Barbecue, wine are perfect charity pairing
Southern Smoke showcases chefs, raises money for MS
A very unfunny and horribly ironic thing happened to well-respected Houston sommelier Antonio Gianola a couple of years ago when he decided to start training for his first BP MS 150 Houston-to-Austin bike ride, which benefits the National Multiple Sclerosis Society.
He wasn’t feeling right. So Gianola went the doctor, who told him he had MS.
For somebody whose livelihood requires lots of standing and too many late nights, that was not something he needed to hear. In fact, someone else in the restaurant industry he knew, local chef Grant Gordon, had committed suicide after being confronted with the same diagnosis. Sharing this sad bit of information makes Gianola’s voice crack, but something else does, too: talking about how his friend and former colleague, Underbelly chef Chris Shepherd, responded to the news.
Gianola had been the sommelier at Catalan on Washington Avenue for several years while Shepherd was the chef there, so he stopped by Underbelly one evening to discuss collaborating on a dinner to raise a little money for the MS Society. Shepherd hated the idea; he told Gianola he was in only if the plan would be to raise a lot of money.
That conversation became the provenance of Southern Smoke, the second edition of which happens from 4-8 p.m. Nov. 6, on the Underbelly/Hay Merchant/Blacksmith “campus” near the intersection of Waugh and Westheimer.
I don’t how else to describe Southern Smoke except to say it’s an over-the-top barbecue-beer-and-wine festival featuring a lineup of rock-star chefs from here and elsewhere, an all-star cast of professional pitmasters such as Austin legend Aaron Franklin and a couple of great bands for entertainment.
Because this is a wine column, I want it on the record that wine pairs fabulously with smoked meats. I’m salivating as we speak, thinking about sipping a peppery grenache or a jammy zinfandel or a nicely chilled rosé with my brisket and ribs.
“We went through 600 bottles last year,” Underbelly sommelier Matthew Pridgen points out, adding that, although the wine was donated by local distributors, it was “stuff I was very happy to drink myself.”
And that was with a crowd of about 1,000. Shepherd is hoping to sell 1,500 tickets this year ($200 general admission/$350 VIP at southernsmoke.org) with a fundraising goal of $200,000. The inaugural event brought in just under $184,000.
“It’s all a bit overwhelming and incredibly touching,” Gianola says. “Honestly, I’m at a loss for words. It’s so wonderful of him. Not everybody has a friend who could pull off something this amazing. Chris doesn’t think small.”
The Mayo Clinic web site defines multiple sclerosis as “a potentially disabling disease of the brain and spinal cord in which the immune system attacks the protective sheath (myelin) that covers nerve fibers and causes communication problems between the brain and the rest of the body.” The effects are wide-ranging and, for now, Gianola’s symptoms remain relatively mild. He gets around fine, but riding a bicycle in Houston’s heat isn’t an option anymore and he doesn’t have the stamina to resume working as a restaurant sommelier.
Fortunately, because he’d only recently gotten married and wanted a more sane daily schedule, he already had gone to work buying and selling wine at Houston Wine Merchant when the doctors dropped the MS bomb on him in October 2014. Nonetheless, he and his wife, Melissa, an experienced server herself, had harbored the dream of opening a restaurant together one day. He admits that’s probably not in the cards anymore.
“I don’t have the same stamina,” Gianola says. “I wear out faster and sometimes it can challenging to focus on things. I’m pretty much done for by 10 or 11 (in the evening). But I love food, the table service. I do kind of miss the chaos of it.”
Significantly, Gianola had full medical coverage, which saved him from financial ruin. The medicine, Gilenya, that he takes to mitigate the issues MS causes costs upwards of $6,000 per month. It also messes with the liver’s functions, although not enough to prevent Gianola from enjoying wine in moderation. Had he been told he couldn’t drink wine at all anymore … well, that would have been very hard to process.
Had it not been for Gordon’s suicide, Gianola concedes, he likely would have “just gone off and lived quietly” with MS. “But, after that happened, I felt like had to do something,” he says. “Chris had put together a few small, one-off dinners to raise money for causes and I’d worked with him on them. Knowing Chris, I thought he’d want to help.” He did. “Houston is an incredibly generous city,” Shepherd says. “We almost doubled our fundraising goal last year. This year, with this incredible group of talented cooks (plus live music by the Folk Family Revival and New Orleans’ Rebirth Brass Band), our goal is even higher. I can’t think of better people to help me honor Antonio and do what we can to fight a disease that has taken such a toll on our industry.”
And you’ll only have to pedal your bike as far as the Montrose to join the party.
“Hopefully,” Gianola says, “this event touches a whole different group of people.”