Dinner with a Purpose
MARS — The Artisan Dinner on Mars mixed a lot of ingredients, including food, friendship and fundraising.
Joshua Zimmerman, a 2013 Mars High School graduate who was born and raised in the district, organized Thursday's event for several reasons.
The Artisan Dinner on Mars, Zimmerman said, was created to celebrate the fresh, natural foods available in Western Pennsylvania, raise money for the borough's revitalization plan, and provide a new Mars High scholarship.
The dinner was on Pittsburgh Street in Mars, which was blocked off from 6 to 9 p.m. Cooks scurried about in the grassy area near the town spaceship sculpture where the food was prepared as 20 volunteer wait staff readied the area for the sit-down dinner.
Local musicians took turns playing and singing, and flowers from a nearby florist decorated the long dinner tables.
Zimmerman said 70 people paid $80 apiece to dine on watermelon gazpacho, crudite and cheese, salad, apple-brined pork chops, rosemary olive oil poached potatoes, farmers vegetable au jus, and peach panna cotta for dessert.
Local wine and beer selections were paired with each course.
“We tried to keep everything as locally sourced as possible,” said Zimmerman, who earned a culinary arts degree in 2015 and is currently studying hospitality management and accounting at the Indiana University of Pennsylvania.
Zimmerman created the menu with a handful of chef friends, including Chef Gary Wigand of the Indiana Country Club. Wigand, who helped prepare the dishes Thursday, served as the chef at last year's U.S. Open golf tournament in Oakmont.
Promoting Mars borough was a major goal of Zimmerman's in planning the artisan dinner.“Towns like Saxonburg and Harmony and Zelienople are on the upswing,” Zimmerman said. “I'd like to bring that to Mars.”Mars Mayor Gregg Hartung munched on a plate of crudite and mingled with the smiling crowd as a woman played the guitar and sang nearby.Hartung said Zimmerman approached the borough council at its July meeting to ask about staging the dinner. The council members and Hartung gave their suggestions and input.“We kind of coached and encouraged him, and here it is,” said Hartung.He said the event brought new people into Mars to see what the borough has to offer and caused local merchants to work together toward a common goal.Hartung praised Zimmerman for organizing the event, especially at the age of 22.“He's paying back the community that gave him so much,” Hartung said. “Hopefully it will encourage others who have ideas for (unique events).”Karen Morrow of Adams Township said she and her husband heard about the dinner through a township parks and recreation meeting her husband attended.“We just love this town and we want to see it thrive,” Morrow said. “Anything that has to do with Mars, we attend.”
Reva Hunt of Mars saw the artisan dinner on social media.“You can sample things you might not normally get from farms you might not know about,” Hunt said. “I'm all into eating organic and local when I can.”Hunt's parents, Victor and Nancy Rutkoski of Erie, traveled to visit their daughter and attend the dinner.“It's very nice,” said Victor. “They ought to have more things like this.”Linda Lindenbaum of Wexford enjoyed the food as well as the effort to create a scholarship and help with the Mars revitalization plans.“Who can resist a farm dinner?” Lindenbaum said. “It's fresh food, fresh air, fresh everything.”Zimmerman said he included the scholarship element because he received 13 scholarships when he graduated from Mars High School.He said the scholarship will go to a student who is experiencing financial limitations.“I know how scholarships help students now, especially with the rising cost of education,” he said.“I hope to make it an annual event and keep expanding it every year,” he said of the artisan dinner.
