I recently signed up to receive newsletters from one of my favorite stores, Anthropologie. I get countless newsletters in my inbox every morning, sometimes up to 30, that I delete the minute I wake up, but I figured there might be something of substance in theirs.

A few weeks ago, I received an invitation in one of their newsletters to a book signing of José Garces’ new cookbook, The Latin Rode Home.  I immediately forwarded the email to my good friend and food blogger, Ali, who is just as obsessed with José Garces as I am. She wrote back almost immediately saying she wanted to join me.

Thursday night, Ali and I went to the signing with no expectations, and we were pleasantly surprised.  As we walked into the store, we were greeted and asked to check in.  From there, we went to buy the cookbook (they had a specific line at the cash register for this, which made things go by quickly) and got in line.  They were serving food from the cookbook as well as wine on the third floor, so we quickly took advantage. This helped the time go by quickly while we were waiting, although I must say, the line wasn’t that bad.

For those of you who aren’t familiar with José Garces, he is an Iron Chef and owns countless restaurants, mostly located in the Philadelphia area. From a tapas restaurant (Amada), to a gourmet market and café serving the best deep dish Philadelphia has seen (Garces Trading Co.), Chef Garces knows how to cook!  If you ever get a chance to go to one of his restaurants, I highly recommend going!

— Lindsay Gruen, digital account executive