Love Wins, Actually

Who: VN Publisher/Editor-in-Chief Joseph Connelly +VN Senior Editor Elizabeth Castoria
What: An evening of fund raising for the Engage Network
When: Tuesday, February 24, 2009
Where: The Bently Reserve, San Francisco, CA
Why: Because who doesn't want love to win these days?

The Scoop: It's a tough job—going to fancy dinners and meeting interesting people—but someone has to do it. So, Joseph and I diligently donned some nicer-than-normal duds, hopped on Muni, and headed down to The Bently Reserve, which was aglow with red lights—the "love" theme was immediately evident. Inside the love was all around us, in a variety of different forms. After scoping out the extensive silent auction, I headed upstairs to meet up with Joseph, who naturally gravitated towards the VIP reception. Upstairs, servers passed trays of some utterly delicious hors d'oeuvres; the potato croquettes filled with parsely pistou were particularly good. Just before we were ushered to our seats for the evening's dinner and presentation, Joseph snapped this quick photo of Julia Butterfly Hill—one of the Engage Network's founders—and me:
Once inside the main hall, which was also lit with crimson, we got to chat with our table-mates, and listen to a presentation from Julia in which she thanked everyone profusely for coming and supporting the new venture. The Engage Network, as we were soon to discover, is the amalgamation of Julia's What's Your Tree, Seane Corn's Off the Mat, Into the World, and Van Jones' Green For All. While any of these projects would be a worthy cause on its own, getting to see them work together was sort of like, well, a big love-in for people who are trying to do good things in the world. Michelle Shocked, whose birthday it happened to be, added to the lovey vibe by serenading her sweetie during her highly fun performance.

Something that made Joseph and I particularly happy was that, in contrast with the majority of fundraisers, all of the food at the event was vegan, thanks to Back to Earth Organic Catering. It's a rare pleasure to just nibble blithely without worrying about chicken stock in the risotto or any other unwelcome ingredients. The dinner was served family-style, which added an element of community that I really enjoyed; there's something about asking a total stranger to pass the salad that makes you feel like you're already friends. Said salad was a lovely blend of greens and walnuts, and was followed by a trio of entrées: roasted root vegetables and fennel with garbanzo beans, a multi-mushroom risotto, and braised kale, collard, and mustard greens. Despite his in-demand status for the evening, we had the pleasure of sitting with Van Jones, seen below with Joseph:

After dinner, we were torn. Make a beeline for the mountain of cupcakes, courtesy of Peace, Love & Cupcakes (if you're local to SF, look for them at Rainbow!), or stay in our seats and take in the creative twirling of two hoop dancers? Yes, that's hoop as in hula, which is pretty stinking impressive. As someone who routinely injures herself performing such complicated tasks as walking and sleeping, I was thoroughly amazed by the hoopers' ability to, you know, not die while swinging huge hoops around their heads. Thankfully, Joseph made my decision a piece of cake by swooping up a couple mini-cupcakes and bringing them to our table before I even had time to ponder. Any evening that includes vegan food, do-gooders en masse, and yummy cupcakes is a win in my book.

All you need is love (and vegan food)

Colleen, Kelly Crowley, and Justin Lucke on the rooftop terrace at Trellis in Menlo Park

Who: VN Associate Publisher Colleen Holland + VN Editorial Director Aurelia d'Andrea

What: The weekend wedding extravaganza in honor of Google chef (and fellow vegan) Justin Lucke and the lovely bride, Kelly Crowley

Where: Menlo Park, Woodside, and Palo Alto, Calif.

When: October 24–26, 2008

Why: Because who doesn't love love, especially when it comes with a side of vegan wedding cake?

The Scoop: Justin Lucke is a lucky guy, phonetically and otherwise: First, he gets to do something he's passionate about every day, which is to cook delicious veg food for gobs of people. At Google. How awesome is that? He also falls into the lucky camp for meeting his permanent date, Kelly Crowley, and planning a vegan wedding to seal the deal. And guess what? Two VN staffers are pretty darn lucky too, since we were invited to partake in the nuptial festivities over a long weekend.

The fun began on a warm Friday evening, when Colleen and Aurelia made the 45-minute trek from San Francisco to Menlo Park to rendezvous with the to-be-marrieds and their respective families at Trellis Restaurant. Converging on the upstairs open-air patio, we helped ourselves to cool classes of wine, garlicky bruschetta, and mushroom-topped toasts before mingling. As we sipped and nibbled, we got to know some interesting people, including a super-nice guy named Anthony Zahn who just happens to be a Paralympic Bronze-medal-winning cyclist. While Anthony regaled us with tales from Beijing, we settled into our table, and before we knew it, the main-course minute had arrived.

Okay, so while Trellis is not even close to being a veg restaurant, they do offer a pretty good variety of veg menu options, and this night, we tucked into tasty plates of penne pasta with portobello mushrooms and still-warm slices of house-baked bread that we dunked into flavorful pools of olive oil. For dessert, we savored a perfectly-ripe-strawberry-and-tangy-raspberry mélange that needed no embellishment to enhance its deliciousness. We left the soirée sated and happy at a not-too-late hour so we'd be fresh for the following day's fun.

On Saturday morning, we headed back down toward Menlo Park, but veered off in the direction of Woodside, which is, indeed, woodsy, and also very chi-chi (Oracle's Larry Ellison lives there, for one). We drove straight through town and up to Huddart Park, where veggie burgers and chips awaited, as did fruit smoothies created using a bicycle-powered blender. Really. We ate, and then ate a bit more, then we played. We played Frisbee. And Smashball. And some more Smashball. And then, before we knew it, it was time to head over to Palo Alto for the actual wedding part of the weekend-long event.

When we arrived at the '30s-era Mediterranean-style Lucie Stern Community Center, the wedding guests had all settled into their seats in the grassy, flower-filled garden. As we took our spots, a wind-and-string trio provided a musical backdrop, and the next thing we knew, Justin and Kelly were walking down the verdant aisle. The gorgeous couple exchanged their vows, and a few of us sitting close enough to hear their words might've cried a little bit out of happiness for the newly betrothed.

After the ceremony, we moved en masse to another courtyard where servers dressed in black whizzed by with platters of lemon-oil infused kale crostini, stuffed mushrooms, mini glasses of puréed butternut squash-and-persimmon soup, and larger glasses of wine and non-alcoholic elixirs. As the newly marrieds posed for photos, we noshed and laughed and worked up our appetites for the main courses. Emeryville-based Back To Earth organic catering created an elegant, heavenly-tasting spread that included phyllo-wrapped autumn root-vegetable roulade, roasted cauliflower, kabocha squash with quinoa, and the loveliest of green salads napped in vinaigrette. The cake was made by a couple of gifted members of the Crowley family, as is their tradition, and considering they'd never made a vegan wedding cake before, the results were divine. My new favorite flavor combo? Banana and chocolate, for sure.

Colleen Holland doing her best to resist the powers of vegan wedding cake

No party is complete without a trip to the dance floor, so, as is VegNews family tradition, Colleen and Aurelia joined Organic Athlete's Bradley Saul, his wife Charity Grace Kirk, new friend Anthony, and the bride and groom for a full-blown boogie sesh. Though it was hard to tear ourselves away from those classic disco tunes, we needed to get our beauty sleep, so after four or five turns, we bid our farewells and left the party sated and full of merriment for our newly married friends.