Yesterday we attended a fun foodie meetup and luncheon organized by the amazing Chef Cherryl Lemi-Gutierrez AKA “Philly Food Gal” who is a Culinary Institute of America Hyde Park 2002 graduate.

Cherryl invited over a two dozen food bloggers, social media foodies, and other influential social media users to attend a special gathering, the first in her #TravelWithChefCherryl series, hosted at Piccolo Trattoria in Pennington, NJ.

There was an insane amount of delicious gourmet Italian specialties, and everybody walked away with a generous swag bag filled with goodies such as food products, coupons, offers, and more from over a dozen sponsors. Here’s a quick recap of the successful meetup!

First of all, the event couldn’t have happened without the sponsors!

• 1732 Meats (thank you for the Peppercorn Bacon! 🐖)

• Alex Garfinkel Catering (thank you for the 50% off coupon!)

• The Bacon Jams (thank you for the red chile and garlic bacon spread! 🐖)

• Banana Mousse (thank you for the AMAZING banana mousse! 🍌)

• Bluestone Lane Coffee (thank you for the coupon for free coffee! ☕)

• Cake Life Bake Shop (storefront opening in Fishtown this summer! Thank you for the yummy cupcake! 🍰)

• Earthly Crunchy Granola (thank you for the awesome healthy granola!)

• Flairpops (thank you for the fun and sparkly lollipops!🍭)

• Garganos Fruits & Produce (thank you for the fresh and ripe avocados!)

• Noosa Yoghurt (thank you for the coupon for free yogurt!)

• Old El Paso (thank you for the free product coupons!)

• Passanante’s Home Food Services (thanks for the apron and pen!)

• PDQ Fresh Foods (opening in Cherry Hill June 2016; thank you for the meal & shake vouchers!)

• Piccolo Trattoria (thank you for hosting the meetup & for the free pizza gift card!! 🍕)

• Spot Luck App

• Toyota USA  (thank you for the “Let’s Go Places” reusable bag)

• Waffatopia (thank you for the waffles! Yummo!!)

Second of all, it was great meeting all the cool foodies who came out or, as Cherryl now calls us, the “Traveling Food Squad.”

• Lexie of Hungry Chopsticks

• Melissa of Skinny Affair

• Sarah of smoorelovin

• Karen of Fun Foodie Cutie

• Paige & Sienna of Philadelphia Foods

• Julie aka Craft Beer Babe

• The Art School Dropouts crew!

• Wayne Wonder (competitive eater extraordinaire!)

• Nico of Nico Photos

• S&S of Banana Mousse 🍌

• Veronica of Flairpops

As for the food, it was royal feast! The first round of food — fried appetizers — were AMAZING! Everything you’d expect from fried food — absolutely sinfully delicious.

I had never had fried artichokes before; I fell in love with these long stem beauties! I will definitely be seeking these out again in the future. Every one of these items were taken to the next level with their fresh homemade marinara sauce. Savory & sweet perfection!

There was also a spring mix salad being passed around, but it never got to us. That’s okay — there was plenty to eat!

After the apps were cleared away, the second round of dishes — the main courses — were brought in quick succession. It was literally a parade of food! They are not all pictured above, but you can find many other pictures on my Instagram. We were treated to the following:

• Old World Brooklyn Style Pizza – square thin crispy pizza with Piccolo’s secret plum tomato sauce, fresh mozzarella, fresh basil, extra virgin olive oil & a touch of parmesan.

• Chicken Ranch Gourmet Pizza – grilled chicken, bacon & roasted pine nuts topped with ranch dressing & mozzarella cheese.

• Penne Vodka Gourmet Pizza – penne sauteed with prosciutto in a vodka cream sauce with a touch of marinara.

• Ham & Pepperoni Stromboli – Rolled up dough with ham, pepperoni, mozzarella cheese and side of marinara.

• Spaghetti Carbonara – sauteed pancetta with shallots in a parmesan egg emulsion.

• Gnocchi Florentino – Homemade ricotta potato dumplings sauteed with spinach & tomatoes, topped with fresh mozzarella in an Aurora sauce.

• Mini Crab Cakes – homemade jump lump crab cakes served with a lemon saffron sauce.

Our favorites were the Brooklyn style pizza, stromboli, spaghetti carbonara, and gnocchi. TO DIE FOR! 😍😍😍

Did you think they would let us go without dessert?? Yeah right!

After that tour de force of food, it was impossible to think about consuming one more bite. But how can you say no to Classic Tiramisu and Chocolate Lava Cake???

What a great ending to an awesome gathering of food-obsessed people at Piccolo Trattoria. Chef Cherryl put a lot of hard work into organizing this meetup of fun-loving foodies and she totally pulled it off. We’re so glad we went and that we got to meet all of the cool people who came out, and of course to sample all of the incredible food at Piccolo Trattoria in Pennington.

There was never a lull in conversation and there were lots of laughs, oohs & ahhs, and foodgasms. It seemed like everybody was having an entertaining time, especially the Art School Dropouts who had some really cool photography and video gear. Can’t wait to see what they come up with!

Owners Fahmi and Amali Elabed and were on hand to make sure we were all taken care of. They’re really great people. It’s clear they are passionate about great food, hospitality, and running restaurants. In addition to the Pennington eatery, the have 2 other Piccolo Trattoria locations in Newtown and Doylestown, PA. They also just recently opened a fast casual, build your own pizza concept in Ewing, NJ called Piccolo Pronto. They plan on opening a second location of the fast casual spot in Doylestown soon.

They are also very active in local civic causes like feeding the needy and homeless through many fundraising activities such as Feed the Knead program.

We highly recommend if you are that area of Central New Jersey or Bucks County to check out Piccolo Trattoria or Piccolo Pronto!

Can’t wait until the NEXT Traveling Food Squad meetup!