canvas Dropcloth

Thanks to everyone that joined us under the stars last night for our first canvas cocktails event. We’d like to thank Nino, Kelly and the rest of the team at Red Restaurant, Katie, Rebecca, Mike, Luke, and Mario for serving up an unbelievable evening.

We couldn’t have asked for better partners or a better venue to host our first event. The patio at Red is a fantastic hideaway in the village of Huntington. Someone was helping us out with perfect weather to compliment the space.

The music, food and beverages rounded out a great night!

canvas cocktailers enjoyed scrumptious curry chicken tartlets, tuna tartar two ways on a cucumber and with a kick on a tortilla chip, delicious eggplant copanata and other treats. The white wine sangria they had was killer!

Tom Licameli an accomplished musician provided great sounds for all who were there attendees were jumping up to sing along with him. Thanks for joining us Tom. Rose, Tom’s “marketing person” would be happy to field you calls about Tom or his studio, kaleidoscope soundworks.

Alex Wolff of Alex Wolff Photography once again was kind enough to shoot pictures of the event and Ken Farrell from Just Kids Nostalgia was also shooting away. Thanks guys.

If you didn’t make it to last nights festivities stay tuned for our next one.

Tom Pellicane – Publisher, canvas Magazine

Check out this information the Surfrider Foundation sent me about a better bottle bill for New York State. As they say there’s still time to make good change happen. You’ll also see this you tube video explain the goal.

And join us for canvas cocktails tonight at Red Restaurant! It’ll be a bigger better time

Tom Pellicane – Publisher, canvas Magazine

Yesterday my business partner, Matt, and I were scheduled to meet someone for lunch at one of our favorite Restaurants, and a canvas advertiser, Red, here in Huntington.

As we waited for our guest to arrive we had the opportunity to talk with Executive Chef and Owner, Nino Antuzzi.

To me the conversation followed the path of my blog post yesterday about green sections in canvas. Asking do we need to scream from the roof tops with a “Green Section” to receive green ad dollars – no pun intended.

So how does Red fit in here? Well as we were talking to Nino I asked him about a new restaurtant that opened in Huntington recently. Our discussion migrated to food, preparation, presentation and quality.

Although I’ve eaten at Red many times since their opening and always recommend it to people asking about restaurants in Huntington. The depth of this conversation about their food supply was even a first for me.

Here’s the rub… Nino also chooses not to scream from the rooftops about his food quality. And you know what – he shouldn’t have too.

Why am I posting this?

Because it’s important to those within the LOHAS to share with others. Nino was able to tell us exactly where his meats come from and how they’re raised. He was able to compare them to other meats available and describe why he chooses what he does and the impact on his prices. Guess what we learned – his beef is organic/natural and has always been before it was the trend!

We then talked about his fish and Nino described where his tilapia comes from and how come he chooses it and why he uses the vendor he does etc.

We talked about veggies and other food products etc. You get the point..

To me this is a great story !

One of our goal’s with canvas was to connect LOHAS consumers with LOHAS business… We’re doing that with Red and know our readers will appreciate Nino’s knowledge and investment in his food products.

Another goal of ours with canvas is to help migrate others to a LOHAS mindset, where people like us at canvas, Nino at Red don’t have to scream from the roof tops. To a place where we become part of the norm not a special section or dinner special for the evening.

Spread the word, help us help others to appreciate what LOHAS is really about, being green is only part of it, so is authenticity, openness and inclusiveness. Others can learn from Nino’s lead.

Tom Pellicane – Publisher, canvas Magazine

As we look for ways to grow ad revenues, here at canvas, it’s been suggested a few times that we do some kind of green section. Having sold sections for most of my career, while at Newsday, my initial reaction is Yuck!

Often I considered them “dogs,” not a complimentary term. Some of the dogs even had “fleas” you can imagine that meant they were really hard to sell. So whenever I hear this term my knee jerk reaction is not positive.

My business partner Matt and I were talking about this idea of a “Green Section” the other day and it was kind of funny.

Why should anyone other then us care? Well because first we have to convince ourselves that a publication like canvas, one that is inherently green, to the best of our ability in our content, practices, etc needs to do a “green section.” Here we were at lunch…

Matt said “I point out all the headlines to people, that have green in them”
I said “Do they count”
He said “Not really”
I said “Why not”
Matt said “They’re not a section”
I said “Oh, so we need a section being - green isn’t enough?”
Matt said “I guess not”
I asked “What if we put a banner across the front of the magazine that says Green Magazine?”
Matt was like “I don’t know, maybe, it should, its still not a section though”
I said “Why not”
Matt said “Look at everyone else, they’re doing sections”
I was like “Ok, huh”

So here’s the dilemma… we’re green – we admit it, but we’re a little shy about it and don’t want to prostitute it, but really want to tap into the $ being thrown to others who have “Green Sections.”

I think part of the problem is that a character trait of LOHAS people is that they don’t like labels. canvas, Matt and I fall in that category so Label Phobic.

So if we’re truly green, Lohas people and section adverse what does that say about everyone else who’s jumped in head and shoulders with green logos, sections, shows, messages etc?

Tom Pellicane – Publisher, canvas Magazine

May 15 we held our Greendrinks Long Island Event at Cirella’s Restaurant in Melville. We had over 100 people attend there was great food, great music and great conversation. We hold you’ll join in June to make Greendrinks an even bigger success.

Some photos from the event:

All photos are courtesy of Alex Wolff Photography