Wine dinner @ Seviche - to Benefit Haitian Earthquake Relief

Gusto Latino! - Haiti

A Benefit for Haitian Earthquake Relief

Please join us at Seviche Wednesday, February 24th when Chef Anthony Lamas offers his 19th wine dinner of the popular "Gusto Latino" (Latin taste) series inspired by the culinary traditions of the 27 different Latin American Countries. Each dinner focuses on a different country and is paired with unique wines from around the world.

Our February 24th dinner is a very special event, as profits will be donated to the Lambi Fund of Haiti. The evening will highlight the culinary traditions of Haiti paired with wines from Chile, Oregon, Italy & France and David DuBou of Vintner Select will be our wine guide for the evening.

The recent Haitian earthquake tragedy needs all of our help - even the staff at Seviche will be donating their time and effort for this event - so please join us for a wonderful culinary adventure and help us assist those in need!

Reception:
Rayun 2009 Sauvignon Blanc, Central Valley, Chile

Dinner:
“Accra” – Malanga, Black-Eyed Peas, Sofrito
Bortolotti NV Prosecco, Veneto, Italy

“Picklese” - Red Snapper, Cabbage, Carrot, Smoked Bacon
Jezebel by Daedalus 2008 Pinot Noir, Oregon

“Tassot” - Prime Angus Tri-Tip, Boniato, Veal Demi-Glaze, Scotch Bonnet
Chevere! 2007 Cabernet Sauvignon, Central Valley, Chile

“Llabouyi” - Plantain, Haitian Barbancourt Rhum, Coconut Powder
Domaine Cady Coteaux du Layon St.-Aubin “Les Varennes”, Loire Valley, France

7:00pm – Reception 7:30pm – Dinner

$85.00 per person plus tax & gratuity

For reservations, please call 502.473.8560

And thank you to Robin Garr for allowing us to post the event. his support of quality local events is always appreciated...especially when the event benefits a very important cause!

The idea of spending an evening indulging on a $100 wine multicourse dinner in benefit to the starving is unpalatable unless 100% of the sales and not an ill defined profit are donated to Haitian relief. Are the wines being donated? How about the food? What charity are the funds being directed to and will you post on here what percentage was donated?

Make your donations count: http://www.redcross.org/

Disclaimer: I worked there several years ago but am out of the business now.

seriously....Matt...are you kidding?
this is a lot of people donating time and money to get an event together that helps a cause that needs it.
why would you try to be a spoiler?
and the charity is listed in the announcement: The Lambi Fund of Haiti.

Actually its $ 85. I just did a dinner at the Seelbach Oakroom, whitch I bought all my food ,whitch was 361.97 I also brought two employees with me, that I paid. I told Chef Gerhart that I already had this dinner planned at Seviche, but would be happy to do that dinner too. As far as Seviche. I am buying all the wine and food no donations at all. I will still have to pay taxes and gratuity to my staff. So Matt! If you like to know what the exact number is, come by the restaurant and I'll be happy to show you in person or you can call me. Wow! There are so many lives that have been turned upside down, and you have Matt questioning the integrity of a dinner to benifit Haiti. Amazing what is this world coming to. I hope you all that have been to my dinners, will come help support this sad situation

I just realized that it said Madi, on my last post. It's actually me Anthony. I was on the work computer and it must have been logged in. Wasn't trying to be undercover. Sorry Madi! Now I know what u do at work all day. Just kidding! Madi is awesome! Such an asset

The idea of spending an evening indulging on a $100 wine multicourse dinner in benefit to the starving is unpalatable unless 100% of the sales and not an ill defined profit are donated to Haitian relief.

I must say, I've never actually heard of anyone referring to a well-intentioned charity event as "unpalatable." Maybe its just me, but I find any effort to help the less fortunate to be not only palatable but admirable. I suspect the Haitians who will benefit from this dinner agree with me, and if you choose to dissent from our mutual opinion then perhaps you should take it up with them.

What charity are the funds being directed to and will you post on here what percentage was donated?

As David pointed out, the charity was named by the OP. Also, I would normally respect your skepticism about how much is being donated to charity, but I (as well as most of this forum) respect Anthony et al and trust that a significant portion of the proceeds will help those in need. While dishonest businesses exist who would love to capitalize upon a cause celebre like Haiti, Seviche isn't one of them.

Make your donations count: http://www.redcross.org/

Disclaimer: I worked there several years ago but am out of the business now.

And I'm sure the Red Cross is thankful for the disclaimer, as they aren't in the habit of insulting individual efforts to raise money for Haiti in order to facilitate the funneling of all charity through their organization. Perhaps it was this uncouth tactic that caused your paths to diverge.


Regardless, I salute Anthony and his staff for putting this together. If I had $85 to spend, rest assured I would be there in a heartbeat.

seriously....Matt...are you kidding?
this is a lot of people donating time and money to get an event together that helps a cause that needs it.
why would you try to be a spoiler?
and the charity is listed in the announcement: The Lambi Fund of Haiti.[/quote]

Seriously . . Dave . .. you're not against critically assessing the benefits you support as a customer? Everyone should pause to ponder and evaluate the money that flows in charities and benefits to make sure that your $200 donation doesn't mean $5 in real aid. I hope that this isn't the case in your situation. Anthony (Madi) seems like he might be implying he will be donating the food and wine he has purchased which could translate to %100 of sales donated. If that is the case, he has %100 of my support for his courage to do so, but that is not the implication in the announcement which mentions 'profits' will be donated.

You would do yourself and your customers a service by being transparent so as to avoid any unwarranted accusations of opportunism. I'll explain further what I mean:

As I read the both your press release and Anthony's statements here, I have to wonder why Anthony is purchasing all of the wine? Is Vintner's Select (I'm guessing you still work there) giving anything to this event. Wine would seem like the obvious donation but perhaps they are giving something else and not using the event JUST as a platform to showcase wine. That is what could be inferred by these statements. Clarity and transparency will help foster a sense of good will.

Another fuzzy spot concerns the gracious gesture by your staff to donate their time and taxes. The press release states that the cost is $85 plus tax & gratuity. The first question that popped into my head was, the FOH is donating their $2 hourly and taking tips?

Is there a word limit, I had to do this in two (or more, we'll see) parts.

Anyway, following up on what I was just saying, Anthony seems to be walking that gratuity and tax suggestion back. If you're going to provide the tips for your waiters, again, I commend you and commend your waiters for offering up their wage. Here's a fun suggestion, why not recommend the customers 'tip' the Fund. They'll probably be quite generous.

So there is obvious disagreement between the press release and Anthony's statements. My hope is that is indicative of progress towards a %100 commitment.

Let's see . . I guess I'll finish by addressing a couple loose ends:

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So Matt! If you like to know what the exact number is, come by the restaurant and I'll be happy to show you in person or you can call me.

Again, transparency is crucial if you want to assure those participating that the money is well spent. Don't show me . . .show louisvillehotbytes.com. The Seelbach did.

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I must say, I've never actually heard of anyone referring to a well-intentioned charity event as "unpalatable." Maybe its just me, but I find any effort to help the less fortunate to be not only palatable but admirable. I suspect the Haitians who will benefit from this dinner agree with me, and if you choose to dissent from our mutual opinion then perhaps you should take it up with them.

Paul, you take a lot of things for granted. You assume all charity events are well intentioned and all efforts are equal. I believe most charity events are well intentioned but not all charity events are equal.
If I said that for everyone who purchases a TV from me (I'm not in that business either) I will donate a dollar to AIDS prevention . . .well . . its something but you buying that TV is not necessarily a charitable act. Finally . . .I respect your hubris in assuming that you know the opinions of all Haitians, however, I'm sure if you were to ask them if they would prefer your $200 or you giving Vintners & Creation Gardens et al most of it and giving them the remainder they would choose the former. Again it looks like Seviche is moving in the right direction with this and hopefully we will see a %100 of gross sales donated. (Any accountants out there have any idea if tax is necessary at a benefit?)

cont.

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As David pointed out, the charity was named by the OP. Also, I would normally respect your skepticism about how much is being donated to charity, but I (as well as most of this forum) respect Anthony et al and trust that a significant portion of the proceeds will help those in need. While dishonest businesses exist who would love to capitalize upon a cause celebre like Haiti, Seviche isn't one of them.


Not only do you have an intimate knowledge of Hatian opinion but of Anthony and Seviche as well. This leads you to not want to know how much is donated if I follow what you're saying correctly. All I can say is that the most well intentioned charities require due diligence or even they corrupt.

And I'm sure the Red Cross is thankful for the disclaimer, as they aren't in the habit of insulting individual efforts to raise money for Haiti in order to facilitate the funneling of all charity through their organization. Perhaps it was this uncouth tactic that caused your paths to diverge.

Let me clarify . . I used to work at Seviche - not the American Red Cross. Also if you could tell me where I am insulting, I may be able to clear that up for you.

In conclusion, "profits" should always raise flags. Profits on an $85 meal can be $0. Its responsible to do due diligence on charity events. No one wants to find out that their contribution was negated by costs.

In a year from now, news organizations will inevitably be talking about all of the money that was raised that didn't make it into the hands of those who needed it.

Ask questions! Who knows, maybe you can make a positive change.

Paul, you take a lot of things for granted. You assume all charity events are well intentioned and all efforts are equal. I believe most charity events are well intentioned but not all charity events are equal.

I agree that not all charity events are equal, but in the end if money is being donated to a relief fund, isn't some good being accomplished? Why try to bring that down?

Finally . . .I respect your hubris in assuming that you know the opinions of all Haitians, however, I'm sure if you were to ask them if they would prefer your $200 or you giving Vintners & Creation Gardens et al most of it and giving them the remainder they would choose the former.

And I respect your ability to simultaneously insult me and warp the premise to suit your own ends. The issue isn't whether the Haitians will be getting $200 (I have no idea where this number came from) or X% of $200. The issue is whether the Haitians will be getting X% of (the randomly chosen) $200 or $0. Zilch. Nada. You obviously couldn't argue that no money is better than X% of $200 where X>0, so you tried to muddle this issue.

If I said that for everyone who purchases a TV from me (I'm not in that business either) I will donate a dollar to AIDS prevention . . .well . . its something but you buying that TV is not necessarily a charitable act.

Disclaimer: I worked there several years ago but am out of the business now.

So what business are you in exactly? The "Let's troll the interweb and see how many people's balls we can bust" business? Or perhaps the "I'm going to flail my skeptical opinions and conspiracy theories around wildly until I uncover something real" business.

No wait, I've got it. You're in the "Lets go to the Louisville Restaurants Forum (note the difference from 'Louisville Haitian Relief Forum' or 'Louisville Red Cross Forum' or any 'Louisville *insert phrase relevant to Haiti Forum') and complain about charity events, in spite of the fact the primary focus of the forum is on dining."

My point being, this is a restaurant forum. We're here to talk about food and not Haiti. If Anthony hosts a dinner, then rest assured many of us are going to go regardless of where the profits are going. We care about Haiti, we donate money to Haiti, and a lot of the businesses represented herein have hosted events to aid Haiti. But in the end, this forum exists to discuss food.

Let me clarify . . I used to work at Seviche

On that note though, I notice that you haven't complained about Felice Vineyards donating the "profits" from bottles of wine to Haiti. You didn't question the motives behind the "Chefs for Hope" event with a $225/head price tag. Do you charge down to the O'Shea's Family of Irish Pubs every Monday with your cardboard signs to demand an accounting of how much "profit" is donated to charity?

No, you choose to single out your former employer and try to engender distrust against no other charity event but his.

That speaks volumes in my opinion.

I am eager to respond but have been very busy. I believe I'll have some time tomorrow. Yes, its great having weekends off now if not kind of strange. BTW Paul many people who visit this site know who I am. I've probably been posting on here longer than you, however, I did so a lot less frequently as I had involvement in the business and there were considerations that accompanied those obligations. I have been out for over 2 years now, however, and reject the notion that I can't comment on any place where I worked if I disclose that information as I did immediately here. Other comments and concerns will be addressed soon.

OMG - I just wrote a response for an hour and a half and it disappeared. Anyway to retrieve it?

[Robin Garr]

OMG - I just wrote a response for an hour and a half and it disappeared. Anyway to retrieve it?

Matt, I'm not sure how that happened, and I hope it wasn't a forum glitch. It's probably too late now, but sometimes your browser's back arrow may take you back to the page you're working on.

As a suggestion, any time you are working on a really long reply that takes time, I suggest working on it in Notepad or Word and then select, copy and paste it into a forum message when you're done.

Thanks Robin,

Just to let you know what happened. I hit submit - it took me back to the login page then I logged in again and it took me to the topic I was writing in - it showed the appropriate # for the posts but the post wasn't there.

I should have copied it before I hit submit. I'll know better next time.