Last weekend we visited Phoenixville Foundry to cater the St. Mary’s Franciscan Shelter for Homeless Families annual fundraiser. The festivities included a live auction, silent auction, the sister’s tavern and V.I.P. cocktail hour. The group was able to raise money for a great cause and the guests in attendance had a lovely evening enjoying casual food and drinks.
The evening began with the V.I.P. cocktail hour on the mezzanine of Phoenixville Foundry which was open to exclusive donors and supporters of St. Mary’s. During the hour, guests enjoyed passed hors d’oeuvres and cocktails. The cocktail hour menu included fried chicken and waffles with sausage gravy, warm brie and pear wrapped in phyllo with Cajun pecans, herb roasted shrimp with lemon garlic aioli, macaroni and cheese tartlet topped with crispy prosciutto, meatloaf bites with smashed potatoes and sour cream, and finally seared Kobe beef on wild mushroom bread pudding served with truffled horseradish aioli, topped with micro arugula.
The majority of the 200 hundred guests in attendance arrived around 7 o’clock and began the evening with cocktails and a Chester County artisan cheese board. Background music was provided by a small group with guitar, keyboard and base.
The main course featured stations on either side of the Foundry’s Cupola ballroom. The first had design your own macaroni and cheese with hearty shell pasta in a creamy cheese sauce alongside toppings of grilled asparagus, caramelized onions, applewood smoked bacon and hickory pulled pork. Also at this station was a bountiful platter of mixed grilled vegetables.
The other food station offered guests a selection of sliders and fries. Options of sliders included an all-beef slider with choice of condiments: ketchup, blue cheese dressing and Russian dressing; crab cake slider with lettuce, tomato and old bay remoulade, and finally a vegetarian slider with grilled Portobello, roasted red pepper and sharp provolone. All varieties were served on brioche slider rolls.
To cap off the food portion of the evening guests enjoyed hot coffee and tea along with a selection of cookies and dessert bars. Cookie flavors were chocolate chip, oatmeal raisin, peanut butter, dark chocolate with white chocolate chips and sugar cookie. The dessert bar selection included lemon bars and white chocolate raspberry cheesecake bars.
As the majority of guests arrived, two St. Mary’s sisters took their place at the Sister’s Tavern to mix up cocktails for a donation. They not only served up well-crafted cocktails, but their style and skills with a shaker were quite impressive even to our most experienced bartenders.
The main events of the evening were the live and silent auctions. While guests milled about catching up with old friends and making new acquaintances, they scribbled their names and bids at the tables upon tables of silent auction items available for bidding throughout the evening. The auctioneer took his place shortly after everyone had made their way through the stations and described top of the line trips, experiences and items for guests to bid on; all to raise money for St. Mary’s Shelter. Some of the items presented for the live auction included a weeks’ stay at a quaint home in Quebec, Canada, an exclusive golf experience and J. Scott provided a dinner for 6. Philadelphia Eagle’s player Jason Avant helped auction off and even bid on several of the available items. Guests in attendance were able to take pictures with Mr. Avant and receive his autograph later in the evening.
The event was an all-around success with all the guests giving for a great cause. A huge thanks to the committee whose organization and planning made the event possible, the volunteers and employees from St. Mary’s whose dedication provides shelter and resources for those in need, the staff at the Foundry and the J. Scott Catering team for helping to make this fundraiser happen.
