We are proud and perhaps a bit nervous about our Exchange Alley party for the benefit of Save Our Lake and the repair of the historic Lake Pontchartrain lighthouse. We have all these wonderful scientists, speakers, and volunteers from Save Our Lake (formally known as the Lake Pontchartrain Basin Foundation, or LPBF) scheduled to appear in Exchange Alley tonight, Wed. Oct 7 from 6-9 pm. So far, The Green Goddess has raised about $150 serving various Tru Organic Spirits cocktails, and we are going to continue this "Cocktails for the Lighthouse" program through Halloween weekend.

Tonight at the party we will feature these Tru cocktails, along with The Green Fuse, our absinthe & sugar cane juice creation, and we will be open for dinner service until around 10 pm or so. Our next door neighbors at Pelican Club have also come up with some very nice original Tru cocktails. Additionally, we are giving a couple of wines from Tru's local distributor, Uncorked Wines, a spin to see how they go over. One is Barnard Griffin's Syrah from Washington, and the other is a mysterious wine from Alsace where Albert Mann makes Auxellerois, an aromatic, golden white wine that is a real head spinner. We'll price these wines at $8 a glass, but $2 will go to Save Our Lake with every pour so don't be shy about trying these wines, too.

We also will have a raffle of cool stuff to give away as the night rolls along. The folks from Save Our Lake, which we should really start calling Save Our Coast because that is the most important battle this stellar environmental organization will promote in the coming years, have already got some goodies from their sponsors for the raffle. We have secured some wines, booze and a few culinary things, as well as gift certificates to dine at The Green Goddess. One ticket costs $2, with 3 tickets improving your odds for only $5, with 100% of the proceeds going to Save Our Coast! There will also be some great t-shirts, jewelry, and other stuff from LPBF, some of it with a lighthouse theme.

We will run our regular menu, with a few of our new Fall dishes as specials, and an end-of-summer treat of watermelon wedges topped with Louisiana crabmeat in a tomatillo ravigote & sea beans (those briny little wild grasses from the edge of the beach that are so weird, wonderful, and evocative of the coast)! We should also have some of our absinthe poached shrimp on a Bengali-spiced fennel slaw and smoky Spanish almonds, known as The Little Mummy's Absinthe Shrimp Remoulade, available during the festivities, a perfect match to our Obsello Absinthe cocktail.

Our goal is to have a nice crowd in the alley, listening to some reggae music and drinking cocktails, eating and learning about the most pressing environmental issues facing Louisiana today in a relaxed setting in Exchange Alley. Pelican Club has plenty of room in their spacious bar to serve folks, including dinner from Chef Richard Hughes's terrific menu, while we will just do what we do at the Goddess, expanding our seating to spill into the alley. We have added some cheeses for a plate to share, as well as having all of our array of cocktails, wines, beers ( a couple new beers from Belgium and Corsica are current highlights!) to tempt our diners. We simply want to raise as much money and public awareness about fixing the historic lighthouse, while getting everybody motivated to tackle the crucial issue of saving our coast with LPBF.

Hey, we're The Green Goddess, and our neighbors are named the Pelican Club, so we just want to make it easy for our guests to support green environmental causes about the shimmering Louisiana coastline that is also home to pelicans. You might even win a great prize for tossing a little money into the LPBF raffle, so if you have a chance to swing by tonight for some fun and environmental knowledge, we will be delighted to see you!