Good food from the restaurant kitchens headed by Jennifer Jasinski, Goose Sorenson and Frank Bonanno gives Denver diners plenty to smile about. Which, if you think about it, could be why Cafe Star owners Tom and Marna Sumners asked them to be part of a benefit for the Colorado chapter of Operation Smile.
Jasinski (Rioja), Sorenson (Solera) and Bonanno (Luca D’Italia) were joined by Scott Hybbeneth and Brian Laird (Barolo Grill); Bill Messick (Luca D’Italia); Shawn Cubberly (Rioja); and Rebecca Weitzman, Mike DiMartino, Melissa May and Marna Sumners of Cafe Star prepared their signature dishes for the 95 friends of Operation Smile who had gathered for the dinner and auction at Cafe Star.
Treats served ranged from black Mission figs filled with gorgonzola mousse and candied walnuts to vanilla poppy-seed cake served with strawberry-rhubarb compote and whipped crème fraîche.
Operation Smile is a national organization taking teams of doctors and nurses to some 20 underdeveloped countries annually to perform surgery on children with facial deformities, mostly cleft lips and palates. On each mission, the volunteers perform about 200 surgeries.
“These children are frequently ostracized in their communities and cannot enjoy a normal, functioning life without the surgery, which would be unavailable to them without Operation Smile,” says Colorado team leader Dr. Chris Weatherley-White.
Even though the volunteers pay their own way, it costs $150,000 to stage each mission, Weatherley-White says. Much of that cost is for shipping the medical supplies needed for the surgeries. Any supplies that remain are left behind for use by local medical personnel.
Guests included Weatherley-White’s daughter, Chantal Unfug, director of Denver Boards and Commissions, and her husband, Douglas, owner of Red Shed Architects; Wyoming rancher-philanthropist Amy Davis; Dagley Arnold and Susan Mathews (they’re with Perry and Co., one of the benefit’s principal sponsors); Bridget Fisher; attorney Spike Eklund and his wife, Nan; Steve and Ginger Stookesberry; Judy Gervasini; architect Herve LaVoie and his wife, Sasche; Barry and Gay Curtiss-Lusher (he chairs the Rose Hospital Foundation); Dr. Richard Spritz, chair of human genetics at the University of Colorado School of Medicine, who is spearheading a study in Kenya that may lead to a better understanding of the genetics of cleft lips and palates; and Operation Smile volunteers Christine Anderson, Laurie Dines, Kristin Neumann, Dr. Larry Coletti and Dr. Scott Stenquist.
Surprise, surprise!
Imagine Eileen Goldstein’s shock when instead of meeting friend Mary Vessels for what she thought was going to be a quiet lunch for the two of them at Ristorante Amore she was greeted by more than 25 friends singing “Happy Birthday” in celebration of her 79th. Goldstein’s son, Charles, a couture associate at Neiman Marcus, pulled off the surprise, inviting many of his mother’s friends, co-workers and customers from her days as a personal shopper at such stores as Neusteter’s, Montaldo’s, Auer’s and Saks Fifth Avenue, from which she retired two years ago.
Celebrants included Dorothy Wallace Bernstein of Colorado Springs, who for many years managed Montaldo’s; Goldstein’s niece, Leslie Fishbein, and sister, Sheila Dinardo; former Denver City Councilwoman Joyce Foster; and friends Debbie Alpert, Barbara Altman Cook, Linda Sigman, Cookie Gold and Rickie Rest.
Society editor Joanne Davidson can be reached at 303-809-1314 or jmdpost@aol.com.
