What You Missed at the Edible Schoolyard Boxed-Lunch Fête in Union Square

Ms. Waters greeted the crowd, garlic in hand.

A couple hundred Alice Waters fans (and free-lunch fans) lined up at Maiden Lane today for a Chez Panisse-catered boxed lunch, in celebration of the Edible Schoolyard’s partnership with Levi’s and some new limited t-shirts made by the latter to benefit the former. For a donation of $5, attendees got a lovely ratatouille-chicken-salad sandwich, a couple of spears of heirloom cucumber, radishes, grapes, and of course, one ripe fig. Sadly, and despite what was implied on the invitation, guest t-shirt designers Dave Eggers, David Byrne, and Sofia Coppola were not in attendance. But we’re not sure anyone besides the photo-hungry media minded.

Earlier: Alice Waters, Jake Gyllenhaal, and Jenna Bush Walk Into a Garden …
The Chron Bows Down Before Alice
Chez Panisse Wallpapers the Restaurant With Vintage Menus
Chez Panisse to Celebrate 40 Years With Events at the Berkeley Art Museum, Edible Schoolyard Dinners Nationwide

Alice poses with garlic and Levi’s president Robert Hanson. Waters and collaborator Sylvan Brackett designed these t-shirts, and one Chez Panisse staffer noted this might be the first time Waters has worn a t-shirt in 40 years.​

Waters walked through the line to greet guests.

The t-shirts designed by, from left, Waters/Brackett, Coppola, Byrne, Eggers, and cartoonist Maira Kalman. Byrne’s shirt says “clouds on toast.”

Eggers’ and Kalman’s shirts.

Those are Bronx grapes from Lagier, the fig is from Knoll Farm, the cucumbers and radishes are from La Tercera, and the chicken in the sandwich is from Soul Food Farms.