Our "Tastings" event on February 1st should be both a culinary and a literary experience for our guests. We will be pairing books with wines, beverages and food at a variety of sampling stations. We can promise great publicity for the restaurants and other businesses that take part.
If you wish to help prepare foods for the stations or help in any other ways please contact:
Becky Herrmann, Library Director
978-256-5521, ext. 101
E-Mail: bherrmann@mvlc.org

To Chelmsford restaurants and caterers:

Last year, close to 300 Chelmsford residents visited the Chelmsford Public Library for a program called “Tastings.” It was Chelmsford’s Winterfest kick-off and the launching of our first community-wide “One Book” reading program. Our event featured samplings of books paired with food from 35 restaurants in town along with wine and beer suggestions supplied by Harrington Wine and Liquor. It was great fun and our patrons have been clamoring for us to hold it again.

With your help, we would like to repeat that success by hosting the 2008 kick-off to Winterfest on Friday, February 1st.This year’s “Tastings” theme will have a Southern flavor. The book we will read for our second “One Book” choice is “To Kill a Mockingbird” by Harper Lee. Bearing that in mind, we will be featuring a host of books by Southern authors and in Southern settings. We would like our culinary theme to embrace this idea – whether it be foods that are South of the Mason-Dixon Line or even further… to South of the Border. Southern food ideas could include Cajun and Creole cooking, barbecue, soul food, Tex-Mex specialties, Southern comfort food like country ham and biscuits, hushpuppies and of course anything deep-fried. And let’s not forget the Southern desserts – fruit cobblers, peach pie, pecan pie and banana pudding. The possibilities are endless. Drink ideas could include mint juleps, sweet tea, New Orleans Hurricanes, or lemonade. Books you might be familiar with include: “Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Café,” “The Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood” “Gone with the Wind,” “Cold Mountain,” “Cold Sassy Tree” and “A Confederacy of Dunces.” Authors as diverse as Alice Walker, William Faulkner, John Grisham, James Dickey and Mark Twain will be included.

Great advertising!
It would be terrific if you could provide a dish for the evening for 100+ people. In return we will include your restaurant
on our program and we will list you on our website with a link to your restaurant. If you do not have a website we will be happy to link to a copy of your menu that we can scan in and include on our website.

Contact us:
We would love it if “Tastings” became a Winterfest tradition – we think anything that combines two things we love best -- eating and reading -- is sure to be a success. If you are willing to participate this year, please call or e-mail us by December 21st. We would like to get publicity out for the program by the first of the year. If you have any questions or concerns or want to brainstorm food ideas, please give us a call!

You can read more about Chelmsford’s community reading program, “One Book Chelmsford” at our website www.chelmsfordlibrary.org. In the meantime, Bon Appetit!

Becky Herrmann, Library Director, at 978-256-5521, ext. 101
E-Mail: bherrmann@mvlc.org

If your restaurant would like to take part this year for "Taste of the South," please contact Becky Herrmann, library director, at 978-256-5521, ext. 101 or email Becky at bherrmann@mvlc.org

The following restaurants participated last year for our first Tastings event.