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
Glasses ready for wine at Grand Tasting event
The San Diego Bay Wine + Food Festival is turning Sweet Sixteen, and everyone is invited to the party! Taking place over an entire week of gastronomic pleasures, the Festival brings together San Diego’s top tastemakers to showcase the diversity of the area’s farms, seas, sustainable practices, taco culture, Baja influence and more. There’s a good reason the San Diego Bay Wine + Food Festival was named the winner of the 2019 USA Today 10Best Readers’ Choice travel award contest for Best General Food Festival. The Festival’s tagline of “Arrive at Awesome” says it all!
Welcome to the Grand Tasting
Happening November 9-17, the San Diego Bay Wine + Food Festival draws over 10,000 foodies, oenophiles, beer and spirits enthusiasts, and the culinary curious to over 40 separate events, culminating in the ever-popular Grand Tasting on November 16 and Taco TKO on November 17. With a majority of new-this-year events combined with longstanding returning favorites, there is truly something for everyone, from elegant wine pairing dinners to a beer-showcasing pool party, from the serious wine-centric Grand Decant to a chill cookout, from cooking classes to wine tastings. With a nod to San Diego’s world famous craft breweries, an increasing number of the events highlight local beers. Some of the events are already sold out, so click here for a complete list of all the happenings and ticket info.
A tasting of scallops!
Just a few of the many fresh additions to this year’s Festival schedule include:
Stagecraft Beerfest Kicking off the festivities on November 9 at the Viejas Casino & Resort, the venue’s 3 restaurants and 8 local breweries come together around the Allure pool area at the Willows Hotel for an afternoon of food and beer pairings with live music. $50
Barbecue & Bourbon On Sunday, November 10, guests will enjoy barbecue and beverages with views of the San Diego skyline and Coronado Bridge from the lawns of the Coronado Island Marriott & Spa. The casual event is family friendly. $65.
Expedition: San Diego Beer Tour Also taking place on Sunday, November 10, beer lovers can take a guided tour to some of San Diego’s top beer producers. During the fun and educational experience, guests will enjoy the VIP treatment while sampling a variety of brews, meeting with brewery staff, taking an educational class and gaining first hand knowledge of the art of craft beer making. Lunch and transportation is included. $120
Morning Glory’s Breakfast For Dinner Held at one of San Diego’s hottest new restaurants on Monday November 11, the menu will include such gourmet tantalizers as sturgeon caviar, cured duck eggs, heirloom tomato quiche, smoked salmon mousse, and much more. Moët Champagne will be served throughout the evening. $115
Pizza Making with Buona Forchetta On Tuesday November 12, guests will sip Prosecco and experience a hands-on pizza-making lesson, while learnng about the history of the authentic “Neapolitan style” pizza this extremely popular pizzeria is known for. $60
The list of almost 70 participating talent includes an array of highly respected and well-known chefs, winemakers, brewers, sommeliers, and artisans.
Participating Chefs at the 2018 Ocean-to-Table Luncheon at The Marine Room. Always a sold-out favorite, the event returns this year.
This year the host hotel is the beautiful new Intercontinental San Diego, which is also the location for several of the Festival’s events.
Click here for all the San Diego Bay Wine + Food Festival info.
Chef Flor Franco plates a dish
by Wendy Lemlin
In recent years, San Diego has done a lot of growing up, gastronomically speaking. What was once a culinary backwater, defined mostly by gringo-ized pseudo-Mexican surfer grub, has blossomed with growing sophistication and appreciation for inventive cuisine, fine wines, craft beers —and direct collaboration between chefs and the farmers, ranchers, fishermen, winemakers and brewers whose labors provide the raw ingredients for the new excitement in local cuisine. And, in the last 14 years, the San Diego Bay Wine & Food Festival has been showcasing and giving impetus to this delicious maturation process in a multi-day event unlike anything else in the San Diego gastronomisphere. Because of its multi-faceted scope of events, San Diego Bay Wine & Food Festival is my favorite local gourmet experience.
This year, San Diego Wine & Food Festival Festival, which runs November 12-19, is more eclectic than ever and has something for everyone who loves to eat or drink. From fermentation to fish tacos, from wine to wagyu, guests and participants can partake of events celebrating both the latest trends and the time honored favorites.
The Grand Tasting
By Wendy Lemlin
Ok, I admit it. Life can taste pretty sweet when you’re a food writer. It’s especially enjoyable when gourmet dining amidst great conviviality with the growers, harvesters, and curators of the delicacies on the plates in front of me.
This was the case last night (January 15) at San Diego’s Red Door Restaurant and Wine Bar for the Baja edition of their Farmers, Friends & Fisherman Dinner series, which proved so popular that seating spilled over into The Wellington Steak and Martini Lounge, Red Door’s adjoining sister restaurant. The seasonal series showcases area farmers, fishermen, ranchers, and wine or spirit makers who personify Red Door’s sustainable, local and organic credo. Continue reading
By Wendy Lemlin
Anyone who doubts that San Diego has finally outgrown the culinary “children’s table” and is now welcome to sit with the grownups, has only to look at the events scheduled for the 11th annual San Diego Bay Wine and Food Festival, running November 16-23, to see how far the city’s food and spirits sophistication has matured.
The international showcase of the world’s premier wine and spirits producers, nationally renowned chefs, culinary personalities, and gourmet foods benefits culinary arts and enology scholarships awarded by The American Institute of Wine & Food and the Chaîne des Rôtisseurs. Over 200 wineries, breweries and spirit companies, 70 of San Diego’s top fine dining restaurants and 30 gourmet food companies will participate in the 2014 Festival.
From seminars and cooking classes to celebrity chef dinners and Grand Tastings, the festival promises to whet—and satiate— the appetites of all who love to eat, drink, and make merry. With event tickets ranging from $40 to $550, there is something for every palate and every budget. Continue reading
Lovers of award winning wines and world-class art can now indulge both passions at the newly expanded Salerno Winery in the scenic hills of Ramona, CA, in San Diego’s East County. Continue reading
By Wendy Lemlin
I’d be willing to wager that for most of you reading this, downtown Chula Vista is not the first place you’d think of—or at all— when deciding where to go for a fantastic dinner and amazing wine selection. Yeah, me neither—that is, until my recent visit to Zarco, Cocina De Baja, in the heart of Chula Vista’s 3rd Avenue shopping district. There, among shops whose windows display the most colorful of flouncy quinceanera dresses, Chef Flor Franco has converted the commercial kitchen of her highly successful Indulge Contemporary Catering company into a first rate showcase for her take on the much acclaimed cuisine and wines of Baja California. Continue reading
A Hike on Kuchimaa, aka Mt. Tecate
by Wendy Lemlin
As I passed back into the U.S. from Tecate , Baja California, the Customs and Immigration officer asked why I had been in Mexico. When I answered that I was checking out the interesting places around the town, he looked at me incredulously and asked, “Really? What is there to do in Tecate?”
As Mexican border towns go, Tecate may be Baja’s best kept secret. Continue reading