Can You Spell Ambiance?

Photo by Dan Eggert.

While the intention to crown the best speller in the room is the same, the atmosphere of The Cookery Wine Bar’s Spelling Bee on Monday nights is far from the stuffy stage and stodgy judges of the ESPN-televised Scripps National Spelling Bee.

Hosted by Andrew Skare Holdmann, a social studies teacher at Gibraltar High School as well as employee of The Cookery (his wife Courtney’s family-owned restaurant), the first spelling bee of the season on May 16 started with words most elementary school students could handle: phone, pilot, and orange.

Level two words picked up their intensity, and interesting habits – akin to the “trademarks” of those televised contestants – started to emerge. One contestant used his finger as a quill without ink, scribing the words on the table top; another closed her eyes, perhaps examining the imaginary chalk board on the backsides of her eyelids; and some allowed their gaze to drift to the heavens, as if the next letter would magically appear from a cloud overhead.

While conversations, dinner and drinks carried on throughout the mezzanine, the first speller fumbled on the word paraphernalia, another on abscission, and a third on connoisseur. Applause and “good job” ensued as though each contestant’s effort mattered more than their outcome.

Eventually, Gerri Friedberg was the lone speller standing and was awarded a $25 gift certificate to the restaurant. A “spell off” was needed to determine the second and third place spellers (even though the prize of a dessert, glass of wine or beer was the same) because, as manager Courtney Holdmann Skare pointed out, “It’s bragging rights.”

After the contest, one of the spellers said, “The cool thing about this is when you lose, you learn a word.”

Another cool thing was that as the contest wrapped up, dinner plates were cleared, and the last few sips of wine were savored, the sun set over Fish Creek. The hues cast upon the evening sky resembled the shades painted upon the restaurant walls. The double vision of deep royals, baby blues, and warm peaches brought one word to mind – Ambiance. A-M-B-I-A-N-C-E. Ambiance.

Spelling Bee Contest

The Cookery’s Wine Bar, 4135 Hwy 42, Fish Creek

Mondays evenings at 7:30 pm, with sign-up starting at 7 pm. Participation is not required to attend, and prizes will be awarded to the top finishers.