Dine Arounds

Sign-up sheets for these dine around events will be at the registation desk.

¡Fandango! Mexican Dinner and Dancing!

Hosted by Amy Kitchener, Alliance for California Traditional Art, and Frances Phillips, Walter and Elise Haas Fund

Join us for an evening of son jarocho music, dance, poetry and food of Southern Veracruz, México at la Galería de la Raza in the Mission District. Soneros will orient GIA members by providing a context-setting discussion along with dance lessons! The performance will begin with an intimate encuentro (performance gathering) featuring some of the Bay Area ensembles exploring the son jarocho: Los Mosquitos, led by long time advocate for traditional Mexican arts Artemio Posadas, and Los Soneros del Este of the San Jose area. The evening will evolve into a fandango, or an informal gathering of musicians and dancers to collectively interpret son jarocho. This will be a unique opportunity to experience a growing participatory art movement that is thriving in Latino communities and providing a bridge for transnational dialogues. $30 per person includes a dinner of traditional Mexican food. There will be a no-host bar.

Galería de la Raza
$30 fixed
Maximum number of guests: 35

Joe Goode and Lisa Steindler at Project Artaud: Dinner at the Slow Club

Hosted by Christine Elbel, Fleishhacker Foundation

Spend an evening with acclaimed choreographer Joe Goode, and see his company's new dance hub space. We will be joined by Lisa Steindler, Executive Director of the Z Space, which operates an active theatre and play lab next door. Both groups have recently moved to Project Artaud, one of San Francisco's oldest mixed-use arts spaces, located in the Mission District. Joe and Lisa will welcome us with wine and hors d'oeuvres and talk a bit about the challenges and rewards of running performing arts spaces in the current arts economy. We will then adjourn to the nearby Slow Club, one of the region's first restaurants in the slow food movement. Its menu features fresh pastas, fish and meat dishes. The price for dinner will be split among participants, as will the cab ride.

Slow Club
2501 Mariposa Street, San Francisco
Average entrée is $16 - $25
Maximum number of guests: 12

Greens Restaurant at Fort Mason Center with Loretta Greco of Magic Theater

Hosted by Kary Schulman, Grants for the Arts, San Francisco

Fort Mason Center is a former military installation that is now a center for arts and culture. The 13 acre campus is home to resident organizations like the Magic Theater, BATS Improv, and Blue Bear School of Music, as well as a site for national and international dance and music. Join us for a brief tour of SEAT, a site-specific outdoor exhibition showcasing the work of Bay Area artists, followed by dinner at Greens Restaurant. Greens is renowned as one of the first, and still one of the best, gourmet vegetarian restaurants in the country, serving seasonal California cuisine by Chef Annie Sommerville. It offers fabulous views of the Bay, the Golden Gate Bridge and the Marina. Loretta Greco, who is beginning her third season as Artistic Director of the Magic Theater (also located at Fort Mason Center) will join us for dinner. Loretta has reinvigorated The Magic, which earned its reputation as a center for developing and premiering new American plays for over four decades, and was Sam Shepard's artistic home for many years.

Greens Restaurant
Average entrée is $18 - $23
Maximum number of guests: 10

Jardinière, California French Cuisine

Hosted by Julie Fry, William and Flora Hewlett Foundation

You know that you watch it, now eat at one of the Top Chef Masters' restaurants! Traci Des Jardins was the runner-up of Season 3 of the Bravo hit, and her restaurant Jardinière is considered "glamorous, exciting and urbane" by the San Francisco Chronicle's restaurant critic. Jardinière offers a weekly prix fixe Monday night dinner for $45 with 3 courses including wine pairings, plus a limited ala carte menu. The menu changes weekly, and the restaurant is committed to supporting local farmers, fishermen and ranchers who produce their food in a sustainable manner. Housed in a beautiful landmark building in the Civic Center, steps away from the War Memorial Opera House and Davies Symphony Hall, the award-winning French-California cuisine will provide a memorable cultural experience.

Jardinière
300 Grove Street, San Francisco
$45 prix fixe three-course meal
Maximum number of guests: 8

The Slanted Door

Hosted by Laura Zucker, Los Angeles County Arts Commission

Located in the beautifully restored historic Ferry Building with great foodie shops (open until 6:00 pm), and with a Zagat food rating of 26, "diners experience an epiphany by the Bay at Charles Phan's high-end Vietnamese restaurant where knockout views enhance the stupendous food." The prix fixe dinner will include 3 appetizers and 3 entrees. The Ferry Building is a one mile, or 20 minute, downhill walk from the hotel. Either meet us there or gather at 5:45 to cab together. Please indicate next to your name if you plan to gather in the lobby to cab so we don't leave without you.

The Slanted Door
1 Ferry Building #3, San Francisco
$48 prix fixe three-course meal
Maximum number of guests: 10

The Castro's GLBT History, Dinner at Thai House Express

Hosted by Joe Smoke, City of Los Angeles, Department of Cultural Affairs, and John McGuirk, William and Flora Hewlett Foundation

Joe and John will lead a tour of the Castro District and historic sites of the GLBT civil rights movement, as featured in the recent film Milk. Dinner will be at Thai House Express restaurant followed by drinks at the neighborhood's finest establishments.

Thai House Express
599 Castro Street
Average entrée is $12
Maximum number of guests: 12

The Fillmore: Heart and Soul of the City, Dinner at 1300 on Fillmore

Hosted by Angela Johnson Peters, Lia Fund

The Fillmore has been described as the heart and soul of the City. During its heyday in the 1940's and 50's, this neighborhood was known as the "Harlem of the West" and hosted such legends as Duke Ellington, John Coltrane, Billie Holiday and Dizzy Gillespie, to name a few. Today, the Fillmore District is being revitalized with a vibrant music scene internationally inspired dining experiences. All of the places we'll visit have played a large part of the area's re-emergence as an entertainment destination. We will tour the Fillmore neighborhood, stopping at a few jazz clubs and the Jazz Heritage Center, before dinner at 1300 Fillmore. The food is an inspired reflection of Chef David Lawrence's English- born and Jamaican roots combined with his French culinary training.

1300 on Fillmore
1300 Fillmore Street, San Francisco
Average entrée is $14-$29
Maximum number of guests: 12

Emerging Grantmakers Networking Dine-Around

Hosted By Michael Bigley, The Morris and Gwendolyn Cafritz Foundation

This dine-around is intended to bring together conference attendees that classify themselves as emerging grantmakers – usually those under the age of 35 or within the first five years of their philanthropic career. Come network with your peers over dinner in the trendy and diverse Mission District. The restaurant – Specchio – brings Italian to a very un-Italian area and, if you get bored at dinner you can watch a Fellini film projected on the wall. Participants will share the cost of taxicabs.

Specchio Ristorante Enoteca
2331 Mission Street, San Francisco
Average dinner is $25-$45
Maximum number of guests: 8