Thursday, April 30, 2009

Gypsy Invite: Gypsy Celebrates 5 Years!

GYPSY TURNS 5
I remember it was a cold, dreary, rainy day in February when I first got a look at what was to be Gypsy Café. It had been a coffeehouse before, closed for several years, and was being used for storage space by the landlord at the time. Everything was dirty, dusty and disused. The walls were uniform bland beige and all the kitchen equipment was crusty. I remember distinctly after my first reconnaissance thinking, “Man, this is going to be a lot of work…” Little did I know, it was going to be both the hardest and most rewarding thing I had ever done.

We literally did everything on a shoestring. If I told you how much starting capital we began with you’d laugh at me in disbelief and rightfully so. Our friends were and still are, our biggest assets. It was our friends that made Gypsy happen and it’s the reason we are still here today.

That’s why now, 5 years later, we are having an anniversary celebration not for us, but for you, our friends, without whom Gypsy would never have been more than just a dream. We’re going back through all of our past menus to pull out some old favorites for a 5 course, $25 prix fixe menu showcasing some of our “greatest hits” with $5 wine pairings to match, and we will be hosting The Continental Dukes, a local band that specializes in Pan-European styles, just like we do.

Its all happening this Saturday night, starting around 8, and, like all of our events, we suggest making reservations as soon as possible.

MAY EVENTS
May is going to be a busy month here at Gypsy Café. In addition to our ongoing events, Gypsy Strings each Thursday, Readings by Rebecca each Friday and Sunday, and our biweekly Saturday visits from Jazzmen extraordinaire Don Aliquo and Mark Perna (This month it’ll be a pre-Mothers’ day show on May 9th and then again on May 23rd), we will also be participating in a fundraiser for the Women’s Crisis Center North on Thursday May 7th (www.crisiscenternorth.org/events.php) and the Silk Screen Asian Film Festival (http://silkscreen.bside.com/2009/) kicking off May 8th

Mother’s Day
Next weekend is already Mothers’ Day (Sunday, May 10th), which we will celebrate not only with our Fifth Annual Famous Mothers Brunch (Complimentary Mimosa for each mom!) but also with a special prix fixe menu in the evening. Plus, as a warm up, Gypsy hosts Jazz with Don Aliquo Saturday May 9th starting at 8 so that you can plan a pre-Moms’ Day date night with the favorite lady in your life. The kids can have her Sunday! Get your reservations in for any of our Mother’s Day weekend events post haste. You don’t want to end up showing your appreciation for the most important lady in your life by taking her to Mickey Ds do you? Certainly, your mother raised you better!

The following day, Monday, May 11, Gypsy will participate in the Annual Celebrate Life / Celebrate Art Event benefiting the Persad Center (http://www.persadevents.org/clcaa.php)

South Side Historic Home Tour (& Brunch at Gypsy!) Saturday, May 16th
We’ll cover the second half of the month next time, but we must mention the Historic South Side Home Tour Saturday May 16th from 10am till 4pm. Pittsburgh’s South Side, while being famous for more notorious reasons, is also famed for having some of the best examples of architecture in the city. Gypsy is partnering with the South Side Local Development Company to offer a brunch buffet to go along with the Home Tour. Advance tickets for the Tour and the buffet are $40. This is a must for anyone who enjoys great architecture, great food, and one of Pittsburgh’s greatest neighborhoods. You must purchase tickets for the brunch and tour in advance through the SSLDC: www.southsidepgh.com

Be sure to check out our new blog, the Caravan Chronicles at www.caravanchronicles.blogspot.com to get a glimpse behind the scenes here at Gypsy. We finally have a blog. Maybe in another couple of years we’ll get around to Twittering.

Thanks for reading this bulletin, and thanks for helping Gypsy make it to our Fifth Anniversary. As clichéd as it may sound, we honestly couldn’t have done it without you.

Chef Jim

Gypsy Café
1330 Bingham Street, corner of 14th Street
South Side, Pittsburgh 15203
www.gypsycafe.net


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Housekeeping:
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Sunday, April 26, 2009

Overdoing it...sorry for the inconvenience!

We had a hell of a weekend. It was Steel City Comicon, so Chef Jim had a weekend full of Legion of Dudes (www.legionofdudes.com) activities PLUS the restaurant. To complicate things, Brian, our sous Chef, had his brother's wedding this weekend, so in a simple equation: (Gypsy+Comicon)-Brian=Exhausted Jim. And Exhausted Melanie, too, still getting over a head cold. So we had to close for brunch today. The guilt is formidable. We have a mission that involves being available to feed people when we say we'll be there--plus, we passed out Geek Brunch flyers all weekend at Comicon--but, there's this whole problem of one's body just not agreeing with one's mission sometimes. Unfortunately, we are a just small place staffed by regular old humans. (We left all the superhumans at Comicon.)

We'll be in early for dinner, though, we promise.

Sunday, April 19, 2009

Okay, here it is: Work of Art Awards

http://pittsburghartscouncil.org/workofartawards_finalist.htm

Creative Arts and Business Partnership Award recognizes a successful collaboration between an arts organization and a business that furthered the interests of both parties. This award is sponsored by BNY Mellon.

Dr. Sketchy's Anti-Art School (ToonSeum) & Gypsy Café, who partnered to host the Pittsburgh chapter of a world-wide movement that brings together artists, musicians, burlesque performers and unique models in a quirky, social atmosphere of drawing and imagination.

Passports Art Diversity Project & McCormack Baron Salazar, who collaborated to place original work by local artists in three McCormack, Baron, Salazar, Inc. housing sites-a model of how local developers can work with Pittsburgh artists to complete interior design projects.

Quantum Theatre & Seagate Technology, who created the Seagate Tech Circle of donors, in which Seagate committed to a financial match for donations by other tech-based companies, giving emerging companies a way to support and experience the arts in Pittsburgh.

Hmm. Not sure how we'll fare here as far as winning is concerned, but the recognition alone is worth it for me. Now I need to contact the food organizers (one of the peeps on the committee was a good friend of my little brother's in HS--aah, Pittsburgh!) and tell them we'll be in attendance so we might just be schlepping butlered food along with us....

Wednesday, April 15, 2009

Work of Art Awards! Big News!

11:45 AM

Gypsy is a finalist in the "Creative Arts and Business Partnership" category for this year's Work of Art Awards for our partnership with Joe Wos' Dr. Sketchy events benefiting the Pittsburgh ToonSeum.



At first, I was told not to say anything about this when it was still an unsubstantiated rumor, being that the information is yet to be announced, but the announcement date of April 15 is come and gone and my promise to keep mum gone with it.

I have to tell you I am really excited about it. I am familiar with the WofAA because we attended as representatives of City Theatre's "Cast of Caterers" with City in 2007. In that case, CT applied for this nomination--in this case, I don't know who nominated our partnership with Dr. Sketchy/ToonSeum. I am told that the representative from WofAA said they were happy to see us as part of this because "there is always something creative going on" at Gypsy and they were pleased about our willingness to partner with Arts orgs.


Lots of mixed feelings here, but all in a good way. First is that it brought tears to my eyes to think that someone had noticed that we take a creative approach to our place in the community. We are creative people, I suppose, and this proves it. Second, I suppose I may naturally have a more community-oriented focus than most--but it kind of makes me a little sad to think that this category needs to exisit. Shouldn't we all be working together all of the time? That's a little blue sky I suppose, but my mantra is always that if we don't do it together, we'll never do it alone. I suppose I should blame all those Social Democracy ideals I loved in college. (...so nice if it could work!)


So I won't post this just yet--I will wait for the confirmation of the rumor--funny thing is, they've contacted us to provide some food at the event also--I'm kind of waiting it out so I can see what we'll be availble to do if we get to attend as guests!

Thursday, April 9, 2009

Gypsies in Geneva (on the Lake)

So Chef Jim and I went away last weekend. We left our little Gypsy under the watchful eye of her many doting aunts and protective uncles and headed to Ohio Friday morning.

Jim and I are Gypsies who like to collect many and varied treasures, which makes us flea market people, so we gassed up the Magical Mystery Caravan and headed out to our first stop in Rogers, OH, home of pretty much nothing other than the sprawling Rogers Open Air Market and Community Auction (www.rogersohio.com). Although the relentless rain and early date kept all but the most stalwart outdoor vendors (Go buy plants NOW! Herbs are GORGEOUS!) away, we still scored some sweet swag.

My favorite score was a gift for Dubi our bar manager, better known as “La Diabla” of Steel City Derby Demons fame. I found a 50’s era blue and red metal roller skate case, complete with hand-lettered name of owner (“Property of… Jane Rufus”) and tiny brass key still attached. We also scored some awesomely Amish provisions for the weekend including maybe the best Amish jam ever——a magical concoction called “FROG Jam”. No frogs were harmed; the jam contains only Fig-Raspberry-Orange-Ginger. FROG combines happy, homey raspberry with fancy/thoughtfully gourmet fig and orange peel ratcheted up to Amazing via very present ginger. This stuff now officially rivals my obsession with Cherry Butter that emerged during our honeymoon in WVA. Know what goes great with a little FROG? Goat Gouda, another new obsession, also Amish (that’s what the label says anyway). But what really kept us alive all weekend--while killing us slowly--was the scrapple and cornmeal mush. With smoked hot pepper Amish cheese and eggs from the farm, of course. Scrapple. A conveniently-shaped, spam-like block of unmentionable bits of magical mystery meat. I’m not a big fan of the organ meats, or offal of any DISCERNABLE kind, but once you grind it up and jam it all together…Heaven. (Holy crapple, I love scrapple!) Amish Honorable Mentions: the “It really is that good” Amish butter, and Jim’s fave chocolate chip-peanut butter cookies.

So we left the rains down in Rogers(ica) and headed NW to our destination, Geneva-on-the-Lake, OH. A few years ago, Bob Batz Jr. of the PG wrote a big weekend travel piece on Geneva, which inspired our first visit just shy of Labor Day ’06. Here’s a quiz. What natural disaster occurred back then? Answer: Hurricane Katrina. And what natural disaster occurred this past weekend? Giant Earthquake in L’Aquila, Italy. Hmm. Although I don’t WANT to see a connection with my going on vacation and natural disasters, when I do leave this world, it might be appropriate to bury me at a crossroads, or upside down on my horse or something, just in case. So we spent much of Saturday in our tiny cabin, again, watching grainy CNN reports of an earthquake this time around, and of course, the disaster much closer to home, the city-shattering loss of the three police officers we remember today, and will not forget any day soon.

Our wee little cabin, “Gia” part of “Our Gang Cottages” was about the size of a dorm room, and just what we needed. The living room, which contained a chair meant to recline, but unable to, a futon couch, and a wee hexagonal table with a TV, was about half the size of the kitchen, which contained a tiny round table with 3 chairs, a surprisingly full-size refrigerator, the necessary countertop appliances crowded on a wee isthmus of counter space, and a stove that had to be original to the cabin, circa 1940’s. It was a direct-light black and white enamel jobbie with THREE burners and the tiny oven barely accommodated the Stouffer’s frozen lasagna we picked up at the Geneva Giant Eagle on the way in. The kitchen was equipped just fine, I thought, until I volunteered to cook up our scrapple ‘n eggs Saturday morning. What the kitchen lacked was a decent pot or pan. There were three tiny frying pans from which to choose. Two of the thin-as-aluminum-foil-might-as-well-put-your-food-DIRECTLY-in-the-fire variety, and one tiny cast iron guy who had been terribly mistreated and wasn’t exactly well-seasoned. Luckily, we had a big bottle of vegetable oil that we’d purchased for popcorn (just try to make popcorn in a 1 ½ inch-deep cheapie skillet, I dare you.) By the way, just in case you’re still concerned about using non-stick pans in your home, fearful that Teflon is flaking off into your food and killing you, realize that a flake or two of Teflon can’t possibly kill you as quickly as essentially having to deep-fry everything you cook in tons of vegetable oil to keep your food from permanently bonding to cheap pans. Yes, I “deep-fried” SCRAPPLE. And it was DELICIOUS. Jim’s note: The frying of scrapple, mush, and eggs was also infinitely complicated by another notably absent item—a spatula. Nothing like trying to gently turn a block of stuck cornmeal mush with a plastic slotted spoon….

Saturday night we heard about a psychic fair happening at “The Lodge” of Geneva, which is a giant hotel and trade show complex just as you enter Geneva on the Lake proper. Being that we’re hosting our own Rebecca’s “Spring Psychic Symposium” here at the café Saturday, I felt destined to check it out. Jim said his impression of the Psychic Fair was that it was kind of like a Comicon—but with different kinds of Geeks. This is true of any such event I think, and the energy is kind of “the same but different” too. Enthusiastic, like-minded people sharing ideas like schools of fish moving through open water. I did a little recon and then got a very insightful Tarot reading from a very kind lady. There’s something to be said for a complete stranger opening a conversation with me by saying, “You’re surrounded by people in a social setting. I feel it’s your calling, but also your actual job. You’re very strong minded, though, and if you don’t have your own business that involves working with people every day, you need to start one.” Check.

Afterward, we drove over to Coventry, on the outskirts of Cleveland proper. Coventry is a neighborhood where Jim once hung his hat, and we checked out his old haunts. Two important ones, The Grog Shop, where a Kent State student version of Jim traveled for shows, is now located on the corner, but still there. Mac’s Backs Bookstore, where Jim was a poet-in-residence back in the day, now shares space with Tommy’s, a landmark veggie-friendly café we visited for lunch. (Lots of creative and messy sandwiches. And delicious Kuchen.) Record Revolution has gotten smaller, but still has an awesome collection of vintage vinyl. (When’s the last time YOU saw an “Amazulu” record?) And Big Fun is just the same—think South Side’s Groovy with a giant selection of Archie McPhee goodies and a photo booth.


By Monday the weather had degraded to snow, and it was time to head home. Both of our visits to Geneva have happened in the off-season. It’s early spring and the weather’s still crappy and cold. It’s windy as all get out. Geneva is a ghost town; we’re here too early even for visiting fishermen. But depressing as a still-boarded boardwalk arcade is, we’re here precisely for the lack of activity; for the peace of it all (and the super cheap rates). The true call of this place for me is the lake itself, as close as I dared get to it. The swift, sharp breezes whipping over the lake and whirling through town constantly remind you that just over the lip of the cottage-clustered cliff is the immensity of Great Lake Erie in all its ship-grounding tempestuousness. There is something very important to me about water, and the perspective it gifts you. The best part for me about our weekend away was the opportunity to get grounded again, to be reminded that there is a forever beneath our feet and over the horizon, so important to remember, especially compared to the uncertainty of the fragile things we’ve built on top of all that forever. We all need that, sometimes, I think.