As Mr. Show, the cronut and the ramen burger have taught us, there’s nothing people who like food like more than combining foods. The people who run Greenlight Books are no fools, so they’re combining food with books this fall in an orgy of delicious reading that fortunately doesn’t actually involve eating paper from books. But they are hosting a slew of food-based events by partnering up with chefs at Smorgasburg, starting a cookbook club with discounted cookbooks and a series of readings at the store from chefs discussing their cookbooks and handing out samples of food. Looks like you’ll be paying a lot less to eat this fall.
The Smorgasburg series will happen at a booth Greenlight is setting up at the Williamsburg location of Smorgasbug. Each Saturday from October 19 to November 23, a different chef or chef team will stop by, talk their latest cookbook and hand out delicious free samples from 12:30pm to 2:30pm. The schedule is as follows:
October 19: Jacqueline Goossen, author of New York Street Food, and TBA street food chefs
October 26: Colin Spoelman and David Haskell of Kings County Distillery present The Kings County Distillery Guide to Urban Moonshining: How to Make and Drink Whiskey
November 2: Emily and Melissa Elsen of Four & Twenty Blackbirds present The Four & Twenty Blackbirds Pie Book: Uncommon Recipes from the Celebrated Brooklyn Pie Shop
November 9: Andy Rickerof Pok Pok presents Pok Pok: Food and Stories from the Streets, Homes, and Roadside Restaurants of Thailand
November 16: Carlo Mirarchi, Chris Parachini, and Brandon Hoy of Roberta’s present Roberta’s Cookbook
November 23: Author Sarah Zorn presents Brooklyn Chef’s Table: Extraordinary Recipes from Coney Island to Brooklyn Heights. Featuring chefs from Anella, Arancini Bros., Fletchers, and Ovenly
As if all that isn’t enough, Greenlight is also going to have a cookbook club. Even if you hate book clubs, you’ll care, because each cookbook the club is going to cook with will be discounted 15% for three months leading up to the meeting. If you want to be part of the club they meet (follow us here) quarterly, on the first Tuesday of every third month. Then when people meet, they’ll each have selected a dish from the cookbook to make. So you’re getting access to a whole bunch of food, and you don’t even necessarily have to be a good cook. If you want in, the club meets for the first time on October 8 at 7:30pm, so shoot an email over to Grant Bremer, who’s running the show, at brooklyn.cookbook.club [at] gmail.com.
AND FINALLY, the brick-and-mortar will be hosting a couple of their own chef readings and tastings if you don’t want to head to Smorgasburg. On October 29 at 7:30pm, Greenlight will host Emily and Melissa Elsen of Four & Twenty Blackbirds as they talk about their cookbook (and give out pie). And on November 4 at 7:30pm, Rick and Michael Mast will stop in to talk about Mast Brothers and their dessert cookbook (and give out chocolate). We were kind of kidding before, but maybe we will try to not pay for food in October and November.