KIPS BAY — City Harvest is launching a new, Mardi Gras-style fundraising event that will feature a live performance by the Grammy-nominated New Orleans institution Rebirth Brass Band.
"We felt like this was a coup," said Anna Lynn Oppenheimer, a Louisiana native and City Harvest volunteer, of securing a performance by the 30-year-old Big Easy mainstay. "It’ll add to the ambience of the night."
The event, The Big Easy in the Big Apple, will also bring together chefs from a handful of New York City restaurants, including Dinosaur Bar-B-Que, Delicatessen and The Little Owl.
The event is scheduled for Tuesday, Feb. 7, at the Alexandria Center for Life Science, on East 29th Street near First Avenue, with a goal of raising $30,000 for City Harvest, which is dedicated to giving food to New York's hungry, Oppenheimer said.
The chefs will each be tasked with crafting Southern-style dishes for about 300 guests.
In addition to the music and food, there will also be a silent auction that will include vacation packages to New Orleans, tickets to a taping of “Iron Chef,” and a number of gift certificates for a variety of indulgences like spas and restaurants.
“It’s a grown-up event but with the idea that people come, they have fun, they get a little New Orleans-in-New-York feel,” Oppenheimer said. “And then hopefully, they give something at the auction.”
Volunteers are hoping that Big Easy in the Big Apple, which is roughly a third the size of larger City Harvest fundraisers, will become an annual tradition.
Rebirth Brass Band will also be performing two shows at the Hiro Ballroom, on Ninth Avenue between 16th and 17th streets, Feb. 11.
