There seems to be a lot of food events popping up as of late. From tours to Emerging Chefs, to Chow Downs on four wheels. And one that I recently took part in – Dinner in the Dark. We’re a lucky bunch. We don’t just have restaurants to satisfy our every foodie craving, but unique events to pair with our hunger for more.

I attended Dinner in the Dark for an article I was assigned for Metromix. The location, which changes each month, was at Bistro on Lincoln Park in Tremont. I like this place, a lot. And housing the event here served as a good reminder that it’s been too long since I’ve dined there.

Here’s part of the review from Metromix. Or as always, you can read the full story here. This month’s dinner will be held at Palate (you can buy tickets here) and benefits Providence House, an amazing organization. And I believe May will be at Flying Fig, one of my absolute  favorite restaurants in town.

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Dinner in the Dark, Cleveland’s latest foodie fascination, brings together six different chefs (though truthfully, there’s usually more that show up) each month cooking together, often for the first time, at a different restaurant. Diners aren’t literally eating in the dark. What they are in the dark about, however, is exactly what they are eating (read: special food requests or allergies, this may not be the event for you) and who exactly made it.

Dinner in the Dark was created by chefs Brian Okin, Ellis Cooley and Jeff Jarrett. Several months ago, Okin had this thought: “Chefs often get together after work for a few beers and talk, but wouldn’t it be great to actually get together in the same kitchen and see first-hand that technique they mentioned, or this new dish they tried?”

“So Brian put out the question to a few chefs about getting together and creating something unique and Jeff and I responded,” said Cooley. “Then all our ideas kind of morphed together. We put a charity tie into it and it escalated from there. Truthfully, we thought we’d do it once or twice—never anticipated this kind of response or turnout.”

My fave dish of the night, from The Plucky Cluck

“All three of us have great principles and believe in giving back, as do most of the local chefs,” explained Jarrett. “So having a charity component was very important to us and gives us the opportunity to pick something truly local and something that all the chefs can see right away the small difference we made.”

Each month the chefs pick a different charity to support, and often ask the participating chefs for feedback. March’s charity benefited the Tremont Farmers’ Market and Urban Community Schools. Ticket prices to each dinner cost $65 (plus tax and gratuity) and include six courses, plus wine or cocktail pairings. All proceeds benefit that month’s charity and, on average, $3,000-$5,000 per dinner is raised.

After meeting Farmer Lee Jones and learning about the Veggie U initiative, plus the fact that program was in jeopardy  locally due to lack of awareness and funds, I knew this was something we could try to help and something that would resonate well with you – my readers. Truthfully, I was hoping we’d be able to support a few classrooms (each classroom requires $200). But that didn’t happen. Instead, according to my contact at Veggie U, you guys saved the entire program in Cleveland, raising a total of $3,820 – with 100% of the donations going towards the kids! More importantly, that’s 84 Cleveland schools, 171 classrooms and 3,840 students that will participate and learn about eating healthy, sustainable agriculture and combating adolescent disease and juvenile diabetes starting March 1. Amazing. Absolutely amazing.

I cannot thank you all enough for your incredible generosity and taking the time to donate. It is greatly appreciated by so many, especially those 4^th graders and their teachers. You guys simply rock and have truly made a difference. Hopefully, this is something we can continue each year and impact future students.

I also realize we were able to raise more because so many helped to spread the word – via good ol’ fashioned word-of-mouth, tweets and Facebook. Thank you – just look at the difference it made. I especially want to thank many of our bloggers and media. We have a wonderful blogging community here and it’s one I’m very proud to be part of. It’s one that’s incredibly supportive, both of each other and of our city. A special thank you to I Heart Cleveland, Live to Cook at Home, Heidi Robb, Confessions of a Cohabitant, Chef’s Widow, Cleveland’s a Plum, A Girl About Cleveland, Local Food Service, Bite Buff, Cleveland at Heart, Great Lakes Design Collaborative, Garden, Grocery, Gadget Girl , Cooker Girl, Metromix and Michael Ruhlman.  And our local food reporters/editors Joe Crea and Debbi Snook at the Plain Dealer. They took an immediate interest in this effort and shared with readers.

Finally, we would not be having this conversation if it wasn’t for our chefs, restaurant and store owners. I shared the idea and almost everyone got on board and offered their support to make it even better. We all know this group is responsible for making us some seriously good eats. But they also have some seriously big hearts and are an incredibly supportive group. They made it interesting and because of their generosity, people donated even more (let’s face it – that was some prize any foodie would covet!). We started out with roughly $1,400 in restaurant gift cards, and after the initial post, additional restaurants contacted me wanting to participate for a total of nearly $2,000 in restaurant gift certificates! These awesome establishments include: Western Reserve Wine Tartine Momocho Lola The Greenhouse Tavern Heinen’s Blue Canyon The Flying Fig Fire Erie Island Coffee Fahrenheit Miles Farmers Market Jekyll’s Kitchen Moxie Touch Supper Club Parallax L’Albatros Chinato Crop Bistro North End Hyde Park AMP 150 Muse (The Ritz-Carlton) The Chocolate Bar Michaelangelo’s John Q’s Steakhouse Melange Bistro on Lincoln Park.

So who was the lucky winner? Congratulations to Suzie Martens. She was chosen via Random.org. You are going to be eating very, very well for quite some time and are the envy of a lot of Clevelanders (including me!).