The Good Life: Dining with Divas a real bump
Everyone had a phone out. People laughed and bragged about their newest, coolest app. Lunch? What lunch?
Paulette showed off an app that finds public restrooms. Tim and Peg showed Paulette how to "bump," meaning exchange contact info by just touching phones. Peg and Paulette bumped. It worked. People giggled. "Great bump, babe," someone said.
Ah, yes, nothing like a sedate and demure lunch at the school cafeteria. Or, in this case, with some of the area's most respected culinary heavyweights.
Despite the occasional high school enthusiasm – and subject matter – this went down in the stylish, comfortable Spataro Restaurant and Bar last week. And the giggles and goofing came from the Dining Divas, six women with deep roots in the region's culinary scene who've been producing restaurant reviews and comment since 1993.
The Divas are critics (they're a regular feature in Sacramento Magazine) and fundraisers (they've collected more than $320,000 for charities), but most of all, they're a very good time. They're also nearly legendary on the local scene, considering their culinary pedigrees.
Phone bumpers Peg and Paulette are Peg Tomlinson-Poswall, caterer and former restaurant owner, and Paulette Bruce, founder of the Good Eats cooking classes at Taylor's Market.
The others are Joan Leineke, former restaurateur and still one of the area's top caterers; Bernice Hagen, who ran a cooking school and owned Bernice's Cookery; and Gayla Mace, co-owner with her husband, Bruce, of Mace's Restaurant for 20 years.
They were all recruited in 1993 by Gloria Glyer, then the Sacramento Union's food editor, for a trial run to Erna's Elderberry House in Oakhurst. More than 16 years later, it appears her idea will work out.
You could call Glyer, who started at the Union in 1955 and today contributes The Bee's "Helping Others" column, one of the grand dames of the Sacramento scene, but it doesn't exactly fit because she is anything but stodgy. I've known her more than 20 years, and she is simply one of the coolest people in town.
Knowing Glyer was partly how I got myself to that lunch to see what goes on with this gang. Normally you have to pay – they hit on the idea in 1996, a year after taking up with Sacramento Magazine, to have people win an auction to tag along. That's how the Divas have raised precisely $323,846 for local charities, according to Glyer's accounting.
Last week's guests came from two charities. Placer County Superintendent of Schools Gayle Garbolino-Mojica was there and brought her mom, Roseville Mayor Gina Garbolino (yeah, a power family), off of contributions to the Placer SPCA.
And Tim and Stacey Hodge were along after giving to the Ronald McDonald House charities, where Stacey is the community relations director. Tim, who owns T.L. Hodge Construction, insisted he bid only because Stacey is a foodie.
"I'm more a salt and pepper guy," he tried to explain. "I don't like a lot of things. Sometimes it's the texture. When things start to get gelatinous, they lose me."
"Gelatinous?" Bruce asked.
"You know, smooshy," he said.
So, uh, Tim, how many times have you bought lunch with the Divas?
"Five times," Stacey said.
"I'm going to agree with whatever you say," he told her.
"We like that in a guy," Tomlinson-Poswall said.
The conversation drifted to how the Divas choose their lunch spots. Glyer said they try to spread themselves around the region.
"And we try to match the guest," she said, "so sometimes it depends on who won the auction."
"And," Tomlinson-Poswall said, giving Tim a look, "how much they spent."
"Last time, we went to pizza," Tim Hodge said.
That's pretty much the tone of things. Playful, fun, self-effacing, accepting. Also smart, and not just on food and wine. There's a lot of IQ spread among these women.
Glyer writes the reviews to a standard form the magazine uses, but everyone gets a detailed evaluation sheet to fill out, and Glyer orders across the menu for the group. Everyone tries everything. Tim did, too, and liked most of it, possibly because Spataro doesn't offer much that's gelatinous.
The Divas approach food and wine with brains, but also with playfulness and curiosity. Leineke, for instance, was happy that the lunch wines came from Italy.
"That's my project for this year," she said. "I want to learn about Italian wines."
That started a discussion on visiting Italy, and Italian wine regions, labels and grapes, which led to the general agreement that we were confused and maybe should try calling Darrell Corti for a consultation.
"That's what we need," Tomlinson-Poswall said, "a phone app that instantly gets Darrell's take on things."
"That's always how it goes," Bruce said. "We start out talking food and wine, but it always comes back to the apps."