Editorial
Front Page - Friday, June 18, 2010
River City Roundabout
Beautiful, lovely evening
Erica Tuggle
Bella Sera, an annual festive wine event, kicked off the start of summer with their showcase of wines and gourmet Chattanooga delights. Proceeds from the event went to benefit Chattanooga Endeavors, a program that assists the incarcerated.
- Erica Tuggle
For those not well versed in Italian, Bella Sera means “beautiful, lovely evening.” While this may seem redundant, those who have attended the Bella Sera event know that the event is beautiful, lovely and a lot more.
Those who attended the wonderfully put together and pleasant evening of Bella Sera during the first weekend in June were treated to samples of wine and fine food from 11 different restaurants as well as an endlessly flowing supply of house wine. What they may not have been aware of was that their evening out was helping those who are sometimes forgotten.
Animal shelters and children’s hospitals have an easier time finding donations because those whom the money serves are cute and charming, but for Chattanooga Endeavors, who offers assistance to former offenders, Bella Sera is the main event that provides donations for this charity.
When a prisoner comes up for parole, they must have a guaranteed job and place to live before they can be released from incarceration, said Cathy Darnell, the volunteer coordinator of Bella Sera. Chattanooga Endeavors works to improve public safety by restoring former offenders to productive roles in society. According to their Web page, their emphasis on recently released prisoners involves preparing former offenders for work, supporting them in their job search and offering limited opportunities for remunerative work training through an alternative staffing program.
The Bella Sera event in itself is an idea too good to pass up even if it didn’t have such a worthy cause behind it. The event transformed Renaissance Park, where it was held for the sixth year, into a large party in the back yard of downtown. The approximately 1,200 guests who attended the event mingled throughout the park stopping at the restaurant booths to try the samplings, and then sat with groups throughout the park they had only just met. I had this experience of table-hopping until I found a local couple whom I talked to for most of the night.
The food wasn’t your typical picnic lunch, either. Local restaurants Alleia, Blue Orchid Bistro, Blue Orleans Creole Restaurant, Bluewater Grille, Foodworks, Greenlife Grocery, Niko’s, Taco Mamacita, Niedlov’s Breadworks, Chattz and Whipped Cupcakes were on hand to offer unlimited food of the highest quality. Ricotta and Georgia peach bruschetta, Tuscan chicken salad, crawfish pasta salad, cheeses, chicken tortilla soup and mini-cupcakes were just a handful of the items that were crowd favorites.
Those who attended the event were given a souvenir wine glass upon arriving that they immediately put to use for the wine they would sample during the event. It served not only as a great recycling effort, but also as a good way to remember the night.
The wines that were offered were paired with each restaurant’s food selection to enhance the flavor of both. The two that sent me back for seconds were the Layer Cake Virgin Chardonnay from the Blue Orchid Bistro and the Snoqualmie Naked Riesling from the Bluewater Grille, both smooth white wines. Chattz was on hand to offer iced coffee selections as the night wore on, so nobody was throwing in the towel as the sun went down.
The silent auction at the event offered other opportunities to help Chattanooga Endeavors, with items on the docket for biding including artwork, dining, jewelry, health and fitness, entertainment, travel and other assorted goodies. The hand blown vase by Prentice Hicks, the icon of the event, was on auction with $10 tickets sold throughout the night for a chance to bring it home.
For those who wanted even more variety on wine, there was the Wine Taster’s Select area, where for $40 more, guests could enjoy samplings of over 100 different wines. The staff at Bella Sera was aware of how enjoyment of this event merited responsibility, and had signs posted with taxicab company phone numbers.
The band Ogya was also on hand with drumbeats and toe tapping tunes to keep the crowd dancing. And there was much of this dancing from the beginning of the event until long after the wildflower packed park was dark.
The event was equally informative and satisfying for me as I spent the whole day (from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m.) at Renaissance Park, volunteering to set up the event and attending the festivities as well. The transformation of the already beautiful park into an event was a hurried, but rewarding, experience. When you volunteer with an event, enjoying it when it is in full force is all the more sweet.
This event is one to return to every year. Not only are guests exposed to new and local restaurants that rock but they help out a local charity that provides a needed community service. Cheers, to that.
Email Erica Tuggle at
reporter@hamiltoncountyherald.com.
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