A Night in the Village: Taste of Lawrenceville (2015)

For the fourth year in a row Lawrenceville Main Street had perfect weather for their annual fundraiser. Called A Night in the Village, 11 area local restaurants each outdid themselves feeding over 250 guests.

<---Love the map Raj created

The event is truly a movable feast showcasing locally grown and prepared food. All of the restaurants involved are local to Lawrenceville. At the last minute, Starbucks (which opened on Main Street a week earlier) gave everyone a coupon for a free coffee that had to be used that night. I'm not counting them in this event because of their lack of effort.

There are two seatings. I opt for the 6:30 seating so I can first attend Worship in a New Key (WiNK) at the Presbyterian Church of Lawrenceville (also on Main Street). September 20 was their first service since taking summer break. 

This year I went with my little sister, Melissa. We met by the Lawrenceville Main Street office and started our path. We were slated for 15 minutes at each place. The Virgo I am insisted on keeping to this schedule. Soon we met people who started at 4:30 and were only on their second or third stop. They also seemed to be on their second or third bottle of wine (it is also a BYOB event). To each their own.

We were group C. Our order was:

Amalfi's (located in the Mane Design -- yes a hair salon)

Vidalia's (the off-hand comments I heard raved about their beet salad, yes, their beet salad can't be beat)

Cherry Grove Farm (located in Bambu Yoga)

Chamber's Walk Cafe

Enzo's (located in front of Corks & Canvases)

Wildflour

Leonard's II (located at Melz Salon -- another hair salon)

Fedora Cafe

Acacia

The Purple Cow and Gingered Peach

Music by one of Bo's groups of friends. This time I believe it was Stringzville.

As a teacher in the district Melissa knows a lot of people. She often says she knows former students based on the instrument they play, hence the greeting to their parents "is so and so still playing the cello?" If I worked as a librarian more maybe I would get to know students by their favorite author or genre.

I know a lot of other people in town. The funny thing is, though we both live in town, we seem to hang with different groups of people. I often say Lawrenceville is the largest small town out there. We have over 30,000 people in it, but we keep seeing the same few. A night like this accentuates the closeness. I saw people from both churches, Ashley's pre-school teacher, former classmates of Ashley's, and other assorted Lawrencians. 

Another great job by LMS!