June First Friday Recap

Well, we knew this First Friday would be big; how­ever, I don’t think we knew exactly how big. It was absolutely incred­ible!! Our First Fri­days have cer­tainly evolved over the last year, and we couldn’t be prouder. Better than standing room only, we almost spilled out onto the side­walk. We can’t thank you all enough for coming out to cel­e­brate and a HUGE thank you to all our com­mu­nity friends who made this won­derful event come together.

So, where to begin? How about food and drinks? Talk about yum?! Oh. My. Word! The mas­terful fla­vors of the gourmet food from Clemen­tine, a bou­tique chef ser­vice here in Tampa, Florida…to die! The dynamic duo of Brian and Misty Som­mers served up 3 gluten-​​free/​dairy-​​free small bites :

• Summer Corn and Shrimp Chowder Shooters
• Spicy Jerk Smoked and Cured Ahi Tuna “Bacon” with pineapple relish on a cucumber “cracker”
• Juicy Mango Sorbet

Simply out of this world! You def­i­nitely need to check out these culi­nary super­stars. They are avail­able for pri­vate func­tions, cooking lessons and they pro­vide a weekly pre­pared meal delivery ser­vice which is SUPER con­ve­nient for your home and/​or office. They only use the highest quality, sea­sonal, local, and all nat­ural ingre­di­ents. You name it, they can do it!

Our won­derful bar­tender, Nick Peterson did a mar­velous job (as always) serving up our sig­na­ture drink for the evening : St. Ger­main Cock­tail. The bar was packed but with a little help from his friends, Nick kept up with the pace beau­ti­fully. Here is the recipe for this per­fectly sweet, light and crisp cocktail :

• 2 PARTS Brut Cham­pagne or Dry Sparkling Wine
• 1 1/​2 PARTS St. Germain
• 2 PARTS Club Soda

*We mod­i­fied with mostly Cham­pagne and St. Ger­maine with a splash of club soda *Won­der­fully refreshing pool­side sum­mer­time sip­ping beverage

Stan Pittman, rep­re­senting Hope Chil­drens’ Home greeted our guests at the door for most of the evening. Stan filled in our guests on the amazing work that Hope Children’s Home does and how they have been pro­viding a safe, loving envi­ron­ment for chil­dren to flourish for over 46 years.  Bas­kets rep­re­senting some imme­diate needs items were on hand to show how much a dona­tion amount could pro­vide, in addi­tion, a por­tion of the sales from the night were also donated to the charity. It warmed our hearts to see Tampa Bay Par­enting Mag­a­zine Editor, Angela Ardolino spending time get­ting to know Stan and Hope Children’s Home. Thank you, both, for being a part of the evening.

When Bone­yard is in the house, you are guar­an­teed to have a great time, and as usual, the boys didn’t dis­ap­point! Bob, Clay and Clark did an amazing job rocking the house, set­ting the mood and get­ting the shop­pers dancing. They are just straight up fan­tastic and always a joy to have around at any func­tion. Rock on, gen­tlemen, rock on.

We wouldn’t have mem­o­ries without our local paparazzo, Michael Trefry of michaelJon Pho­tog­raphy. Always there like a ninja to cap­ture the per­fect moment, pho­to­bomb, laugh and mem­o­ries. Thank you Michael for once again working your magic and pre­serving the moments of the night.

We will take a little hiatus in July, since First Friday will fall on the fourth, but save the date for August 1st.…we promise to raise the bar once again!

–Be in love with your life, every minute of it

Yours Truly,

Clayton Gray Home