road cars, barns and doors. Nothing like adding a little history to your contemporary fur-niture!

Check out Crate and Bar-rel’s little sister store, CB2 in Chicago, San Fran-cisco or New York City. www.cb2.com

Colors: Rich Hues of Gorgeous Greens: Sage and Moss.

Bold Neutrals: Gold and Chocolate.

Fruit Colors: Plum and Orange.

Texture: Cashmere, Leather, Moleskin, Boucle, Chiffon.

Culinary: Protein sources other than beef is making a huge impact in restaurants. Although the red meat has staying power, the alternatives are ap-pearing on more menus, such as rabbit and lamb.

Using fruits and vege-tables as food vessels

cuts down on waste and clean-up. Turning a squash into a soup bowl makes a tasty presentation!

Wine & Spirits: Cock-tails created with wine, beyond sangrias. Make it a wine-tini or add a little sparkling wine and expand your options tenfold. Reclaimed Wood: Home décor and event furniture are being overtaken by “reclaimed wood” ta-bles, buffets, side ta-bles, etc. Whether it is a Darjeeling dining ta-ble by CB2 or add some recycled tires for a bench, reclaimed wood is being sourced all over from old rail-

Up to the Minute

10.16 March of Dimes Signature Chefs Auction at Epic Event Cen-ter www.marchofdimes.com 10.25 Bash For Nash at Bar Lur-cat www.bashfornash.com 10.29 Taste of Sample Circuit at Roth Distributing www.tasteofsamplecircuit.com 11.01 Children’s Cancer Re-search Fund Dawn of a Dream

2008 at The Historic Milwaukee Road Depot ww.childrenscancer.org 11.15 2008 Annual Gala for People Serving People at Hotel Ivy www.peopleservingpeople.org 11.15-11.16 Twin Cities Chocolate Extravaganza at Mpls Convention Center ww.mspchocolateshow.com ** submit events to blacklist@ stylelaboratory.com

September 2008 Volume 1, Issue 3

The Black List

WHAT’S SEXY NOW?

Cuisine Scene

Sex Symbol: TIM MCKEE Executive Chef / Co-Owner of La Belle Vie, Solera and the newly opened Smalley’s and Barrio restau-rants, McKee is arguably the most successful executive chef / restau-ranteur in the Twin Cities. As a James Beard Award nominee, he’s definitely making a name for himself on the national culinary scene.

Stimulating the tastebuds is sexy!

R. S. V. P.R. S. V. P.R. S. V. P.R. S. V. P.

Signature Chefs Auction 10.16

Bash For Nash 10.25

Taste of Sample Circuit 10.29

Dawn of a Dream 2008 11.01

People Serving People 2008 Annual Gala

11.15

Twin Cities Chocolate Extravaganza 11.15

to

11.16

R.S.V.P. Details

Prepare a menu of items that can be served at room tem-perature. Everything can (be) prepared in advance and you spend the evening being charming and involved in conversation rather than running.

Tara Rea, Founding Owner of Sample Circuit

Keep your guests in mind when selecting

the beverages for the event. Make sure you have chilled white wine, red wine, a variety of beer, as well as a signa-ture drink for the night. But always, always start the evening with cham-pagne. Emory Blackstone, ON-Premise Area Man-ager of Phillips Wine &

Spirits Eeeek: No one will

show up! Solution: Get one or two friends to commit to attending early. They will get the energy mov-ing, help out with last-minute details, and keep you from acting like a vulture when the first guests arrive. If no one shows up to your shin-dig, your gang can just dive into the food you prepared and drink enough for all the guests who did not show.

a reminder. Alexis Walsko

Owner of Lola Red PR You don’t have to be Martha Stewart to En-tertain. In recent years, there has been a lot of pressure to prepare all the food and decoration when throwing a party. I call it the Martha Stew-art Syndrome. Don’t get me wrong, I think she is immensely talented with a lot of great ideas. She

Proactive Approach: Send a personal invite for get-togethers. The nicer, the invite the more likely people are to show up and take the RSVP seriously. On that note, be sure to ask your guests to RSVP as this will help you to prepare.

If the number of invitees is manageable, call or email those who have not responded or those that agreed to attend as

also has a huge staff to help her set the table, prepare the food and do the shopping. It’s okay to enlist the help of the deli, bakery or florist. Just make sure that at least one or two touches are all your own...a signature drink, a dessert from a family recipe.

Geri Wolf The Style Laboratory

Entertaining with Ease

Intimidated by

Entertaining?

Don’t Stress.

Just follow these

Simple Rules from

industry experts.

Page 2 The Black List

Photos by Julie E! Photography Greg Jansen Photography Folio Studios

Success is Sexy

Ambition is Sexier

Janna O’Meara Restaurant Consultant

Page 3 Volume 1, Issue 3

_____ is Sexy, _____ is Sexier

If you received the Black List Newsletter from a friend and prefer to receive it directly, email your name, job title (this helps us filter what you should be receiving), company name and email address to blacklist@stylelaboratory.com.

Are You Black Listed!?

Smart is Sexy

A Great Sense of Humor is Sexier

Marie Huss Nia Instructor

Looking Good is Sexy Being Confident About How You Look is Sexier

Angela Appiah Shippey Business Accountant

Bevan Brittan LLP—London

Could Be Your Lucky Day! Be #7 to email blacklist@stylelaboratory.com and win a pair of tickets to a 2009 Sample Circuit Event. $76 value.

Be #23 to email blacklist@stylelaboratory.com and win a $50 gift certificate to Café Lurcat. $50 value.

Be #31 to email blacklist@stylelaboratory.com and win a complimentary hour of Brain Binge. Brain Binge is an hour of idea generation of marketing ideas and branding strategies for your business with The Style Laboratory. $125 value.

If you’ve not tried Café Lurcat’s bar food, you don’t know what you are missing! It’s a sophisticated twist on typical bar food. Mini burgers (which are absolutely sinful), the apple cole slaw, and the very yummy mini donuts top the list. For dinner, the airy dining room serves pot roast as tasty comfort food as you can get, although the sea bass and seared ahi are equally yummy. All the food and cocktails are served in a setting as chic and hip as if you were hanging out in South Beach. Although if you really are looking for a Florida feel, head to their Naples location!

612.486.5500 www.cafelurcat.com

Restaurant in Review