Teaming up with TCHO Chocolate

We’re teaming up with one of TCHO ‘s chocolate makers for a chocolate infused dinner at a converted firehouse! Get tickets now to save $10.

 

First Course
Cocoa Power Prawns with Garlic,
Creamed Corn and Epazote

Second Course
Green Gazpacho with Cocoa Nib Croutons

Main Course
Cocoa Butter Confit and Roasted Duck
with Black Oaxaca Mole and Banana Leaf Rice

Dessert Course
Mexican Chocolate Tres Leches with
Espresso Mousse and Cocoa Nib Sable

About our partner Shiao Sheng-Williams:

TCHO Chocolate Maker Shiao Sheng Williams

Shiao is obsessed with combining flavors and discovering new ones. Previous chocolate street cred includes a lifetime of working in restaurants, graduating from the Art Institute of California in Culinary Arts, and whipping up delicious dishes as a pastry chef extraordinaire. She takes great delight in creating bars with ridiculous ingredients (wasabi coconut, anyone?), has a secret love affair with condiments, and is a complete farmer’s market junkie. 

Our Next Dinner: July 11, 2011

Hi y’all! We know things have been a little quiet the last couple of months but we’re excited that Chef Peter is the exec chef at new restaurant, Toast Wine Lounge on College Avenue in Oakland. To celebrate his new gig, we’re throwing a dinner on Monday, July 11, for $35! Buy tickets here!  You’ll also find us at Eat Real again this year and Boucherie is available upon request. We were selling at the Underground Farmer’s Market but it’s future is TBD since health inspectors shut it down last week.

REWIND

We hosted a fabulous dinner at The Corner, a former restaurant that has reopened its doors to a rotating cast of pop-up restaurants. More pics here >

New Dates for Vintner Dinners

We received an overwhelming response to move the Beehive Market vintner dinners to the weekends and so we’ve updated our offerings for the following vintner dinners:

Sunday, October 24: Eno Wines at The Beehive Market HQ
December 10, 2010: Stage Left Wines at The Beehive Market HQ
January 7, 2011: Urbano Cellars at The Beehive Market HQ

Here are photos from our last dinner with Periscope Cellar’s Brendan Eliason pouring out of wine kegs!

Photo by Brittany Piehl 2010

Photo by Brittany Piehl 2010

Gaujillo Chile Poached Figs Scream Lemon Sorbet, Cinnamon Dulce de Leche

The Bees’ Knees: Locavore-Wine Dinners

Canvas is excited to join forces with the Beehive Market. Together, we are hosting a series of wine-pairing locavore dinners, with ingredients sourced from the Beehive, like Soul Food Farm Chicken and Rio de Parras produce.

Here are upcoming events:

• 9/28: Periscope Cellars: Buy tickets now!
  
• 10/05: Eno Wines: Get your seats now!
  
• 10/12: Stage Left: Buy tickets now!
  
• 11/2: Urbano Cellars: Buy tickets now!
  

REWIND

We hosted a fabulous dinner on the docks at Aloha Seafood last Saturday, September 18.  Thirty-five adventurous foodies braved the trek out to Pier 45 and were the envy of tourists en route to Alcatraz by boat. As the sun set, everyone braved the fog and feasted on Crispy Scallop Hash, Day Boat Scallops, Back Yard Gravenstein Apples, Avocado, “Sea Foam;” Spicy Gazpacho, Wild Caught Texas White Prawns, Crème Fraiche “Ice Cream;” Local Albacore Tuna “Confit”, White Corn, Fresh Legumes, Lobster Mushrooms, Wild Arugula and Chocolate Miso Cake with Sour Peaches, Ginger Caramel Sauce.

Mitch Gronner, co-owner of Aloha, gave our lucky guests a tour and an insider’s view on Aloha’s elite list of clients, including French Laundry, Bouchon and Ad Hoc. Singer-songwriter, Adriana Marcela, entertained guests with witty songs like “Scooby Doo.”

Canvas Aloha Dinner 9/18/10 - Pier 45

Aloha Seafood's Top Clients

Canvas' Tuna Confit over Black Eyed Peas

The talented Adriana Marcela

Hot August Nights: Canvas at Eat Real!

Fast Forward.

We’ve got exciting news — Canvas will be at Eat Real Fest (Jack London Square) on August 29! Please follow @canvasundergrnd on Twitter and tell your friends! We’re sharing a stall with Devil’s Gulch Farms and serving up delicious pulled rabbit and pulled pork sandwiches. We’re also unveiling our newest project: Boucherie!

August 15: Wine maker, Patrick Bowen, of Fat Grape Wines, just finished bottling his wines. The few diners who snagged tickets to this exclusive event got to sip on selections from his labeled and non-labeled private reserve. Here’s a peek at the menu that Chef Peter Jackson dished up: Golden Tomato Broth with White Corn Ravioli, Summer Squash and Blossoms, Opal Basil; Black Eye Pea Crusted Halibut with Pea Shoots, Grilled Boucherie Tasso, Rock Shrimp Perlau, Roasted Gypsy Pepper Remoulade; Rye Whiskey Chocolate Cake, Blueberry Caramel, Toasted Lemon Marshmallows and more! 

Rewind.

July 25: Canvas hosted “The Great Porchetta” at Patti and John’s awesome loft in West Oakland. Bread n’ Butter, featuring Melissa Hudson Bell, Celine Alwyn and Hannah Schwadron kicked off the soiree with porchetta-inspired choreography. Check out their inventive performance involving a bulb of fennel and more here. Expert butcher, Enzo, showed us how to debone a suckling pig and diners feasted on porchetta alla romana, stuffed with fresh Italian sausage and over polenta. More photos here>>

July 11: About 30 guests flocked from as far as Sacramento for a summer-inspired dinner — on a basketball court — in the Oakland Hills. We stuffed ourselves with sweet corn soup topped with roasted garlic mousse and barbecued beef bavette marinated in Linden Street Black Lager. The Kerchers of Hidden Kitchen indulged us with their famous crema di limoncello with dessert — a stonefruit tart. More photos here>>

Shout out to Brittany Piehl for snapping such beautiful photos of these two events as well as the all-volunteer crew including Christina of East Bay Dish, Jeni C., and Dario B.!

Hold onto your forks ’til next time,

Vera + Chef Peter + Canvas crew

Get Involved >> Volunteer to Host or Help Out!

Become a Fan on Facebook.

Follow us on Twitter @canvasundergrnd

Vino Veritas!

Last night, the Guerilla Dining Collective hosted by Battledish and comprised of Canvas Underground, Graffeats and Radio Africa, wined and dined over 90 guests at the Dogpatch Studios in San Francisco. The six courses were each paired with wines from Oregon’s Phelp Creek Wines.

The Shants — with our longtime friend, Carver on bass — rocked the crowd with Southern indie tunes.

Highlights from the menu included Radio Africa’s lavender-cumin roasted duck, Canvas’s beef shank with agrumato (lemon) oil and bone marrow, and Graffeats’ cool green gazpacho with fennel and poached shrimp.

Here’s a snippet of Canvas Undergrounders (Nicole + Dustin) review of the night:

Fast Forward – upcoming events

First, we’re finally on Twitter. Please follow and tell your friends!

Now, if you follow us on Facebook, you might have seen a cryptic status update about three underground supperclubs joining forces in May. Well, the cat’s finally out of the bag. Drumroll, please….

Canvas Underground and Chef Peter Jackson is teaming up with our fellow guerilla dining all-stars, Blair Warsham of Graffeats and Esekender Aseged of Radio Africa, for a dinner in a secret location in San Francisco on Wednesday, May 26. This six-course meal will be paired with Phelps Creek wine from Hood River, Oregon. Reserve your seat today at http://bit.ly/battlechef!

Mark June 26 on your calendar! We are joining the Oakland Underground Film Festival to show “Fresh,” a film by Ana Joanes that celebrates the farmers, thinkers and business people across America who are re-inventing our food system, at the Jack London Square Pavilion. There will be week full of festivities including urban farming and grandmother workshops, panel discussions, meet-your-local-brewer night and even a Canvas farm-to-table dinner the night of the screening.

Finally, the Fine Living Network premiere of X-treme Eating with Tyler Nilson has gotten pushed back yet again (must be a lot of editing still to be done!) to May 8. Click here for more times and dates.

Going old school

Canvas Undergound dined O.G.G. (Old Ghetto Gourmet) on Saturday night in a gorgeous loft in Emeryville.  Fifty-one dinner guests sat on pillows and ate family-style off of closet doors with sawed off legs.

Canvas can’t throw these events without adventurous foodies like you and our fellow food artisans, volunteers and more. Shout outs especially go out to our venue host, Susa Hart for letting us bring a bunch of strangers into her living room, the Cultured Pickle Shop (Alex, Kevin, Seamus), Wing Walker*s Bakery (Stefanie and Todd Smithereum), Vagabondage, Chef Paul Galviano cooking with Chef Peter Jackson, and the Canvas crew (Kristy R., Marie M., Dave Kim, Fred B., and Sydney).

Photos of the event were taken by Brittany Piehl (see full set here), and if you loved her recipe for red velvet whoopie pies, check it out on her blog, Appeale. If you took photos or video at our event, please share them on by posting photos you took at dinner to our Flickr group.

We always need volunteers — not only in the kitchen, but also talent and venue hosts, so please don’t hesitate to contact us or send your friends our way.

Again, Canvas is thrilled to partner with the Oakland Underground Film Festival for the screening of “Fresh.” Please stayed tuned for details!

Hold onto your forks ’til next time! Save the date for an underground dining collective event on May 26 and the Oakland Underground Film Festival on June 26.

Blogged| Appeale: 04.18.10

East Bay Dishcrawl on April 18

Since our inception, we’ve been bringing online social networking to life offline when we throw our underground dinner parties. When Battledish approached us to partner with them on an East Bay Dishcrawl, we were ecstatic! We’re combining our adventurous ways and bringing a handful of foodies to four dining spots in Oakland on Sunday, April 18.

Tickets are limited and available here http://bit.ly/dyWHQV

The dishcrawl offers even those well familiar with the East Bay a chance to have their palates seduced by hidden gems along a familiar trail. Even the most experienced palate will be challenged with this tantalizing adventure through some of the city’s most unique restaurants.

But the dishcrawl experience is about more than just the spectacular food. It’s the opportunity to get offline and mix, mingle and connect in meaningful ways around the culture of food.

Only a limited few may join in this exclusive East Bay dishcrawl experience. The locations are hush-hush, but tickets are available at http://bit.ly/dyWHQV.

Remembering Rule #1

Thank you…

and raise a glass! We were delighted that 42 adventurous diners joined us for dinner at Anna and Theo’s lovely home in West Oakland this past Sunday evening. Together, we raised more than $1,200 for Agrariana.

There were lots of paparazzi (thanks to Michael Bonocore and Brittany Piehl) in the room. Please check out the following links below to articles and photos taken that night and see if you can spot yourself or even your quote. Also, thanks to Allison Arevalo (@LocalLemons), an article about this event will appear in the Food and Wine section next Wednesday in the San Jose Mercury News, Oakland Tribune and the Contra Costa Times.

Again, we couldn’t have thrown this dinner without all our diners as well as our volunteers; food producers, @EatSlowJams and @LindenStBrew; and musicians, The Sweet Trade and Vagabondage. We always need volunteers — not only in the kitchen, but also talent and venue hosts, so please don’t hesitate to contact us or send your friends our way.

Join us on Facebook if you haven’t already, or post photos you took at dinner to our Flickr group.

Pressed| OaklandLocal: Foodies dine in splendor in vacant Victorian

Blogged| Appeale: 03.01.10

Blogged| Bon Vivant: Underground Dining

Snap! | Michael Bonocore Photography