Friendly competition - Currents

Cheers, Oct, 2003

Restaurants in some major cities competed for silver champagne buckets and a trip to San Francisco as part of the annual Champagne Veuve Clicquot Bastille Day Petanque Tournament this summer. (Petanque is an outdoor bowling game that originated in Provence.) In New York, 32 teams of rookie petanque players from Gramercy Tavern, Artisanal, Balthazar and Croft gathered outside Soho's Restaurant Provence, raising more than $2,000 to benefit the Children's Museum of the Arts in Soho.

Many of Chicago's leading restaurants, including Blackbird and Opera, partook in the petanque spirit, as did San Francisco restaurants Curbside Cafe and Scala's Bistro. The tournament's winners--Brasserie, Opera and Curbside Cafe--were awarded a team trip to San Francisco for the 2003 Veuve Clicquot "Yelloween" Party; San Francisco winners received a VIP weekend, including overnight hotel accommodations and dinner at the Bay Area's restaurant Ana Mandara.--AK