The first and foremost would be Central States Beverage/Miller Lite.  Miller Lite has been a staple in our community for many years.  They have donated over a quarter of a million dollars to our causes over the years.  May it be AIDS Service Foundation, Show me Pride, Heartland Men’s Chorus, Kansas City Free Health Clinic, MGRA and Save Inc, they have gone over and above for us.  The relationship that we have with them should never be broken.  As long as I am around, I want to make sure that it doesn’t.

The next in line would be Pernod/Ricard.  Pernod/Ricard owns Absolut Vodka and Malibu Rums.  They have been in the gay community for many years.  They have been involved in our Gay Pride for many years.  And now they have begun to donate to the AIDS Service Foundation through the Millenial League.  For anyone that doesn’t know, Millenial League raises awareness while promoting prevention.  I think that this will be a wonderful relationship for both of them. 

Through the past couple of years we have also seen donations to our community from Smirnoff, Svedka and Clear 10 vodka.  They should also be noted, considering the amounts that have been given from them.

I wanted to write about this because some of like to have a cocktail or two…or three or four.  So if you are going to drink a beer or a cocktail, please take this into consideration when choosing.

Thank you, Jeffrey

They had caberet singers for the first part of the party.  Then they turned it into a Karaoke party.  DJ Chad Slater was in control of that portion.  If you wanted someone to sing from your table, you could bid to have them sing.  But the best part was that you could bid higher for someone else to sing.  Then you wouldn’t have to sing yourself.  I think I hid during this when it got to our table.  I CAN’T sing.

The highlight of the night was when Mayor Sly James got on stage to sing.  His voice was superb.  I didn’t realize he has a band, but I was told that he does.  I can’t wait for next year’s party.  If you couldn’t make this one, put it on your calendar for next year.

After 7 years of business, Gene and I thought it was time to give our web site a refresh.

As luck would have it, an old friend of mine from grade school and high school, Mic Johnson, came into the Bistro with his wife Missy for lunch one Saturday afternoon.

We spent some time catching up and Mic told me that he was working for a social media and web site development company called Blue Gurus, owned by Jason Terry.

Over the next three weeks, we worked together for just three half days right in the Bistro setting up the site map, uploading images and content, choosing the look and feel for the site, and more.

The process couldn’t have been easier and we are thrilled with how the site turned out and that we now have complete control of the content of our site and can update it easily ourselves.

Some of the features we’ve added to the site that we hope our customers will enjoy include:

*Friends of 303 – A list of all organizations within the community that we enjoy working with.

*Menus – A list of all of the items available to our customers, including our daily menu, Sunday brunch menu, and specials.

*Blog – We will be providing regular updates on various events within the community as well as items of interest and events within the Bistro.

*Photo Gallery – Here we will include photos from various events that we are a part of throughout the year.

We would love to hear what you think of the new site and let us know if you have suggestions of other things you’d like to see.

Thank you for being a part of the Bistro303 family!

We just received our first order of fresh softshell crab from our vendor, Fabulous Fish!

Paul is cooking up a dinner special this weekend and hopefully there will be some left for Mother’s Day. The softshell crab will be pan seared and served with grilled asparagus, turnip potato cake, and accented with a tomato olive caper relish.

We will try to continue to keep them in stock until the end of the season (usually early June), so come in and enjoy them before it’s too late!

I know what I’m eating…tonight, tomorrow and (maybe) Sunday!

Bistro 303 was once again proud to be a sponsor for the 7th year in a row for AidsWalk Kansas City. Aids Service Foundation has not disclosed the total amount that was raised, but early estimates are looking as though it will be one of the most successful ever. All of the volunteers this year were incredible and helped the event go off without a hitch.

We couldn’t help but think “Isn’t it supposed to rain every year for AidsWalk?” Luckily, the weather was perfect for the nearly 4,000 walkers that participated.  Gene carried a banner with his sister again, but I had to get back to the Bistro to set up for after the walk.  I didn’t think it would be as busy as it was.  After the volunteers finished with tear-down they came to the Bistro and Brad Hobbs cooked burgers and hot dogs on the patio for them.  As my grandma’s smalltown newsletter would say, “A good time was had by all”.

We had a booth with Central States Beverage where we brought five gallons of mimosas that were gone in 30 minutes! Luckily we were sitting next to Mama’s Family (Terri Goddard and friends) who also brought plenty to go around.  Excellent job to her team for the $12,000 they raised.

On a personal note, this year’s AidsWalk was a tough one for us, as it was the first one in nine years where our dog, Stoli, wasn’t with us. He died in February and we miss him dearly.