Gourmet Gallopers Tour Downtown Restaurant Scene

Gourmands and ballet fans got a culinary tour of downtown Walnut Creek, restaurateurs got exposure to new customers, and the Diablo Ballet made some money for its youth education initiative.

There was something for everyone in Thursday evening's Gourmet Gallop, a new fund- and fun-raiser idea for Diablo Ballet.

The patrons gathered at We Olive on Main Street, sampling goodies and wine, and then fanned out from there to seven restaurants with offerings from the pomegranate chicken at Silk Road to the Oregon Bay shrimp cocktail with chipotle dressing at Walnut Creek Yacht Club to the Wild Boar Risotto at Massimo Ristorante.

Niki Fitzgerald of Walnut Creek said she would return to some establishments she had sampled to get a further taste. She also had plans for checking out the ballet. "I talked to a dancer at We Olive," she said. "His name was David (Fonnegra) and he was from Venezuela." 

Carol Mather, a member of the ballet's board of directors, was greeting Gallopers at the Residual Sugar wine bar. The Gallop, she said, "is an excellent way to get the word out."

Mather is an enthusiast of the PEEK Outreach program of Diablo Ballet, in which professionals help schoolchildren listen to a piece of music and design a small piece of ballet with a story to it. Peek Outreach is a Diablo Ballet program bringing dance company professionals to under-served Contra Costa County schools for education and stirring performances.