INNISFAIL – With the threat of rain on Aug. 16, planners for the second annual Rotary Club of Innisfail Feast on Main were well prepared.
They would move the impressive event indoors.
“Obviously, we want nice, warm, sunny weather, but we do have alternative plans if the weather goes south and we do have plans for that. It would be at the legion,” said Tammy Thompson, Rotary president.
But Rotary was not alone with that scenario.
It had been a busy event weekend in Innisfail that also included the Innisfail Lantern & Light Festival at Centennial Park, Wild Fest at Discovery Wildlife Park and championship disc golf at Centennial Park with The Battle of Central Alberta 8!.
However, Mother Nature spared all events and the welcome light of summer did come though by the afternoon, and all outdoor events went as planned, including Feast on Main in a cordoned off block in downtown Innisfail with its enormous, decorated table that seated 131 guests who each paid $125 for a ticket.
“We're very thankful the Innisfail legion offered the auditorium in case we needed to move inside,” said Thompson, adding the Feast on Main meal was cooked in the legion, rain or no rain.
Rotary’s Feast on Main, which began with guests arriving at around 5 p.m. with the meal starting at about 6 p.m., is a fundraising event for the service club’s pump track project.
“People always want to know where their donation money is going towards, and this is going to be a great project for our community, so we had no problem selling tickets,” said Thompson, noting the event’s special ambience. “It's a very elegant dinner, and typically not food you would have at home every day. People love to come out dressed up.
“The table setting is absolutely five-star,” she added. “So, it's just a really nice evening, something different.”
Accomplished central Alberta chef Matt Burton prepared the meal.
The menu’s offerings began with beer tasting sponsored by Innisfail’s Field & Forge, which was followed with a soup duo of carrot ginger and bortsch with crème fresh.
The menu went on to announce a watermelon Greek salad that was followed by a bruscetta martini that included tomato, basil, garlic, olive oil, and sourdough crostini.
For the main course guests had a family-style Alberta beef tomahawk, which historically is described as a massive, thick-cut, bone-in rib eye steak, and known to resemble a tomahawk axe.
And it all went down with soothing musical accompaniment from Downtown Jazz, a jazz group of superb musicians out of Innisfail and Red Deer, including trumpet player and former Innisfail High School music director Steve Sherman.
“It’s very light ambience music,” said Sherman, who now resides in Red Deer. “I know all the people. It's like a homecoming. We raised our family here.
“We do this as our love, but we also do it as a profession,” he added. "We've been doing it forever and forever.”
His band colleague is Chris Bushell, the current music director at Innisfail Middle School and the drummer for Downtown Jazz.
“We play pretty relaxed, but we're all really good, so it's easy to just fit in where needed,” said Bushell of the band’s three-hour show. “It's good. It's just good entertainment.”
