PA Eats is a proud media sponsor of Dining Out for Life.
ActionAIDS first debuted Dining Out for Life in 1991 in Philadelphia, encouraging locals to dine out for a great cause—to help fund support, services and research for men, women and children living with HIV/AIDS. Now, over two decades later, the yearly fundraising event has expanded to over 60 United States cities, and continues to be a leading fundraising effort for the City of Brotherly Love.
As the Delaware Valley restaurant scene gears up to participate in the 23rd annual dining-out fundraiser, PA Eats caught up with Guillermo Tellez, executive chef of Red Owl Tavern and Stratus Rooftop Lounge, as he is a repeat restaurant participant of Dining Out for Life.
Why is it important to you to participate to Dining Out for Life?
The Kimpton Hotel company [which Red Owl Tavern is a part of] loves being part of the community and supporting of local chapters of charities, especially Dining Out for Life. It’s a great opportunity to help make people aware of this cause that’s drastically going around the world.
I hear you’re local to our immediate chomping ground. What do you enjoy about living in Chester County but working in Old City?
Living in West Chester enables me to be not far from the city or local farms. We feature seasonal menus at Red Owl Tavern, so living near the farms allows me to visit them easily, develop good relationships with them and buy our food from them. We also develop wish lists featuring ingredients we hope they can grow and share them with the farmers.
Anything new on the horizon for the Red Owl Tavern and Stratus? I’ve heard murmurs of a sausage cart.
We’re changing up the pace at Stratus Lounge for weekends, opening up as early as 1 p.m. on Sundays and featuring a new snacks menu with options like duck confit pizza with a duck egg on top, and other similar foods.
As of May 1, we’re launching new outdoor seating [at Fifth and Chestnut Streets, across from Independence Mall]. We do the butcher-shop breakdown of meats and sausages in-house already, so we decided to feature an outdoor sausage cart with the opening of our new side seating. We’re creating different kinds of sausages as part of the launch and having fun with it.
Can you offer us some teases of what house-cured creations you have up your sleeves?
We’re working on a Vietnamese-influenced sausage with ginger, fresh pork and spices. We’re already thinking ahead to Philly Beer Week and making sausages with beer. During that celebration, we’ll be featuring a four-course beer and sausage pairing. A merlot sausage is in the works too, and I really enjoy making the combinations spicy.
Still contemplating where you’ll hit for Dining Out for Life? Click here to start swooning over Tellez’s local-focused menu, highlighting sharable snacks like pickled vegetables with eggplant spread, spicy pork shoulder mussels, an unforgettable charcuterie plate, and so much more. We promise you—one forkful of the fresh beet pasta with pork belly or the braised, roasted lamb shank with spicy tomato chutney, and your charitable dining out efforts will be made much sweeter. Also, don’t skip rounding out your experience with an artisan cocktail (we hold the Grand Old-Fashioned in high regard).
Participating restaurants, like Red Owl Tavern, will donate 33 percent of the day’s food sales to the Dining Out for Life cause. Collectively, over 4 million dollars are raised annually through the Dining Out for Life cause, with each city’s fundraising going directly back into the community for which it was raised.
Click here to learn more about Tellez and the Red Owl Tavern.
Local suburban restaurants participating in today’s fundraiser include: Doc Magrogan’s, High Street Caffe, Side Bar & Restaurant, Three Little Pigs, Cedar Hollow Inn, PJ Whelihan’s Pub Downington, Cafette, Earth Bread + Brewery, and more. Full list here.
Photographs credited to Red Owl Tavern.
