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 >

Canvas Dinner @ House Kombucha

House Kombucha - Vera Devera (c) 2011

From the SF Weekly:

The rundown: At the intersection of live cultures and cultural experience, the earnest apostles at House Kombucha are teaming up with the arty foodsters of Oakland’s Canvas Underground for a dinner you never you knew you wanted. With eyebrow-raisers like kombucha bacon with green tea soba noodles; tomatillo and avocado soup with white tea/orange blossom kombucha; and scallop crudo with beet tartare and a kombucha-serrano chile mignonette, this event begs the question: Are you ready to trip the light kombucha?

Our diners were treated to a tour of the brewing facility at House Kombucha and sampled plenty throughout the night. We want to give a special shout out to House Kombucha founder, Rana Chang; Sky, her kick-ass jill-of-all-trades intern (and super volunteer server); and master brewers, Walter and Ben, for having us cook dinner with their delicious kombucha. The sun blossom kombucha is amazing and Vera must’ve drank nearly a gallon by herself (and felt a bit of a buzz — of bliss, perhaps?).

Check out more photos here >>

and some from diner, Laura:

Chocolate budino prepared by Chef Peter Jackson

House Kombucha brined bacon by Chef Peter Jackson

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:

A Feature in Israel & Fine Living Network

Earlier this month, we were featured in the Israeli gastronomic magazine “Al Hashulchan.” Also, if you didn’t catch us for the premiere of “X-treme Eating” on the Fine Living Network, the show airs again May 16 (8pm PT), May 17 (12am PT), May 20 (6pm PT), May 21 (10pm ET), May 28 (7pm PT), and May 29 11pm PT). We’re the second segment! Click here to watch the preview on YouTube.

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

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

1.31.10 Our “15 Minutes”

Just got home from tonight’s Canvas Underground dinner in San Francisco. Completely exhausted but ecstatic how it all wonderfully it went thanks to all the super awesome people that helped bring it together: the venue’s owners, the crew (Kristy, Dave, Juaquin, Sarah), Guitar Fred, the Alegre Sisters, Shakirah of Slow Jams, Kerri and her film crew and tv host, Tyler, and of course, the dinner guests! Turns out the show will air on the Fine Living Network on April 10, so we’ll definitely have a viewing party!

Here are some love notes from some of tonight’s guests and some videos from the night (more details to come):

Thank you so much for this wonderful opportunity. Who knew all this would be so easy? Such a great group. – K & B (venue hosts, January 2010)

This was one of the very best dinners of my entire life. What an exciting night! – GLW

Thank you sooooo much. Chef Peter outdoes himself yet again! – DC

1.31.10 Canvas Underground Fine Living Network Filming

11.06.09 Soul Food Farm Benefit

Wow, what a fantastic night we had on Sunday! Remembering rule #1, we’d love to give thanks to Susa Hart again for opening up her lovely home, the musicians (Jonathan Alford, Hugo Wainzinger and Jard Davis) who donated their time to keep us entertained, and of course, all of you who stayed out late on a Sunday night to eat for good on behalf of Soul Food Farm.

Check out Dominique Channell’s write-up of the event at the Examiner.com (follow her @oakland_eats) and Brittany Piehl’s photos (follow her blog, Appeale). See the full set of photos at Britt’s Flickr page and video on my Flickr page. Keep in touch at our Facebook Fan page and we’ll see you soon at the next Canvas event.