Mushroom Meet 'n' Greet

Who: VN Managing Editor Elizabeth Castoria and Associate Editor Abigail Young
What: A pre-conference
Where: RN74, San Francisco, Calif.
When: September 25, 2009
Why: Meeting fellow food bloggers before the big BlogHer Food '09 conference!

The Scoop: Often times, Abby and I like to eat. Sometimes, we even like to eat together, and when the opportunity arose to attend a pre-conference cocktail hour with mushroom-centric hors d'oeuvres, we pretty much jumped at it. The evening was organized by Jessi Langsen of The Mushroom Channel, which is a PR blog for The Mushroom Council. As you might expect, there was a clear theme: mushrooms.

The very chic RN74 was a charming, if somewhat croweded, space for the fun. The place was packed—it was Friday night, after all—with diners, drinkers, and then us, the bloggers. Canapés of maitake mushroom tempura and shiitake veloute—which I was assured was vegan—came around every so often, which we eagerly devourved, having been instructed to come "dinner-time hungry." Abby and I got separated early on by the crowd, but both ended up finding fine chatting companions. It was fun to catch up with Jill Nussinow, The Veggie Queen, and Elisa Camahort Page, co-founder of BlogHer. Abby met Abi Jones, a local San Franciscan—something of a rarity in this crowd—who started Heat Eat Review.

Me, Abby, and Abi, at the evening's end

By the time we left we were all geared up for the following day's conference, about which Abby will have a full report soon!