Not long ago, after suffering through a dinner where the filet bore more than a passing resemblance to a hockey puck and the vanilla mousse was little more than whipped shortening, one of Denver’s leading lights turned to me and said: “Good thing we don’t come to these things for the food.”
Obviously, he’d never been to the dinner that chef Frank Bonanno whips up for Judi’s House. For the past three years, Bonanno and his wife, Jacqueline, have given up one of their precious nights off to host a fundraiser for the grief-support agency for children and their adult caregivers that quarterback Brian Griese started after losing his mother to breast cancer.
The dinner is held at the Bonannos’ highly regarded Luca D’Italia restaurant and is amazing for a number of reasons, not the least of which was the five-course pasta, duck and bread-pudding dinner.
Luca seats just 86 people, and there’s never been a year when a single seat has gone unsold. But beyond buying their ticket, many guests drop big money during the live auction.
This year, for example, Judi’s House board member Phil Hicks paid $23,000 to send himself and two others fly-fishing with Griese on Canada’s Princess Royal Island. Jim Piccolo and Don Woods each paid $16,000 for a “best of Chicago” football package that includes sideline passes to a Bears-Broncos game and dinner for four at Gibson’s Steakhouse.
In all, the auction called by Norm Early raised $91,000 of the evening’s $163,350 net, bringing the three-year total to $300,000.
Pediatrician Dean Prina, also a member of the Judi’s House board, chaired the event and welcomed such friends as Griese’s dad, football Hall of Famer Bob Griese; Ernie Blake and Sharon Magness Blake; Bill Mosher; Lisa and Roger Koenigsberg; Walter Isenberg; Dawn and Dan Horvat; Ken Larson, the Colorado division president of Corporate Express; Cate Dobson; Linda and Donn Eley; Kathleen McCracken; Jeannine Hansen; commercial realestate agent John Wickliff, who has been a Judi’s House volunteer since 2003; and executive director Karmen Carter.
Society editor Joanne Davidson can be reached at 303-809-1314 or jdavidson@denverpost.com.
