”It was the chicken breast of times, it was the bratwurst of times…”

I am interrupting your regularly scheduled mural update because I’m hungry.

I have been writing about all of the visual arts going on around here in Niwot, but I haven’t told you about the culinary arts that are rocking this town right now (except for pie, which I have shared extensively, but technically, I believe pie falls in the ‘spiritual enlightenment’ category…)

Right now the Niwot per capita ratio of epic deliciousness to eaters is about 7:1.  I don’t really know what that means, I am prone to making up random statistics 73% of the time, but my point is this:  we have some amazing restaurants in Niwot.  We have not one, not two, but three places for spectacular pizza, we have four dining establishments with outdoor garden seating (Colterra garden seating is just that, you dine IN their vegetable garden…), we have Mexican, Chinese, Italian, a Breakfast Café and a Tavern, this town in so into food that one of the best restaurants around isn’t even it restaurant, it’s our local grocery store – Niwot Market!  (which, by the way, is home to three incredible murals by our local artist Cy Hundley.  That’s right, we even have murals in our grocery store!!!)   So I promise to write more about the exceptional restaurant scene here in this tiny town of five square blocks of yumminess, but today I want to tell you about a non-restaurant culinary adventure that happens only in Niwot.

It’s our local, annual Lobster Bash.  (spoiler alert:  I’d like to take this moment to acknowledge that yes; lobsters are assassinated in this story.  While I have an extensive history of vegetarianism, and marriage related vegetarianism, and nephew related vegetarianism, and I respect and adore vegetarians wherever they may roam, I do, however, occasionally dive into the deep end of the pool of cruel gluttony and warm up some butter and have at it…I hate myself a little bit…but then I add lemon to the melted  butter and get over it… but for anyone who is offended by the eating of innocent lobsters, you can click here and be redirected to www.mainlobsterrescue.org and make a donation to help educate people like me about the weight of my actions, and possibly the weight of my caboose if I keep eating all of this melted butter…).

Anyhooo, once a year in this little hamlet we gather together, close off 2^nd Avenue, (just around the corner from the Epic Niwot Mural that I am supposed to be writing about, so there, that’s your update…),  we hire up a band or two, line the streets with brightly clothed tables and chairs, and serve up a lobster party!!!

Here’s how it works:  For $35 you get a fresh cooked lobster flown in from Maine that day, some roasted fresh- from-the-farm-up-the-street sweet corn, and a table and a chair.  After that, it’s all up to you.  You can bring whatever side dishes, desserts, beverages, decorations, party attire, bubbles, pink flamingos, candelabras, beach balls,  bendy straws and party hats you can come up with.  This year I decided to bring my all-time favorite accessories:  Amy, Molly, Sue, Nants, Kim, Terry and Terry’s adorable little visiting niece, Giorgia – fresh in from Torino, Italy.  We were partying on an international level.  These girlfriends are professionals at this sort of gig.  We were all dressed in fabulous tropical attire, and brought in wonderful side dishes of hummus and fresh veggies, chunky guacamole and black bean chips, Asian cabbage slaw, mango salsa, the sweetest cantalope on the planet wrapped in prosciutto, bottles of every flavor of wine, and tiramisu cake for dessert. 

There was acoustic guitar music for dining by the very fun and gifted Craig Corona.  He is an old friend from my days in the restaurant biz, and a wonderful musical artist (that’s right – a whole other level of artistry going on in Niwot – we also happen to be a music mecca.  But that’s another blog for another day.  Soon, I promise).  After Craig’s melodic dinner tunes, we launched into a couple of hours of Rebecca Folsom Band for dancing into the night.  There was a beautiful sunset, 349 dining companions, perfect weather, just another incredible day of food and fun and friends and art and love and melted butter in beautiful Niwot, Colorado.

I realize I am kind of a jerk for telling you about this now, instead of two weeks ago so you could all show up with your lobster bibs, but I’m telling you now…so plan ahead for next year!  I promise it will be worth the wait!!

For more info on the Lobster Bash, and the schedule of  random frivolity going on here in Niwot, check out www.niwot.com.  And uber thanks to Diane Atwood of Elysian Fields here in town, and her posse of volunteer lobster wranglers for making this event such a huge, fun, buttery success!  Diane doesn’t know it yet, but one of the details in the epic mural will be her sweet dearly departed dog Ellie, who is famous around these parts for her adorableness.  So there’s another bonus mural update!

Cheers!

Our imported Italian cupcake!

Hey, has anyone seen a big giant mural around here some where?

My favorite party accessories, the greatest friends a lobster assassin could ever hope to find. I know what you are thinking and sadly, no, there was no prize for the tackiest party outfit...

This entry was posted on Saturday, August 20th, 2011 at 4:43 am and is filed under Mural Update, Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.