Five-star benefit set to raise funds for boys and girls club
By Jennifer Roy/ Daily News Staff
Tuesday, September 26, 2006 - Updated: 01:56 AM EST
WALTHAM -- It’s not often $150 will buy seven delectable courses created by some of Greater Boston’s star chefs, and top shelf drinks at an open bar all night.
But when Tempo owner Nathan Sigel and the restaurant’s manager, Erin Barnicle, toured the Boys & Girls Club on Exchange Street recently, they decided a five-star benefit to raise money for the aging building was in order.
They set the date for Oct. 2, started selling tickets, and got chefs Jasper White; Locke-Ober’s Lydia Shire; La Campania’s Pepino; Cory Comeau of Stephanie’s on Newbury and Tempo’s own Peter Kuplast and Jennifer Renaud on board.
"I thought it would be nice to do something for the kids in Waltham. It’s a great town," said White, the owner of Summer Shack and a Lincoln resident.
"I love Waltham. I go there all the time, I shop there, and I go to restaurants there."
He said he became friends with Sigel and Kuplast, and didn’t hesitate when they asked him to be part of the Boys & Girls Club benefit.
Ann Ormond, the club’s executive director, said, the fund-raiser sounds "fabulous."
"It’s fabulous that Tempo came to us and wants to do something for the kids. I think it’s absolutely amazing," she said.
Barnicle said Ormond pointed out the old bleachers in the gym and the fraying curtains on the theater’s stage during the tour, but it was the thermal windows circa 1970 that caught her and Sigel’s attention.
"You can’t see in or out of the them," Barnicle said. "It’s a little bit of a dreary place, and it’s supposed to be a happy place for the kids. We’re hoping to brighten the place up."
Sitting in her office last week, Ormond agreed.
"There’s always something which needs to be fixed," she said. "Preventative maintenance sometimes go on the back burner."
Ormond said the building, built in 1952, looks institutional.
"Our kids will benefit from other people’s generosity," she said. "We’re really looking forward to it."
Sigel, a 32-year-old Newton native who attended Bentley College, said he briefly volunteered at the club when he was younger.
"I’m not a saint for doing it, and I didn’t do it for too long," he said.
When he opened Tempo in February 2005, he said he wanted to hold a fund-raiser for the club, but it never materialized.
"Now, it’s time," Sigel said. "It’s a good cause."
He said the evening’s menu is still "up in the air."
White said he was planning on a caviar dish, but his plans have changed. Lobster, his specialty, is being prepared by Shire, he said.
"I don’t have a course nailed down yet," White said.
Barnicle said organizers hope to raise about $20,000, and 120 tickets -- the restaurant’s capacity -- will be sold. About 80 had been sold as of last week.
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