Last summer Bono Pizza gained a cult following among Slow Food Columbus members who couldn’t get enough of their artisanal pizza. So much so that two of the SFC members ended the summer with pizzas named after them. Bono is run by husband and wife Bill and Peggy Yerkes and last summer they shared space with the Eleni Christina Bakery on Russell Street. They are currently trying to secure a permanent home for the fantastic wood fired pizzas, but in the mean time we were able to persuade them to join us for a Slow Food event: à la cart.
Our other cart was Liberté Crêpes, run by Caroline Gross Towne and Elizabeth Hall Towne and the evening was completed by sangria, an outdoor movie (Ratatouille) and Krema Nut Company snacks provided by hosts Elena Christofides and Andrew Hall. After a one day postponement for the weather we had a beautiful evening and it was a wonderful relaxed event.
One of the things that made this Slow Food event special was that as many of the ingredients as possible were sourced locally. You can see the farmers and producers that supplied ingredients from the pizza menu below.
I was very excited to have a pizza named after me. Apparently the original name had been ‘you’re-right-Bethia’, after I vetoed an Ark of Taste turnip pizza and suggested tomatoes and peppers instead. The Oregano came from my garden, where it grows like a weed, hence the ‘Hungrywoolf Farms’.
Clockwise from top left: the Ohio 15b (a locavore version of the Colleen), the Bethiarita, the remains of a Cinderella, and the Southern Comfort. The Cinderella pizza was inspired by two beautiful varieties of eggplant, twinkle and fairy tale and you can see that it didn’t last long. The southern comfort with corn, chevre and fried green tomatoes was probably the most unusual and also the most popular pizza of the night.
Pizzas greedily devoured it was crêpe time. Caroline and Elizabeth who also doubled up as the welcoming committee were busily flipping and folding crêpes on the front porch. Caroline was lamenting that the new organic Ohio flour they were using wasn’t producing their usual consistency of batter, but the crepes and fillings were delicious nonetheless.
Local ingredients were again well represented and I know that a lot of people miraculously found room for a second crêpe.
The weather held for the feature presentation of Ratatouille which seemed a fitting end to our gourmet evening. Many thanks to everyone who helped to make this such a wonderful event, especially to Elena and Andrew for welcoming us into their home, a perfect venue. As usual good food and good company are the hallmarks of Slow Food Columbus events and it was a fun mixture of familiar faces, new members, old and young. There are more photos on flickr.
This post was written for the Slow Food Columbus Blog.
