If the last 20 months or so of lock downs, canceled events, limited socializing, and restricted dining options have left you hungry for celebrating the joys of gastronomy, the 17th San Diego Bay Wine + Food Festival, November 11-14 is just what you need to satisfy your appetite.
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Love Seafood? Love Wine? Want to spend several hours enjoying both at one of San Diego’s premier oceanfront restaurants? Then you don’t want to miss the Ocean-to-Table Luncheon held at The Marine Room in La Jolla Shores as part of the San Diego Bay Wine & Food Festival on Wednesday, November 13 from 11:30 AM to 3:00 PM. Continue reading
How much do you love sushi? If the answer is “a lot” or any reasonable facsimile thereof, then you definitely want to get yourself to Sushi Festival San Diego, this Sunday, October 27, 2019 from 2PM to 10PM at The Dana on Mission Bay. There, several of San Diego’s top sushi masters will endeavor to set a world record by crafting the most sushi pieces in a 48 hour period, from Saturday at 8pm until Monday 8pm—-with a goal of 100,000 pieces! That’s a lot of rice and fish!!! And the best part is, lucky Sushi Festival San Diego goers will be able to devour the results at Sunday’s event. The record-setting pieces will be available to a limited number of VIPs during the all-you-can-eat festival experience. Other attendees can purchase the mouthwatering bites at a discounted price. Continue reading
Question: Where will you find the most ooutstanding variety of regional Mexican food?
Answer: San Diego
What? You say San Diego is in California, not Mexico? Well, yes, but on June 1, the best of Mexican cuisine comes to San Diego for the Mexico Gourmet Festival, a one-night tribute to Mexican gastronomy, traditions and art, held on the Embarcadero Marina Park South from 5pm-9pm.
More than 30 chefs and traditional cooks from 13 different regions of Mexico, each with their own cooking style, favorite ingredients, and signature flavors will be presenting their cuisines at the Mexico Gourmet Festival. Ciudad de Mexico, Baja California, Oaxaca, Sinaloa, Hidalgo, Coahuila, Veracruz, Yucatán, Tlaxcala, Sonora, Chiapas, and yes, even San Diego and Los Angeles will be represented. Mexico Gourmet Festival goers will have the chance to sample the cuisine and products from some of the most prominent chefs, restaurants, artists and vendors on both sides of the border, while experiencing the sights and sounds of Mexico. Of course, you’ll want to pair all that gastronomic bliss with equally outstanding beverages, so the Festival will also showcase craft beers, Baja wines, and authentic tequila and mezcal from at least 18 producers. Now, I call that a fiesta! Continue reading
I love the opening intro on the About page of San Diego Bay Wine & Food Festival’s website. “The most valuable things these days are not things at all, they are experiences that move us from our normal, everyday state-of-being to a place that’s completely unique. As wanderers, our need to find awe-inspired moments that please our taste buds as much as our sense of discovery drives us forward. It’s the high road to delicious. It’s the scenic route to wow.” These sentiments totally line up with my purpose in founding Borderlines Food & Travel, which is probably why SDBWFF has always been one of my favorite annual foodie events..
With the 2018 theme “Arrive at Awesome”, San Diego Bay Wine & Food Festival, our area’s largest, most diverse gastronomic celebration returns for its 15th year November 11-18 with 40 separate events and experiences, many of which are already sold out. There is something for everyone, from elegant multi-course dinners to fun and casual samplings, and from educational talks to hands-on classes.
An impressive lineup of both local and guest chefs, sommeliers, vintners, distillers, brewers, and craft food artisans will be cooking, pouring, judging, and teaching throughout the week-long festival. The complete list of about 90 talented experts can be found here.
A few of the returning favorite events include
Ocean to Table Provence Rosé Wine Lunch, hosted by Chef Bernard Guillas and held at The Marine Room in La Jolla. The five course seafood-centric meal with wine pairings will feature the culinary creations of Guillas and Chefs Andrew Spurgin, Claudia Sandoval, Jason McLeod Flor Franco, Evan Cruz, Patrick Ponsaty, Javier Plascencia, Dean James Max, Amy DiBiase, and Michele Coulon. The seven different rosés represents Provence’s fines,t and the theme of sustainability of our seafood and conservation of the ocean’s bounty is a key tenet of all the participating chefs’ culinary philosophy.
Expedition Baja, a day trip to Baja’s Valle de Guadalupe, Mexico’s burgeoning wine-producing area, about 100 miles south of San Diego.
Louis Latour at Mister A’s where the King of Burgundy’s Grand Cru showcases their best 2010 and 2015 wines paired with a 5 course luncheon
Taco TKO, a competition showdown between 11 restaurants to determine whose tacos take the tortilla as best in town.
Grand Decant, a tasting from 200 domestic and international wineries led by leading sommeliers and winemakers.
The Grand Tasting, the most popular event of the festival with tastings from over 60 restaurants and celebrity chefs, hundreds of wine, beer and spirits purveyers, and gourmet food artisans, as well as the “crowning” of the Chef of the Fest.
Grand Tasting
Exciting new events this year include:
Hungry foodies can also sate their appetites at special, multi-course, multi-chef dinners presented at some of San Diego’s favorite restaurants, including Coasterra, Cucina Enoteca, The Prado, and Marriott Marquis San Diego.
Wine, beer and spirits will be celebrated at
The above is just a partial list of events! Click here for all event ticket info, dates, and locations.
So, whether you plan to attend just one or two events, or the complete schedule, I suggest you wear your elastic waist, loosest fitting clothes, and just get comfortable with the fact that the scale is not going to be your friend this week, so don’t even look. There will be too many fantastic dishes to savor and beverages to imbibe not to enjoy every mouthful completely, without guilt!
With a powerhouse team, Vistal, InterContinental San Diego’s signature restaurant offers upscale dining not just for hotel guests
by Wendy Lemlin
Vistal’s harborview patio
Yes, the food is excellent, the open, contemporary space compelling, and the views out over San Diego’s harbor gorgeous. But one thing that is sure to entice locals to experience Vistal, the signature restaurant at San Diego’s new bayfront Intercontinental Hotel, is COMPLIMENTARY 3 hour valet parking! Yes, as in FREE. In an area overlooking the Embarcadero and cruise ship terminal, where meters are enforced 24-7 and charges add up quickly, that is huge! Think of trying to park anywhere near most of the other premier fine dining restaurants in San Diego or La Jolla, especially at luxury hotels that seem to charge for anything they can, and you know why this is a big deal.
Chef’s Paul McCabe & Amy DiBiase
But, of course, free parking alone wouldn’t mean much if Vistal wasn’t serving food worth coming downtown for. With the powerhouse team of Chefs Paul McCabe and Amy DiBiase at the helm, however, damn good food is pretty much a given. Continue reading
by Wendy Lemlin
I am fortunate to be able to partake of many gastronomic events over the course of the year, but there is one that always is at the top of my “must do” list. The 16th annual Celebrate the Craft t, held October 28 on the expansive lawns of The Lodge at Torrey Pines in La Jolla, ranks not only for the beautiful ambiance and exquisite quality of the food presented, but also because of the spotlight it has always shown on the symbiosis between the participating chefs and the farms, ranchers, fishmongers, vintners, and brewers whose products help to make the chefs’ creations so outstanding. Since it’s inception, Celebrate the Craft has been one of Southern California’s premier showcases for locally grown ingredients, innovative cooking and winemaking.
On what is forecasted to be an absolutely gorgeous day, guests will meander among food stations where each chef is matched with a local farm, ranch, or fishmonger whose products are highlighted in the chef’s dish. Also at each station, a wine, beer or other artisanal beverage pairing from a local producer will be offered to complement the gourmet bites. Continue reading
by Wendy Lemlin
Last year, a new music-based festival rolled into town and immediately became a success. Filling the downtown waterfront Embarcadero Marina Park North, the three day San Diego Smooth Jazz Festival drew a capacity crowd of not only local smooth jazz enthusiasts, but also participants from all over California and beyond. Not a mean accomplishment for a first-time event during a busy time of year!!
Eric Darius
Drawing on that success, the 2nd annual San Diego Smooth Jazz Festival is back again this weekend, June 29-July 1, with a stellar lineup of some of the best known names of the genre. Hosted by saxophonist, composer, producer, and vocalist Eric Darius, the festival opens with an intimate evening featuring performances by Continue reading
By Wendy Lemlin
A 2017 floral arrangement interpreting the painting seen in the background
In my long list of “things I love about spring”, Art Alive is always among the top entries. During this annual four day event at the San Diego Museum of Art (SDMA), artworks in the museum’s collection are interpreted in wonderfully creative floral arrangements by over 100 designers. That, in itself, is fascinating to anyone who loves art, flowers and design. For me, however, this “rite of spring” is more than a just fragrant, colorful exhibit; it evokes in my psyche a healthy dose of nostalgia triggered by the floral scents wafting through the museum’s galleries.
Another arrangement in the 2017 exhibit interpreting the painting in the top right.
My birthday is in the first week of April, and as a child growing up in Massachusetts where winter and spring often played hide and seek in early April, my dad would always present me with a bouquet of spring flowers for my birthday. Tulips, crocuses, irises, sweet peas—I loved their fresh, not-too-sweet scents and the splashes of color they brought to a world just starting to green from winter’s dull, monotonous gray. In my mind, the flowers engendered hope for the longer, sunny days to come and the promise of new beginnings.
And so, I find Art Alive to be an ideal amalgamation of things that I love—art, creativity, flowers, and springtime. The floral arrangements in the show that I personally find most successful are those that, rather than striving for a literal interpretation of the painting or sculpture with which they are paired, are more abstract in suggesting a dominant shape, or color scheme, and use mostly un-dyed plant and floral materials without a lot of other props.
a portion of the rotunda display in 2017
The entry rotunda is where all the magic begins, with a (usually) magnificent, grand-scale installation that wows attendees with thousands of blossoms as soon as they enter the museum. This year, Natasha Lisitsa and Daniel Schultz, the wife-and-husband team behind Waterlily Pond Studio in San Francisco, have been selected as the Rotunda Designers. The duo will transform the Museum’s famed Rotunda into a blaze of color, bright blossoms, and lush foliage in honor of Nancy Lorenz: Moon Gold, the Museum’s spring exhibition opening on Friday, April 27. Lisitsa and Schultz are known for their larger-than-life floral installations, architectural design style and innovative use of materials.
A 2017 floral interpretation of a sculpture of an acient Indian deity
In its 37th year, and taking place April 26-29, Art Alive is SDMA’s primary fundraiser to support the Museum’s education and outreach programs as well as special exhibitions. In addition to the exhibit itself, the celebration will also include a number of separately-ticketed auxiliary events, such as the black tie Premier Dinner exclusively for Honorary Committee Premiere Patrons on April 26, the very popular (despite its $200-$250 pp ticket price) Bloom Bash kick-off event, and a floral crown making workshop.
Tickets for Art Alive are free for SDMA members, $25 for nonmembers, $5 for youth (ages 7 to 17), and free for children age 6 and under.
For more information or to make a donation in support of this San Diego tradition, call the Art Alive Hotline at (619) 696-1999, or contact the Museum at artalive@sdmart.org. Tickets are also available online at sdmart.org/artalive
Newsflash! Loving food and being physically fit are not necessarily mutually exclusive. Sure, you might have to work a little harder in the gym, or add an extra mile or two to your regular run to enjoy your culinary obsessions guilt-free, but it can be done, especially if you participate in events like the Cooking Light and Health Fit Foodie Festival & 5k. Happening at Liberty Station on Saturday, October 7, this family and dog friendly event features local restaurants, meet-and-greets with elite athletes and other personalities, a beer and wine garden, and an impressive lineup of culinary and fitness demonstrations. And, oh yes, a 5k run (or, if you are like me, a 5k walk) prior to the festival. Calories burned, calories earned!
Part of a nationwide tour hosted by John Hancock Vitality Life Insurance, the Fit Foodie 5K has partnered with No Kid Hungry, a national nonprofit working to end child hunger in America. Runners can celebrate the balance of delicious, healthy food and fun, active lifestyle while contributing to the fight against child hunger. Nearly one in six children in America lives in households that struggle to put food on the table. The No Kid Hungry campaign connects kids in need with nutritious food and teaches their families how to cook healthy, affordable meals. The campaign also engages the public to make ending child hunger a national priority.
For all the info on this Saturday’s run and festival, click here! I’ll be walking the 5K with my dog Skipper—come join us or cheer us on!