Lavish Charity

A good college friend had invited me to join him at a fundraiser for a local community health center, held downtown last night at the contemporary art museum.

It was a nice event, more casual than what I had anticipated, but certainly with a degree of elegance lent to it from the grand setting.

And the food. It was a food and wine event, and several dozen restaurants from around the city were invited to share appetizer-sized (amuse bouche, as the foodies would say) portions of their specialties, along with a wine pairing. Among others, I sampled Kobe beef made-to-order sliders, potato leek soup shooters, and chocolate cupcakes topped with real gold leaf.

It was an exciting night, tempered only by my after-work blahs and continued battles with seasonal allergies. As casual as the event was, I still felt a little outclassed in my consignment-shop Perry Ellis pants and Macy's house brand shirt. At one point I overheard on young job seeker talking about how he had hired a branding agency to help him develop himself as a brand, complete with his own logo, mission statement, catch phrase, and color scheme! It was a way of thinking that was fairly alien to me, but interesting nonetheless.