CITY GROCERY POP UPS TO RETURN IN JANUARY TO BENEFIT RODNEY SCOTT
OXFORD, MS The wildly popular “pop up” dinner series hosted by City Grocery last January will return in January of 2014 with a similar array of talented chefs, but this time with a mission.
Rodney Scott, pitmaster at the eponymously named Hemingway, South Carolina BBQ joint, suffered a tragic pit house fire this past November which wiped out his in ground pits. Scott the ever-ambitious workhorse, brought in trailered pits in order to immediately get the restaurant back up and running, but rebuilding costs for the original structure proved to be overwhelming.
A group of close friends within the industry, who have cooked together for the past several years and used their collective influence to help with individual philanthropic efforts as the Fatback Collective, saw the opportunity to help their friend and to give a clearer definition to their mission. The result is the “Rodney Scott In Exile Cooking Tour.” Scott will stop in Nashville, TN, Oxford, MS, New Orleans, LA and Atlanta, GA before finally returning to Charleston, SC to wrap up.
The City Grocery pop ups, which will happen on each Monday in January at City Grocery will extend the reach of that tour. “We just had a number of friends who wanted to do something to help, but Rodney could not stop everywhere, so we decided to have the pop ups again so we could involve as many folks as possible,” says John Currence of City Grocery Restaurant Group. “We could not be more excited about having these guys in our kitchen to cook and know they are equally excited about helping the Fatback Fund and Rodney.”
Dinner schedule is as follows:
Monday, January 6 “The Memphis Mafia”
Kelly English- Restaurant Iris, Second Line
Andy Ticer/Michael Hudman- Andrew/Michael Italian Kitchen, Hog and Hominy
Monday, January 13
Eli Kirshtein- The Luminary
Andrea Kirshtien- The Spence
Monday, January 20
Ashley Christensen- Poole’s Diner, Beasley’s Chicken and Honey, Chuck’s, Joule Coffee
Monday, January 27- Rodney Scott- Scott’s BBQ
“To be clear, we are not simply trying to put on fundraisers for Rodney. The funds raised will go the Fatback Fund and will be used to continue doing work within the communities from which each of us makes our living. It just happens the Rodney happens to be the person in need at the moment,” explains Currence. “You could make the case the rebuilding Willie Mae’s Scotch House after Hurricane Katrina was the original Fatback initiative. A lot of the same people were involved.” Sam’s Barbecue in Humboldt, Tennessee was another project several years ago after it burned. Each of these projects were ones we could got our hands around. We have a responsibility to help.”
The dinners at City Grocery will be by reservation. They will be four course meals, paired with wines. Reservations are $65 and include an autographed menu/certificate of appreciation from participating chefs and Fatback members.
For further information please contact Angie Sicurezza, 662.234.9300
For reservations call City Grocery, 662.232.8080