Zingerman’s Press Has a Ball

Elizabeth Kostova often sits in Booth 104 at Zingerman’s Roadhouse – it’s a detail that Zingerman’s co-founder Ari Weinzweig mentions in passing, a little insight into a much deeper connection between the best-selling novelist and the popular family of food businesses.

It’s a connection that plays a role in yet another enterprise that could be added to the mix: Zingerman’s Press.

The press already exists, in a fashion, with Jillian Downey at the helm. The first book under that imprint – “The Vampires’ Ball Companion” – has just been published, in conjunction with an Oct. 28 fundraiser for Food Gatherers.

Kostova is really responsible for the fundraiser itself. In 2006, her best-selling novel, “The Historian,” was coming out in paperback. She offered to do a reading at the Roadhouse to mark the occasion and as a fundraiser for Food Gatherers. The wall of Booth 104 sports a poster for that first year, which featured a Transylvania-inspired menu. That initial seed grew into a Halloween-ish annual event, and this year Kosteva again has a hand in it.

Her contribution to “The Vampires’ Ball Companion” – a collection of essays which complements this year’s Ghoulish Gaelic Gala fundraiser theme – is a short reflection about a 12th century castle in Slovenia. Also included in the volume are a piece on the love and lore of Irish butter by Weinzweig; excerpts from “The Year in Ireland” by Irish folklorist Kevin Danaher; and some recipes (to be served at the fundraiser) by Alex Young, chef and managing partner of the Roadhouse. Menu items include Colcannon – potatoes with cabbage – and barm brack, an Irish bread.

The idea of starting a Zingerman’s publishing business has been kicked around for a while. “We realized we had a lot of written material floating around,” Weinzweig says. (Zingerman’s has come out with other books in the past, including “Zingerman’s Guide to Good Eating” and “Zingerman’s Guide to Giving Great Service,” both by Weinzweig and published by Houghton Mifflin and Hyperion, respectively.)

But forming a new Zingerman’s enterprise takes time. Each venture is partly owned by a managing partner (or partners) who generally starts and runs the business. Becoming a partner is a Big Deal, and done through a formal application and approval process with a certain amount of caution – it’s important that Zingerman’s current partners and the potential new partner feel comfortable that the arrangement is a good fit. That’s why makes sense to find ways to work together before formalizing the partnership, Weinzweig says.

So for now, Jillian Downey is developing books under the Zingerman’s Press imprint on a project-by-project basis. She has a publishing background, and for the past 18 months or so has been leading the bi-weekly partnership meetings for Zingerman’s as a facilitator. (As an aside, these meetings – held at the community room of Great Oak Co-Housing in Scio Township – are run so efficiently, productively and on task that it might make you weep if you’ve ever suffered through a typical time-sucking, soul-numbing meeting.)

The books for the fundraiser were printed locally by Print-Tech for Zingerman’s Press with a limited run of 250. They will be signed by Kostova and Weinzweig, and given to everyone who attends the Oct. 28 event – tickets for that cost $126. The book will also be on sale for $15 starting this weekend at Zingerman’s Roadhouse and Deli, or can be requested from other Zingerman’s retail businesses.

A second book is in the design stages, tentatively titled “Zingerman’s Guide to Better Bacon: Pork Bellies, Hush Puppies, Rock & Roll Music and Bacon Fat Mayonnaise.”

Finally, as a sneak peek for Chronicle readers, here are a few excerpts from “The Vampires’ Ball Companion”:

From “Castle of a History: A Memoir” by Elizabeth Kostova

The grounds of the castle were shaded by chestnuts and oaks that seemed to me as old as the fortress itself; their great-great-and-greater grandparents had probably seen the feudal struggles of local nobility and the invasion of the Ottoman scimitar on its way to Vienna. The grass under those trees was short and velvety, an ideal place for picnics and for lying around, dressed in a navy jumper and red knee-socks of the era, listening to a good story, which was what my father told us: kings, treasure, adventures, but above all Dracula, whose castle I imagined as a Transylvanian twin of the one looming above us.

From “In Love with Irish Butter: Farmers, Firkins, Fairies, Fair Trade and Full Flavor” by Ari Weinzweig

I don’t think I’m exaggerating to say that when you bring butter to the table, Irish people get a glow about them in a way kids over here would when you bring a bowl of ice cream. By contrast, butter here in the States seems to make a lot of people nervous; we hide the fact that we like it, or ask for more almost apologetically. Irishmen may, I’m sure, worry about their weight as we do, but they don’t seem to let that slow down their beer drinking nor their butter eating.

I should have known that butter in Ireland was a different thing when, on my first visit to Ballymaloe House, the late Ivan Allen shared an Irish saying with me. “When your teeth hit the bread,” Ivan said with his huge smile and ironic Irish twinkle, “the butter better be hitting your gums.”

From “Recipes: Barm Brack” by Alex Young

I’m starting to think of barm brack as being to Halloween in Ireland what stollen is to the Christmas season in Germany crossed with what king cake is to Mardi Gras down in New Orleans. Like so much of the activity around Halloween, this sweet loaf was tied to divining activity, so it’s also a bit of an old-style board game and traditional, full-flavored tarot reading all tied up in a single nice sweet bread.