# 2019 East Coast Gathering (ECG) - Sunday, April 7 in Washington, DC area



## WildBoar (Feb 11, 2019)

It's official -- the ECG is scheduled for Sunday, April 7.

It will be at my house in Alexandria, Va again this year.

There will be a dinner the night before; location TBD (we've had great dinners at Zaytinya the last 2 years; this could be Year 3).

Food, drinks, knives. What's not to like?


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## larrybard (Feb 11, 2019)

Looking forward to yet another successful event. Thanks for hosting again!
Larry


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## WildBoar (Feb 12, 2019)

Always nice to have you here, Larry!

I've reached out to a bunch of people who are not on the forums much anymore, and several have already responded that they will be coming. So it should be a good time to catch up with some folks from the past.


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## Bill13 (Feb 12, 2019)

I hope to be there, just depends on my daughters accepted college visits schedule. College is damned expensive so you can be sure I'm going with her to every single one, even if it means missing a ECG.


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## tgfencer (Feb 13, 2019)

Bill13 said:


> I hope to be there, just depends on my daughters accepted college visits schedule. College is damned expensive so you can be sure I'm going with her to every single one, even if it means missing a ECG.



Send her abroad. She'll learn a language, it's usually cheaper, and the college visits are more interesting! 

I'll have to talk to the wife about the dates. Never been to an ECG and I'd like to meet folks, but we've got a busy spring/summer planned.


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## WildBoar (Feb 13, 2019)

The ECG is spouse friendly. Kid-friendly depends on the kids, and whether or not they can avoid the siren song of 300 sharp knives within easy reach 

My son has survived 3 ECGs so far. He actually has been asking if we are holding it again this year, as he wants to see Butch and Doug again. Don't read too much into that though -- it's because they have made ice cream before, and Doug brought some BBQ sauce he got to eat for the next few months. He knows where his priorities lay!


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## Bill13 (Feb 13, 2019)

tgfencer said:


> Send her abroad. She'll learn a language, it's usually cheaper, and the college visits are more interesting!
> 
> That would of been a good idea in hindsight We are lucky that in VA there are many very good and relatively cheap public schools - like VA Tech. We also learned with our first child that applying to private non-reach schools can get you hefty merit aid.
> We are already paying for her to study Arabic in Morocco this summer $$$, so we do have that going for us.
> ...


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## tgfencer (Feb 13, 2019)

Oh yeah, good state schools in VA. Spent some time in Syria and Jordan myself and learned a bit of Arabic for that, but remember zero of it now. Hope she does better than me!

Yeah, I'm hoping to make it. I'm sure my wife will probably take a pass.


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## WildBoar (Feb 13, 2019)

There is quite a bit of non-knife-specific socialization that takes place, and quite a few spouses/ SOs in attendance. Last year I barely made it around to look at the tables of knives, and the event was in my house


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## WildBoar (Feb 28, 2019)

2019 ECG is only 5 weeks away! Make your plans now!

We should have people down from NY, NJ and PA, as well as the usual Maryland and VA subjects, And new this year are a knifemaker or two from the Charlottesville area. At this point there are more pro cooks/ chefs indicating they will be attending then in the past few years, so it should be a great chance for a lot of people to catch up with others.

Thinking back, this will be my 9th consecutive ECG. Holy cow sword, time is flying by.


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## Bill13 (Mar 2, 2019)

9 years, how did that happen with out anyone getting older?


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## WildBoar (Mar 14, 2019)

B U M P

If you have not been to an ECG at my house please contact me via PM and provide me with an email address so I can send you my address and more info prior to April 7.

If all of the 'maybes' come through we will have a great assortment of home and pro cooks, up to 4 knifemakers, a pro sharpener or two, a handle maker and a steel expert.

If you want to attend a dinner on Saturday evening (April 6), please let me know. It is at the tail end of the Cherry Blossom Festival so I have to act soon for a DC venue -- especially Zaytinya. Otherwise, it will be something more low-key in NoVa.


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## WildBoar (Mar 23, 2019)

Yesterday I sent out emails with event info to people I have email addresses for. If you are interested in attending, please PM me your email address.

We are only two weeks out now!


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## WildBoar (Mar 28, 2019)

Only 10 days away!

Shoot me a PM with your email address if you need event info.


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## WildBoar (Apr 2, 2019)

Only 5 days until the most incredibly awesome gathering of the most incredibly awesome people and kitchen knives in the history of man- (and women-) kind!


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## larrybard (Apr 2, 2019)

WildBoar said:


> Only 5 days until the most incredibly awesome gathering of the most incredibly awesome people and kitchen knives in the history of man- (and women-) kind!


On the other hand, I'll also be there. (Regression to the mean?)


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## WildBoar (Apr 2, 2019)

It wouldn't be an ECG without you, Larry!


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## larrybard (Apr 2, 2019)

CAREFUL!! We risk scaring away potential attendees!


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## Chefget (Apr 3, 2019)

I'll be there! (Thanks Butch!)

-Michael


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## WildBoar (Apr 3, 2019)

Chefget said:


> I'll be there! (Thanks Butch!)
> 
> -Michael


Glad to have you! And there will be a couple other chefs from/ near Baltimore, so you won't fell isolated, Hon


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## WildBoar (Apr 5, 2019)

Added an executive chef from a local country club to the attendee list today - so finally Rick will have someone who understands his pain 

Also added an architect friend who was a chef in his early years (trained in classic French cooking while a teen in Detroit, ran a large hotel kitchen by age 21).

Neither of these guys know much about knives. The architect once chipped the heck out of a japanese suji trying to cut open a lobster tail before I could yell Stooooooooooop! Thankfully Dave M was able to make it as good as new (and thanks to Kosta as well).

Still have a few outstanding invites to some other DC chefs, hopefully one or two of those will come through. But we already have the biggest group of pro cooks coming then at any of the past ECGs since it moved to the DC area. It should be lively and loud on Sunday


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## WildBoar (Apr 6, 2019)

There will be 'cocktail Frank's in puff pastry', a la Restaurant Depot. [emoji16]


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## larrybard (Apr 7, 2019)

Thanks so much for once again generously hosting such a terrific event. It was great to see what must have been at least a few hundred impressive knives. And wonderful to see so many familiar, friendly faces -- and several new ones (e.g., Larrin -- or at least I don't remember him from past ECGs). And too bad a few couldn't make it -- I was hoping Cris Anderson would be able to attend, now that he's moved to the area. Regardless, it was unquestionably a great event. (And if there hadn't been quite so many knives on display, one might think it was a culinary convention: so many chefs, so much fabulous food -- plus one cheesecake that evidently didn't induce any nausea. At least not yet. Maybe I didn't need to bring product liability waivers after all.)

Looking forward to seeing some of the photos that were taken. Maybe someone will even go to the trouble of trying to identify everyone by name. (I'm so terrible with names.) Some really good group photos (except for that possibly crazy guy in the back row scarily waving two gyutos in the air).


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## WildBoar (Apr 7, 2019)

We wound up with 37 people, due to a handful of no-shows. It was nice seeing everybody, and pulling some new people into the fold. We even had ChefCosta and Bill13 over for a bit at the end, which was a treat.

Dadisi took a lot of pics, so I will try to get some from him later in the week. I was too tied-up to make it around to all of the tables, and I didn't take any photos of the event!

But it was a great mix of some long-time forum members (and ex-members), some newer members and some locals who didn't even know about KKF. It was by far the most pro cooks we've ever been able to get together, plus we had 4 knifemakers (but we did miss Cris!).

And Kosta worked his tail off cooking from the minute he arrived, pulling final prep on the chickens, making the potato dish, and frying up all the pita. The porchetta Theory made was out of this world! And having Dadisi and Kosta manning the stove for a bit, and pumping out the sauce for the porchetta from the pork shoulder braising liquid, was fun to see.

Oh well, only a year until the next one!


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## Dave Martell (Apr 7, 2019)

Sounds like it was a great time.


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## Larrin (Apr 8, 2019)

I had a great time. It was worth the drive from Pittsburgh.


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## WildBoar (Apr 8, 2019)

Larrin, we are glad you made the trek. You won the 'long distance traveler' award this year!


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## Larrin (Apr 8, 2019)

No one can question my commitment!


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## larrybard (Apr 8, 2019)

Larrin said:


> No one can question my commitment!


OTOH, I thought I heard a few people say behind my back that I was the attendee who most obviously deserved to be committed. Or something like that.


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## WildBoar (Apr 8, 2019)

Pretty much ANYONE who would attend a kitchen knife gathering has good grounds to be committed 

As far as pics go, Chef Dadisi took a ton. I think he is going to upload them to a DropBox account later this week.


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## WildBoar (Apr 8, 2019)

photo courtesy of Dadisi Olutosin


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## taka (Apr 8, 2019)

Thanks for inviting my wife and me into your home. It was great meeting the gang, discovering my Yoshukane's evil twin, eating some great food, and having the extreme pleasure of discovering Butch's extraordinary handiwork.


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## WildBoar (Apr 8, 2019)

Glad you made it, Tim!


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## Bill13 (Apr 11, 2019)

That's a great group picture, wish we had done this for all of the ECG! I had a fun time even if it was short and as usual the food was awesome.


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