pictured above:
Toni & Brooke; Lake Tomahawk & the Seven Sisters Mountains; Greg Dunn finds feathers along the lake
Our new friends Toni De Lisa (potter) and Greg Dunn (tribal mask maker) brought us to the Black Mountain Welcome Table today. The daughter of a chef and one helluva cook herself, Toni seems to be able to find fellow Italian-Americans wherever she goes.
Today she introduced us to John Crognale, a retired chef who had a 5-star restaurant in Monterey, California for many years. The son of Italian immigrants, John has the charming demeanor of an accomplished host. He's constantly creating new community projects and started the community table in the neighboring town of Montreat. Right now, he's developing this Welcome Table in Black Mountain with a small army of cheerful volunteers. The food is prepared from fresh ingredients which are locally grown wherever possible. You sit at family-style tables and get to meet new people while enjoying a gourmet meal. Everything is friendly and casual, most of the diners today were senior citizens but that may change as the word about this gets out. There's a donation jar and you pay what you can; if you can't pay, that's okay too.
Chef John hopes increase these events at Black Mountain's Community Center to include several breakfasts and lunches every week. With its location on the banks of Lake Tomahawk and the lovely Seven Sisters Mountains in the background, lunching here is a sweet way to spend an afternoon. If you eat too much dessert, like all of us did, you can walk it off around the lake.
When we met, John and I shook hands; when I left, we hugged. That's what a community table does.
Great post . The Welcome Table is the place to be in Black Mountain. People meeting their Neighbors , ET
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