Did you know that the acclaimed food critic — and always amazing — Gael Greene also has several erotic novels under her belt? In the late '70s/early '80s she released two racy tomes, Blue Skies, No Candy, and Doctor Love, perhaps inspired by her flings with Elvis Presley and Clint Eastwood. (We told you she is always amazing.) Tonight she combines both of her careers with a dinner/reading at Michael Lomonaco's Porter House in NYC. $75 gets you a four-course meal, provocative conversation, and a digital download of the novel in question, call 212-823-9500 to snag a last minute reservation.
Greene not only beat the 50 Shades rage by several decades, she is at the forefront of the current trend of restaurants and authors teaming up for literary evenings. Or afternoons. David Chang's Má Pęche and the New York Public Library have recently launched a new kind of power lunch, an arts and culture salon called the 56th Street Round Table. Also in NYC, Alison Eighteen is home to The Pen & The Plate, a series which will unite award-winning authors with intimate groups of diners to share conversation and a three-course dinner — last week the featured literary lions were Kurt Andersen and Meg Wolitzer.
At Restaurant Eugene in Atlanta, Chef Linton Hopkins pays homage to his pre-culinary career at Oxford Books with author dinners — guests have included Gabrielle Hamilton with her celebrated memoir, Blood, Bones, and Butter. New York Times Southern bureau chief Kim Severson and Southern food expert and author John T. Edge have also appeared. In St. Louis, Duff's is home to a reading series from literary journal River Styx monthly reading series. And Baltimore-based literary magazine Artichoke Haircut hosts its monthly “You’re Allowed” reading series at Dionysus.