FOOD
&
DRINK
ABOVE: Chris and Terri Keleher hosted the recent Let’s Eat Collingwood event at The Stuffed Pheasant. The Kelehers, along with Paul and Amanda Casey, started the dining club as a way to attract new business to restaurants in the area.
Let’s Eat!
Local group introduces diners to area restaurants – and each other by EMILY WORTS
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photography by RICHARD GALLOWAY
hris Keleher greets people at the door of the Stuffed Peasant restaurant in Collingwood, seating chart in hand. Keleher is not the owner, not the chef and not an employee of the Stuffed Peasant. He is part of the team of four behind Let’s Eat Collingwood – the hottest meal ticket in town. Once a month Keleher and his wife Terri, along with Paul and Amanda Casey, send out an email to a growing number of locals letting them know when and where the group will be stopping next. Let’s Eat Collingwood isn’t exactly a dinner club – it favours inclusivity over exclusivity – but you have to be in the know to get a seat. Let’s Eat Collingwood’s dinner at the Stuffed Peasant sold out in a day. Together with Stuffed Peasant’s chef and owner, Scott Carter, Keleher introduced a second seating to accommodate Let’s Eat Collingwood’s increasing number of followers.
Diners move from seat to seat chatting with people they know or have met at previous dinners. Keleher does the same, checking in and making sure everyone is all right, just like a proper host. John Wilson and his wife DorRene have attended four of the seven Let’s Eat events. “We picked these restaurants (The Hungry Sumo, The Huron Club, The Tremont and The Stuffed Peasant) because we had never been there before,” says John. “We were looking for new experiences and this was all organized for us. It’s great.” At the Hungry Sumo the Wilsons were happily seated with two couples they had never met and they were treated to several different courses for $15. “Unless you eat off your wife’s plate you don’t get to experience all these different foods,” says Wilson. “I look at it as a social event as well as a dining experience.” ON THE BAY
SUMMER 2012
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