Cooking for a cause

All-star San Antonio chefs fire up fall's hottest foodie fundraiser

Chef Cooperatives' dinners help ensure a sustainable San Antonio food scene.

San Antonio’s restaurant scene may be having a breakthrough year, but it wasn’t always that way. It took the work of a dedicated food community to bring Alamo City into the national spotlight. Luckily, those same trailblazers are doing their part to ensure the city stays cooking for years to come.

The latest effort comes from Chef Cooperatives, a nonprofit coalition of San Antonio-area chefs and food producers founded in 2014 to help grow the local farm-to-table movement. On November 9, the group will be firing up Bites for Business to benefit an organization many members credit for their success.

Held at LiftFund at 2007 W Martin St., the event is attracting marquee chefs including Stephen Paprocki (Texas Black Gold Garlic), Adrian Davila (Davila's BBQ), Sara Lauren Hinojosa (Honeysuckle), Paul Morales (Smoke Shack Meat Market), James Canter (Guerrilla Gourmet), Jeff Wayne White (Tucker's Kozy Corner), Christina Everett Werley (Creations Catering), and Dave Terrazas (San Antonio Botanical Garden).

They will be joined by Alamo City breweries Islla St. Brewing, Community Beer Co., and Freetail Brewing Co.; Texas wineries Kuhlman Cellars, Farmhouse Vineyards, and Vinovium; and event co-sponsors Compost Queens and Truckin’ Tomato. Highlights of the dazzling locavore menu include Southern pad Thai with fermented green tomatoes, ancho braised Akaushi short rib, and a chai spice milkshake for dessert.

According to Paprocki, it was a “no-brainer” that the Chef Cooperatives should raise money for Launch San Antoni o. Formerly Cafe Commerce, the organization has helped hundreds of area entrepreneurs start their enterprise or grow their current venture.

“It’s not just throwing an event, it’s throwing a spotlight on that group that benefits,” Paprocki said. “We’re just wanting to help other people.”

Paprocki is just one of the Chef Cooperatives members who has gone through Launch SA’s Break Fast and Launch program, which began in 2015 as the nation's first culinary business accelerator. The entrepreneur credits the program for providing him with resources, networking, skills, and confidence to sustain Texas Black Gold and its commitment to sourcing from area farms.

 Launch SA director Ryan Salts describes the organization as “a 3-1-1 for small business and entrepreneurship."

 “We provide all of these services for free so as to help elevate the entrepreneurs that San Antonio is curating and attempt to guide as many people towards sustainable success as possible with the least amount of hiccups,” Salts says. “We are not industry specific nor do we have a pre-qualifying set of needs for someone to work with us — we can work with business owners in all stages and any vision.”

 But it is the organization’s commitment to helping food businesses that the chefs hold in particularly high esteem. According to Launch internal survey conducted last year, Break Fast and Launch has helped about 80 percent of its enrollees to stay in business.

Salts uses one of Paprocki's terms, "one team, one goal,” to describe how important it is for organizations such as Launch SA and Chef Cooperatives to work together for the greater good of the community. Although Launch SA receives some city public funding for basic operations, it heavily relies on funding through private and other sources, and on benefits such as Bites for Business.

“We are helping each other create a more vibrant business community and more vibrant food community that will elevate the city as a whole,” Salts said.

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Tickets for Bites for Businesses are $45 and on sale here.

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SPARE ART

North San Antonio gets crafty with new creative supplies shop

Photo by Ismael Rodriguez.

Local nonprofit Spare Parts recently opened its brick-and-mortar center for creative reuse.

One local nonprofit organization has spent years getting environmental accountability and community education down to a fine art. And now it’s getting crafty with a new brick-and-mortar shop in North San Antonio aimed to help locals to go green.

Spare Parts was founded in 2010 by executive director and longtime arts educator Mary Elizabeth Cantú to provide a creative spark for area students and schools lacking arts funding and resources. Through a variety of educational programs, public art exhibitions, events, and the organization’s traveling Mini Art Museum, Spare Parts has enlightened thousands of students and San Antonians, all while fostering reuse practices and sustainability, a key tenet of the nonprofit.

Spare Parts’ latest endeavor is another artistic triumph. Its new center for creative reuse, located at 13451 Wetmore Rd., is nothing less than a crafter’s delight. The shop features an impressive array of “pre-loved” and price-reduced artsy merchandise — from paint supplies and paper crafts to sewing items, beading and jewelry, school and office supplies, vintage gadgets, and crafting kits — all of which has been rescued from area landfills.

Cantú notes that proceeds from the new Spare Parts’ shop will enable the organization to further increase creative and educational experiences for San Antonio students and families. But even more so, she hopes the shop will help locals embrace the concept that one person’s trash can be another’s artistic treasure.

“There really isn’t any more room in the world for this stuff. Buying pre-loved at places like Spare Parts or other stores is a way to reduce the amount of things [people] feel that they need,” Cantú said in a recent interview with the San Antonio Sentinel. “We’re challenging people to rethink things around them, buy pre-loved, and find a way to be creative in their lives.”

In the time of COVID-19, however, getting the creative juices flowing isn’t as simple as popping into the Spare Parts shop. Though the center for creative reuse is open, the store is currently offering only weekend curbside pickup of items ordered through its website. But crafters shouldn’t despair, as Spare Parts is offering private in-person shopping experiences in the new year, with the first planned for January 16 and 17.

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