On Saturday, Oct. 5, Food as a Verb is partnering with Monospace for one of the most original events of the year.

What's Monospace?

It's a curated experience that combines food, music, design and community. This isn't some dinner with Spotify in the background. This is high-level intentionality: some of the finest chefs matching the finest DJs for an evening of high-level joy and love.

Plus, it's really beautiful.

For our event, Calliope's Khaled AlBanna will be the evening's featured all-star chef.

He'll be preparing food grown from Damon Bartos and the team at The Beth's urban farm.

Our location? We're keeping it mum for a bit longer. Want to build suspense. It won't be ... typical.

Tickets will be released this Friday through The Table.

(Not a subscriber? You can join our community here.)

• Last Thursday at Little Coyote, Amanda Niel and Raven Humphrey led an uplifting, gutsy conversation on women in the restaurant industry.

It's part of our ongoing Speaker Series.

Afterwards, a friend sat down with her beer.

She had tears in her eyes.

"I've been following Amanda Niel's career for a long time," she said. "To hear her say these things tonight, I can't tell you how much it meant."

Yes, agreed and amen. Raven and Amanda — two of the most impactful women in Chattanooga's restaurant scene — spoke for 40 minutes on wide-ranging topics.

Like: how they define hospitality.

It's a feeling, said Raven. It's a knowing.

It's caring, said Amanda. You have to care.

Over watermelon margaritas, they gave props and praise to other women in the industry, specifically Rebecca Baron, a James Beard-nominated chef and friend.

They talked alternative careers (I always wanted to be a Rockette, said Raven) the future of our city's restaurant scene and what it means to be a strong woman.

• Be non-apologetic. Set certain goals and don't let anyone get in your way. Stop apologizing so frequently.
  ‍
• Say exactly what you want. You don't have to hide what you're feeling.
  ‍
• Do it now. (Your dreams? Your vision for life?) Do it now. Don't wait any longer.
  ‍
• Let us hear your voice.
  ‍

Thanks to both women — and all of you who attended — for such a meaningful afternoon together.

• This coming Monday — Sept. 8 — I'll lead a book club discussion on one of the greatest American novels: JD Salinger's The Catcher in the Rye.

Sure, you may have read it back in high school. I promise: it'll seem a lot differently to study it as an adult.

Read the book ahead of time. Tickets are completely free — we'll meet in the private dining room at Calliope — and can be reserved here.

• Finally, Hamilton County Mayor Weston Wamp announced his re-election campaign at a Labor Day picnic at Chester Frost Park.

Folks ate fried chicken and snow cones, Mason Edwards reported. Sen. Marsha Blackburn spoke — someone introduced her as "our next governor", according to the Times Free Press — and Coty Wamp, District Attorney, was the picnic's emcee.

"I think Democrats can gather about 50 people in Miller Plaza at a time to protest, and then look at this crowd on Labor Day just to hang out with each other," she said, according to the Times Free Press.

Wish we'd gone.

I do have an idea: could we host our own Food as a Verb picnic with Mayor Wamp?

He's courting votes, right? This may take some arranging — the odds may be against us on this one — but your feedback would help.

If you could ask the mayor any question regarding food, farmland loss, food policy or rural/urban Hamilton County, what would you ask?

Let's create a list of questions together.

See you Sunday, everyone.

Story ideas, questions, feedback? Interested in partnering with us? Email: david@foodasaverb.com

This story is 100% human generated; no AI chatbot was used in the creation of this content.

‍