Joshua Boyd, the Butcher, the Phil Lee Corndog and my beloved Sue
Man life is weird. I first met Sue about a million years ago and we may have nodded at each other for awhile. But I never think people will remember me so I think that slipped away. Then...I think I remet her at a Phil Lee (and Eric Brace and Peter Cooper) house concert in Springfield a couple of years ago. Maybe it was before that< I can't remember. We bumped into each other now and again. One time we were both at a Prairie Fruits Farm thing and she was on crutches and so we nodded hello but then she went and sat down. I thought to myself, God damn it, I'm going to make her my friend so I trotted over and sat next to her for awhile. And now, I must say...I adore her.
She comes to a bunch of our house concerts and during various conversations we've talked about her doing some kind of pop up food stand at one of our shows. She's an amazing cook. I adore doing some of the cooking for the house concerts, but Lord knows it can get expensive and time consuming and this sounded like a ridiculous amount of fun. I asked her if she'd be up for debuting for the Phil Lee house concert on June 21....and she said yes! We talked about a couple of things but the potential for naming something "the Phil Lee corn dog" was too fricking great to resist.
Sue-sages first Pop Up at the Phil Lee House Concert on Friday, June 21, 2013.
We are offering three dogs for a small, highly suggested donation (to help pay Phil Lee so that he will come back):
Top Your Own Hot Dog -$1
The Phil Lee Corn Dog - $2
Sue-norran Hot Dog - $2
All dogs hand made by Josh Boyd (Carmon's Bistro/Black Dog/The Butcher) featuring toppings grown and created locally.
We'll still be asking people to potluck for sides and desserts etc....
Better yet: Josh Boyd is KINDLY making the hot dogs for this! We are so lucky. And this is a good time to go and support his funding campaign. Champaign-Urbana needs this!! A lot of you locals are probably already familiar with him from Carmon's or Black Dog....for those of you who aren't here's his fundraising request:
Welcome to the wurst idea! The Butcher will be a sausage & charcuterie shop making everything from scratch with local ingredients, headed by Chef Joshua Boyd of Carmon's Bistro fame. He has decided to stay in Urbana to partake in this project! We promise to keep everything as local as humanly possible, as we believe that this is the only way to assure quality, reduce our carbon foot print, & support our local economy.
After many years of traveling & cooking in different cities, Josh has concluded that this is the best city in America with a great art & cultural scene that is normally impossible to find in a smaller community. He wants The Butcher to be his gift to Champaign-Urbana, providing a wide array of sausages, house cured bacon, smoked hams, and much much more.
The goal at first is to sell our products to local restaurants, Common Ground Food Co-op, & at the farmers market. Our production kitchen will be based in downtown Urbana in hopes to help the Downtown Urbana revitilization movement. As The Butcher grows, we plan to expand our production kitchen to a store front that we can sell our products out of along with a small dine in menu that will also be completely local.
The money we are asking for will be for equipment, licensing, and cushion money to assure that this project stays affloat. What we are asking for is just what we need to get us over that financial hump!
We realize that not everyone can help financially, so for those who can't, we ask you to spread the word & help get people excited about this project. Help us help Champaign-Urbana become ever cooler!
He's trying to raise $10,000 and is a third of a way there. I would love it, love it, love it, if we could get him a few more pledges as a result of helping us out!
And then of course....there will be Phil Lee....I mean, HELL, what more could you want?