names to the list of Taste of the Town participants since I last wrote.

Our friends at Costco notified us that they will be back this year with some terrific food choices. They provided all of the beautiful yellow roses you saw around the ballroom last year. They have the best flowers!

Yesterday I was lucky enough to have a long chat with Robert Moreau at Bib's Downtown and convince him that Taste of the Town is the place to be on May 1st! I am thrilled to have Bib's represented this year; they are such a different kind of place. It's not your uncle's barbecue place, but they smoke their meats, including beef brisket (my favorite), pulled pork, turkey and sausages in this giant red smoker. Then they serve them up in a sandwich or a plate with the most wonderful sides. The baked beans are the best around; they're sweet and spicey! And of course you get hush puppies, but not your run of the mill hush puppies. They have sage in them and they are delicious! All this and they're downtown Winston-Salem on 5th St. across from the main library, with plenty of parking.

Robert's excited about participating this year. I know they are already planning what they'll bring and how they'll decorate their booth!

For now, in the sidebar, if you click on a restaurant, it will take you directly to their website. Get out and try some new restaurants this weekend! If we don't support the economy, who will?

I'm getting hungry!

Last year was so amazing; everyone brought their "A" game with the most incredible food ever! Well we are feeling the fever already with our dynamite award-winning restaurants bringing it again.

Since you last heard from me, we have heard from some of favorites. Last year's winner of the best booth, decked out like a pirate ship and the girls dressed as the pirates, Sociale Gourmet is back! If I know Donna Harris, she's got another grand idea of what she's doing with her booth. The pirate ship she worked on for two years. I expect nothing less than first place again.

Robert at Starbucks at Mt. Tabor Place has put his hat in the ring again as well. We were so glad to have them with us last year for the first time. It's really hard to beat their French Roast.

Returning this year to defend their title as Best Non-dessert and Best Dessert as well as Best All Around is Chef Anthony Bonner at Village Tavern on Hanes Mall Boulevard! They rocked last year, which was evident from all the votes they received. The line was enormous but no one seemed to mind waiting because they were having so much fun!

And if you were afraid you wouldn't have enough dessert, Nancy Donnelly at Cake Ladies has already confirmed she will be here again this year! She was the one who had the giant cakes with the yummy toppings spooned on top. Nancy's taken home several medals over the years also!

And it would not be Taste of the Town...Derby Style without Debbie Lee with Blue Ridge Ice Creams. Debbie and/or Scott will be with us under their umbrella again this year. I still love the Mint Julep and the Derby Pie ice creams. They are amazing!

Speaking of mint juleps, I'm really getting excited about the Mint Julep Contest. So far we have NOMA, Village Tavern and Carrabba's who can participate in the contest. We're getting all of the voting technology in place so when you stop by to have a mint julep, you can vote for your favorite!

We're off and running!

Everyone here at Family Services is excited about this year's Taste of the Town...Derby Style! It will be Saturday, May 1st, 4-7pm at the Benton Convention Center again! The restaurants have been invited and I'm waiting to hear back from them if they plan on coming. The very first restaurants who've reserved their spots are Carrabba's Italian Grill and NOMA Urban Bar and Grill. They are two of my favorites! Carrabba's hasn't been to Taste in 3 years and we're thrilled to have them back; they always please the crowd. And NOMA, if you don't remember, made the most incredible sliders plus macaroni and cheese (their best seller) last year! They took home several medals as a result too. Things are looking good coming out of the gate!

Speaking of the restaurants, we have a really big announcement for you! In April, we will be holding a NEW Contest ! No pies this time. We will be awarding a prize to the best Mint Julep by one of the participating restaurants! You will be able to go to any of the restaurants and buy a Mint Julep. If you think it is worthy, you can vote online for it. The restaurant that receives the most votes will win! Now that is what I call Derby Style! More on this later!

The committee has decided that we will go back to the live auction format for 2010. The silent auction is a huge amount of work and isn't nearly as entertaining as the live auction. Stay tuned for some of the terrific packages we're working on. I know there is something for everyone.

If you know of someone who would be interested in being a sponsor of Taste of the Town, feel free to have them contact me at swiles@fsifamily.org. Of course all proceeds go to the programs of Family Services, Inc. Next month we will celebrate our 105th birthday and all of the good work our staff has done over those years. If you don't know much about our programs, feel free to visit our website at www.fsifamily.org to learn more.

We're off and running!

Day after

Well, it was a fabulous evening at Taste of the Town...Derby Style 2009! If you weren't there, you missed a delicious, entertaining fun-packed evening. Not only was the 135th Running of the Roses a giant upset with Mine That Bird beating the field handily to the tune of 50-1 odds, but the favored horse, Get My Revenge dropped out of the race early in the day!

The restaurants, bless their hearts, worked so hard and overjoyed the entire crowd with the sumptuous creations they brought to the table! Thank you so much to all of them:

The Old Fourth Street Filling Station
W-S Prime
Starbuck's
Heavenly Cheesecakes by Becky
Costco
First Street Draught House
NOMA
Blue Ridge Ice Creams
Sweet Potatoes
Sociale Gourmet
Downtown Thai
Village Tavern
Finnigan's Wake
Zevely House
The Piedmont Club
Caffe Prada
The Cake Ladies
Foothill's Brewing
Jimmy's Seafood and Oyster Bar
and Triad Community Kitchen
a program of the Second Harvest Food Bank

They all brought their "A" Game and our patrons as well as our professional judges had a great time deciding who was their favorite!

Our professional judges were Michael Hastings, Food Editor of the Winston-Salem Journal; Chef Al Romano, Instructor at GTCC; and Chef Derrick McCorkle of Winston-Salem State University.
They chose their favorite three participants in the following order:

Win-Triad Community Kitchen
Place-W-S Prime
Show-NOMA

Interestingly enough, none of the three have been at the Taste of the Town prior to this year! They were all outstanding. The items I tried from each of those were, beginning with NOMA, were their outstanding sliders and three cheese mac and cheese. It was wonderful!

At W-S Prime the Three Little Pigs sandwiches were my son's favorite. That was a no-brainer. On the baguette was a pork cutlet, shaved ham and bacon with Swiss to top it off.

I was at Triad Community Kitchen early on and they insisted I try their Peach Berry Cobbler. It was so different-a combination of peach and strawberry with a hint of something I couldn't name. I was informed it was jalapeno! A terrific combination for sure. And it was topped off with a crust that had a base of cornmeal-also unexpected! I loved it. They had several appetizer items I didn't get to try but obviously they were all homeruns!

Now for the voting by "the people". The People's Choice Awards went as follows:

Best Booth:
Win-Sociale Gourmet (with a Pirate Ship)
Place-The Old Fourth Street Filling Station with their giant chocolate fountain
Show-The Village Tavern who were cooking shrimp on the spot

Best Dessert:
Win-The Village Tavern
Place-Heavenly Cheesecakes by Becky
Show-Caffe Prada

Best Non-Dessert
Win-The Village Tavern
Place-Jimmy's Seafood and Oyster Bar
Show-NOMA

Best All Around:
Win-The Village Tavern
Place-Jimmy's Seafood and Oyster Bar
Show-NOMA

As always, The Village Tavern's Chef Anthony Bonner really knows how to please the customers! And I'd just like to give a shout out to Kenya at Jimmy's Seafood and Oyster Bar. Kenya works at Family Services also in our Safe Relationships Division and yesterday morning ran in the Race for the Cure! I'd say-job well done Kenya! And NOMA, keep on with that mac and cheese and the sliders, that is comfort food at its finest!

Finally, I haven't told you about the Kentucky Style Pie contest results. We had a great time with that this year. We've never done it before and we really learned a lot (especially about patent law-LOL). Judges were Michael Hastings and Jamie Hatter. The judging for the top three placings was done live on air with WXII's own Kimberly Van Scoy, Austin Caviness, Nichole Ducouer and of course Jennie Stencel! The winners of this year's Kentucky Style Pie Contest were:
Win-Jim Gilbert with an original recipe that included chocolate chips, white chocolate chips and butterscotch chips. It was so gooey and wonderful!
Place-Millie August
Show-Kim Via

Be sure to check out the Food Section of the Winston-Salem Journal on Wednesday in case Michael Hastings prints Jim's winning recipe. It's a keeper!

Thanks so much to all of our volunteers, our sponsors, our restaurants, and to all the Family Services staff who made this the Best Derby Party in Town! And don't think you've heard the last from me. I will have more tomorrow...or maybe Tuesday!

Downtown Thai

After 6 years of hard work and perseverance, Souphab Daohgang is moving his Downtown Thai restaurant across the street to 202 W. Fourth St. The new restaurant will be nearly 4,000 square feet and will seat 90 people, double the size of his current location.

When the new location opens in June or July, it will feature Sushi as well as the fabulous Thai cuisine we've all come to love. I didn't manage to get the name of the Sushi chef but Souphab did say he has 15 years of experience in major cities and is of Thai/Japanese heritage.

The new restaurant will feature daily specials, both Thai and Sushi and will be open for lunch and dinner. It will also have a conference room that will hold approximately 15 people and will be appointed with a screen, soundproofing, and computer access.

Souphab says that after Downtown Thai moves across the street, their current location will become a Vietnamese restaurant named Soup's Vietnamese "Pho" Restaurant. "Pho" is Vietnamese for soup. Obviously they will focus on soup (lots of noodles) but will also feature finger foods, wraps, and salads.

Eating at Downtown Thai is always a treat. I'm excited that Souphab is bringing his incredible green curry to Taste of the Town. My first year working with Taste, he brought the green curry and insisted I try it. I thought it would just be really hot. It was so delicious and full of deep flavor. I'd never tasted anything like that before! Check out their website at www.downtownthai.com and we'll see you tomorrow at the Taste of the Town...Derby Style!