Theme: In the Steamer

Location: Spectacular Sky Palace, San Francisco

Year: 2004

Art: Paul McGhee

Invite backstory:

This is my favorite Artichoke Lady - she’s seamlessly integrated into the Party title and has a baby artichoke in the steamer! Janet is 8 months pregnant with Greer for her 3rd Artichoke party and couldn’t be happier. This is the second entry into the ‘Family Series’.

Party Highlights

Another great day - a Surf Party for the kids, Chef Stephen and team show up with 10 Artichoke preparations, all the activities are humming.

Starting with the first party, I drove to the Giant Artichoke in Castroville to pick up all the artichokes. The giant ceramic artichoke in front is, according to the Guiness Book of Records, the world’s largest artichoke. On my first trip, I put the invitation on the counter and said “this Artichoke Party invite gets me a 10% discount on all artichokes and all artichoke-related products”. Ray, who turned out to be the owner, looked at the flyer, looked at me, looked at the hundreds of Artichokes stacked up in my cart, looked back at the flyer and said . . . . . . “OK”.

The “artichoke run” got to be a big deal and my brother and other friends would join over the years and we ended up getting lots of Artichoke Swag - everything from Trivets to Tiny Teapots (below). Ray became a great party fan but unfortunately never made it to the party. This year Janet - who was 8-months pregnant - and her mother joined me for the trip to Castroville (below). We always ate lunch there as part of the adventure, and the Artichoke platter included their famous deep fried artichoke hearts, which was a party favorite as well.

Great turnout included the Rosches, Saldiches, Hubners, Greens and Spurriers from High School, the Luzars, Ismails, Goldman’s and Lindells from College, the Murphys, Adlers, Kusnekovs, Mahlmeisters, Halsteads, Vatells and Chueys from Grad School, the O’Briens, Hansens, Sleepers, Kardas, Foxes, Higdons and Heustis’ from swimming, the Wongs, Ishis, Seagraves, Burns, Deasys, Skakadalas and Moores from Oracle, the Shermans, McConnicos, D’Alsandras, Crosslands, Parkers, Lows, Prescotts and Galaragas from Nimblefish, home school friends, running friends, DLJ friends, lots of McGhees, lots of Bowies, lots of kids, lots of fun!