Dinner conjures nostalgia, funds

It was the first time she had tasted red beans and rice since leaving New Orleans.

For 21-year-old Tulane University senior Natalie Purbrick - one of 12 students attending the University this fall after being displaced by Hurricane Katrina - the Gulf Coast Benefit Dinner on Monday night at Panzanella, an Italian eatery in Carrboro, was a homecoming.

"You fall in love," she said of first encountering New Orleans. "Or you don't, and you sort of know if you're a New Orleans fan or not."

At least 100 people attended the dinner, hosted by Panzanella and the Weaver Street Market Cooperative to raise funds for victims of hurricanes Katrina and Rita.

Organizers said funds raised by the $35-a-plate Cajun dinner, a buffet featuring live music and everything from red beans and rice to bourbon-glazed pork loins, likely will go to Gulf Coast evacuees living in North Carolina and the Katrina Cooperative Recovery Fund.

"It gives people an opportunity to feel like they can give," said Linda Fullwood, marketing manager for the Weaver Street Market Cooperative.

The event featured music by T'Monde, The Bernie Petteway Jazz Trio, and Charles Pettee and Friends.

With strains of Cajun, bluegrass and jazz music permeating an air thick with the smell of beer, wine and home-cooked food, people of all ages and sizes draped in Mardi Gras beads engaged in the revelry.

Some with families, others with friends, guests ate, drank merrily, chattered loudly and sometimes danced a jig.

Chapel Hill residents Bill and Pat Wellington, both 60, said they didn't think the price tag was too high.

"I find the prices exceptional for a good cause," Bill Wellington said.

Stephanie Gumbis, 26, of Carrboro, was standing at the bar with friends and said she enjoyed doing so for a worthy cause.

"It's nice to be able to go out and drink and have fun, and it's for a good cause," she said.

Beer and wine were donated by several companies, including Carolina Brewery.

But while patrons enjoyed the authentic Cajun cuisine and open bar for the Gulf Coast residents, administrators for the co-op volunteered their time running the floor and filling orders.

Steve Riddle, general manager of the eatery, said the rush was more than he had anticipated.

"I think the response was better than I expected," he said.

Sitting with her boyfriend Ryan New, 22, who fled New Orleans with her the Saturday before Hurricane Katrina hit, Purbrick said the restaurant did a good job of replicating the New Orleans ambiance A-- especially the menu.

She said coming from New Orleans, one has to like that kind of food.

"I don't think you can be in New Orleans and not like to eat."

 

Contact the City Editor at citydesk@unc.edu.