The start of May means it’s time to pick up our innovation issue (read it here, too), plant your window box and buy your tickets to Brooklyn Uncorked, one of our most popular events of the year. Join us at 26Bridge in DUMBO on Thursday, May 28 to sample wine from more than 30 local vineyards and small plates from fabulous restaurants including Gramercy Tavern, Orwashers Bakery and Palo Santo.
This year we’re partnering with TasteNY, a program run by New York Ag and Markets to help promote food and beverage companies throughout the state. They’re the folks behind cool initiatives like local food vending machines and craft beer festivals to support local farms, breweries, dairies, cideries and, of course, wineries. We’re excited to announce that at this year’s Brooklyn Uncorked we’re asking participating restaurants to sign TasteNY’s Pride of New York pledge: a commitment to source an additional 10% of their ingredients locally. Over 360 restaurants have already signed the pledge, and that number is rapidly growing. The pledge will help create a network of restaurants that support local sourcing.
One of TasteNY’s goals is to help connect farms with restaurants. Oftentimes, farms and restaurants are geographically very close but are unaware of one another. As of now, TasteNY staff members manually search through their database to find potential partnerships, but they hope to digitize that process through an upcoming Pride of New York website. “We’re trying to connect restaurants with farmers by specifically asking them if they need a farmer, and the response has been tremendous,” says Joe Ganley, head of TasteNY’s restaurant program. “Once the restaurants say what they’re looking for, we physically look through the farms near them.”
Come taste New York’s embarrassment of agricultural riches with us and support the farms and small businesses that thrive in our region. We’ll see you on the 28th, glass in hand.
