Although mimosas and bellinis are the fizzy drinks to coin the trick, both are unfortunately reserved for daylight drinking.

At A Fare, we found a one-two-punch addition that transforms our trusty and true champagne into an elegant evening beverage. Just add your favorite liqueur and a sugared rim!

It gives you just a hint of flavoring and a look that is more than sleek…

And oh so subtle… 

We recommend a splash of peach, pear or elderflower. Perfect for these hot days (and nights!)

The down side: You literally can’t move after two courses, let alone three or four! I’m not joking when I advise you to bring a friend to help wheel you out to the car.

The up side: We’ve done some preliminary scoping for you and can tell you 1) Polo’s dessert of English Truffle and Benjy’s Honey Glazed Duck Breast are phenomenal and 2) some restaurants are offering the same set prices for 4 course dinners and 3 course lunches! Upping the Restaurant Week ante!

Inside Benjy’s, Rice Village

Enough said, enjoy your savory weekend of fare exploration!

We’ve been working around the clock to design the perfect specialty beverage, passed hors d’ oeuvres, first courses, entrees, passed desserts and more!! All within the confines of a completely kosher menu. It hasn’t been easy, but the end result will hopefully knock our client’s socks off.

Wish us luck!

How do we keep our energy going when time is ticking away faster than we can crank out proposals? My Fit Foods!

We have to give a shout out to our friends down the street for keeping us fed with their microwavable, all-natural meals!

We, of course, would prefer to cook ourselves or to taste some of the inventive recipes brewing in our AFE kitchen, but sometimes all you have on your hands is 2 minutes before an event! My Fit Foods warm in 1.5 minutes, leaving about 30 seconds to eat. A perfect fit for our on-the-go lifestyle!

My favorite is probably the chicken and veggies:

MmmMmm…thank goodness a health conscious company jumped on the fast-food train, saving us time AND our figures!

We smoke ours completely in-house, which has given us the freedom to create items such as smoked duck and apple saffron crepes, smoked trout and red wine slaw tacos (below) and the best beef and tuna carpaccio in town!

Smoking meat originated as a method of  preserving protein-rich foods, due to the dehydrating  property of smoke, but in today’s world of refrigerators and freezers, it is more a process of preparing delicious and cultural delicacies!

Smoked meat is great for these summer temperatures; a refreshing alternative to a steaming hot piece of steak right off the grill. Plus the smoke enhances flavors like you wouldn’t believe (and I’m not just saying that because of my BBQ-lovin Texas childhood) … So jump on that smokin hot band wagon and order some!

Yes, we’re talking Houston’s Restaurant Week! Check out the list of participants and menus here, and I guarantee you won’t want to stop by the grocery store any time soon. They might as well deem August as city-wide “Eat Out Month!”

The good part? You don’t have to feel guilty having dessert with every meal. The better part? Restaurant Week runs from August 1st-21st (obviously more than a week).  And the BEST part? $5 of every dinner, $3 of every lunch and 100% of in-store donations will benefit Houston Food Bank, helping put an end to Houston hunger.

What sounds good to us? Canopy’s Spicy Cucumber-Avocado Soup, Feast’s Crispy Roasted Pork Belly, Ouisie’s Table’s Grilled Bison Burger, RDG’s Wood Grilled Skirt Steak, *17’s Smoked Black Pepper Panna Cotta and Ruggles Grill’s dessert since they have a list of 20 to chose from as opposed to 3!

This is the perfect opportunity to visit that new restaurant you’ve been meaning to try or frequent an old favorite, because each location is serving up some of their favorite appetizers, entrees and desserts especially for you!

Go ahead and map out your plan of attack. You know you’ll see us around!

A Fare Extraordinaire likes to provide breakfast buffets with enough scope to appease everyone at the table. We typically can obtain this goal by ensuring we put out 1) something hot 2) something light and 3) something sweet.

Something hot: Chicken Apple Sausage, Wild Mushroom Frittatas, Snapper Cake Eggs Benedict, Gingerbread-Blueberry Pancakes, we really like to go all out in this category. The easier route? Whip up a few fluffy biscuits (and drizzle with honey butter for a bit of pizzazz)!

Something light: our favorite “something light” is build-your-own parfaits! Our crunchy homenade granola, pitchers of skim milk, yogurt and an array of ripe seasonal fruit. Every diet-sticken woman’s dream!

Something sweet: we love our pastry chef’s raspberry pecan curls (below), cinnamon pear muffins, iced cranberry orange scones…mmmm.

Just add fresh-squeezed OJ and you’ve got yourself a delectable breakfast (or lunch or dinner, for that matter). Bon Appetit!

Imagine it’s Friday afternoon at 5:30 pm.

Here in Houston, A Fare Extraordinaire is a buzz confirming and re-confirming the details of Saturday night’s 550+ person wedding at the Museum of Fine Arts. With passed hors d’ oeuvres and FOUR buffet presentations, ranging from a “Bridal Buffet” filled with delicious light and refreshing vegetarian items and a dessert-only buffet with SIX rich options, the wedding was on its way to becoming a true affair extraordiniare. And the guest count was still growing!

Miles away on the northeast coast of Newport, Rhode Island, I begin to slowly walk down the aisle as Maid of Honor in my big sister’s wedding.

Although I was originally peeved that AFE would not be producing the magical evening, this notion quickly subsided when I got my first taste of Newport scenery…

Photo from 22 Bowen's Wine Bar & Grille

No complaints, but at the end of the day (and the wedding weekend) I was proud when I noticed not one Newport chef had whipped me up a batch of lobster mashed potatoes. There are still some items that remain an AFE specialty!

Congratulations to my sister Holly and my new brother Clayton!

I’m talking SALAD!

Loading up your healthy greens with fresh exotic fruit, spiced or sugared nuts, rare cheeses and an excessive amount of veggies is becoming the cool thing to do. So much so that the base “salad” ingredient is no longer even necessary!!

Hey, we veto lettuce from half the delicious salads we dream up…

Thanks to a client’s brilliant idea they called in with, Thursday we are providing a 35 plus ingredient salad bar that will absolutely FILL her dining room table (and her guests’ bellies)! Herbed and peppered ahi tuna, grilled arugula, warm roasted red skin potatoes, garbanzo beans, five-spice pumpkin seeds, marinated mozarella, passion fruit vinaigrette, who could ask for more?

So tonight when you get home and decide it’s way past time to clean out the fridge of your random assortment of cheeses, fruits, nuts and dressings (basically everything but the kitchen sink)…do the healthy, responsible thing and eat your veggies!

Open Bar. This is where things get a bit stickier… WE like to provide full open bars (mostly due to the fact that we abhor saying “No, we don’t have that” to any party participant),  BUT we also realize not everyone has the budget for gin, vodka, rum, whiskey, endless mixers, the list goes on and on…

Simple Solution? A Specialty Drink! A case of white, a case of red, a couple bottles of regular and a lite beer, now just add a wee bit of liquor and BAM! Instant party pop.

The best thing about a specialty drink is you can dress it up:

Dress it down:

Match it to your theme:

Just have fun with it! We love coming up with exciting new concoctions-we even had an afternoon office tasting just today! Specialty drinks can add a personal touch, incorporate a color scheme, or even just add a little bit of clever flare to get your guests talking.

Pour your pool party participants a blue lagoon or shake up a green holiday beverage and name it “The Grinch.” If you’re feeling crazy, rim your wild fire margarita with orange salt and tell everyone it’s chili powder!

If we’ve learned anything in the past 25 years, it’s that the little touches go a long way. They are what your guests will be talking about for the next 25 years, so don’t skimp (and don’t hesistate to call  if you need some help “mixing” up some ingenious ideas!)