Meeting those Wine Fest Winemakers

Cincinnati is lucky to have one of the best wine festivals in the nation. We get wineries from all over, distributors pop up to lead tastings, and even better, the week leading up to Wine Fest is generally packed with great events.

Enough people now know about the Thursday night dinners that they are mostly sold out. There are a few left and tickets are priced per person:

Daveed’s at 934 featuring Peter Franus Wine Company, ticket: $125

Eddie Merlot’s featuring Greg Norman Estates Wine with Morgan Leigh Norman, ticket: $125

Embers featuring Au Bon Climat, ticket: $150

Stone Creek Dining Co. West Chester featuring Ste. Michelle Wine Estates and Bob Berteau, Head Winemaker, ticket: $125

You can order these tickets via the Wine Festival web site. Winery dinner sales close on Tuesday, March 8, at midnight.

If you find $125+ to be a tad steep, that’s okay. Chances are you can find the winemakers around town at various tastings. Ask around at your favorite wine shop and see if anyone special is dropping by. You see, while the distributors have the winemakers in town, they take them to as many shops as possible to both talk with the shop buyers and the consumers. Additionally, certain restaurants might be having winemaker dinners that are not officially linked to the Wine Festival. For instance, 20 Brix is having a dinner with JAQK wines (sold out though!) that’s not part of the “official festival.”

So check tasting schedules at various shops and restaurants or just give a call. Sometimes these tastings are pretty last minute. I’d start looking for winemakers to appear around Tuesday and for a few of them to last through Sunday.

Don’t forget, you can wrap up your wine festival week at Dilly Cafe on Sunday with one of those lingering winemakers – Rich Parducci. I happen to be partial to his Mendocino wines, so I recommend you reserve a spot for that brunch.

Thinking Spring: CIWF Tickets

Can’t figure out what to buy for the Cincinnati-based wine lover in your life? How about tickets to the Cincinnati International Wine Festival.

Held next year on March 10-12, tickets are already on sale.

It’s also the 21st birthday of the wine festival – for a festival dedicated to alcohol, there is a bit of humor in that.

Visit www.winefestival.com and get tickets to winery dinners (special winemaker guests are still TBD), Grand Tastings, the charity auction & luncheon, and hotel packages.

Additionally, the Wine Festival has announced that this year’s honorary chairperson is Justin Baldwin of JUSTIN Winery in Paso Robles.

Drink for a Cause at the Hebron Brew Haus

Tomorrow night, come on out and drink for the cause!

Thanks to all of you, my readers and friends, the Krystal Pepper Memorial Scholarship Fund is now only $1700 $1300 short of our goal of $25,000 by January. We need your help just a little more though.

On Wednesday night, Dec 1, join us at the Hebron Brew Haus for “Wet Wednesday.”  All tips will go to the scholarship fund, so tip big!  Additionally, we’ll have split the pot, raffles, and t-shirt sales.

You can learn more about the Hebron Brew Haus on Twitter, Facebook, and through the Hoperatives. Hebron Brew Haus has food (type: bar food) as well as beer in bottles and drafts.

Learn more about the Scholarship Fund and my little sister.  Can’t make it but feel the need to donate anyway? You can donate directly to the scholarship fund online or you can purchase cookie dough, restaurant gift certificates, or magazines at our online fundraising site.

I hope to see you Wednesday evening!

Hebron Brew Haus
2030 Northside Drive
Hebron, KY 41048

5-10 pm

Donating to a Good Cause: the Last Few Dollars!

If you’ve been reading my blog lately, you know that we’re soooo close to raising $25000.00 for the Krystal Pepper Memorial Scholarship Fund in memory of my little sister. In fact, we’re now about $2200.00 away from our goal. We have to meet our goal by the end of January or else all of our hard work over the last few years will just be merged into the general scholarship fund at Thomas More.

Krystal was an education major at Thomas More College. We want to make sure her memorial scholarship gets to education majors just like her, because we always need great teachers in this world. So we don’t want to lose our $22,000+ to the general fund. That’s why we need your help!

You can donate in two ways.

• You can donate directly to the scholarship fund in any amount you choose. Just go to the web site and click the big orange Donate button.
  
• You can donate by going to our eFundraising site. At eFundraisingonline.com/KLPScholarship, you can buy cookie dough, magazine subscriptions, and gift certificates (via Restaurant.com) to many local eateries. We get 30-40% of the proceeds from all purchases.

Thanks for your help this holiday season, and have a wonderful Thanksgiving!

– Michelle

Local Restaurants Support Veterans with Free Entrees

I’m completely just pasting in a press release here, but it’s got all the information you need. Why reinvent the wheel?

Relish Restaurant Group announced today that for the second year in a row four of their area restaurants will hold a Veterans Appreciation Week giving all veterans a free entrée. The Bistro, Chalk Food +Wine, Local 127 and Lavomatic Café will salute area troops with a free meal in celebration for Veterans Day. The event will last from November 8^th through November 14^th during regular business hours.

“Our service members deserve more than one day in recognition of their service and sacrifice to our country, this is why we are giving back for an entire week,” said Summer Crenshaw, Director of Marketing for Relish Restaurant Group. “Last year we were able to serve several hundred area veterans, donating nearly $10,000 in meals. We expect this year to be even bigger and we are excited to serve our veterans.”

This year the restaurants will also offer patrons the opportunity to give back to veterans, through a special patriotic-themed cocktail menu with proceeds benefiting Disabled American Veterans (DAV). “We’re very impressed with Relish Restaurant Group’s generous recognition of veterans,” said Marc Burgess, Executive Director of DAV’s National Headquarters in Cold Spring, Ky. “In addition to providing a great meal, they’re going a step further and giving their patrons an opportunity to support our veterans service programs.”

To participate in appreciation week, veterans just need to show proof of military service and make a reservation at one of four restaurants. The veteran will choose on entrée from a special menu.

Proof of military service includes:
• U.S. Uniform Services Identification Card
• U.S. Uniform Services Retired Identification Card
• DD214
• LES
• Citation or Commendation
• Photograph in uniform
• Veterans Organization Card

Participating restaurants:

Local 127
127 W. 4th St
Cincinnati OH 45202
513-721-1345
www.mylocal127.com

The Bistro
413 Vine St
Cincinnati OH 45202
513-621-1465
www.bistrocincinnati.com

Lavomatic Cafe
1211 Vine St
Cincinnati OH 45202
513-621-1999
www.lavomaticcafe.com

Chalk Food and Wine
318 Greenup St
Covington, KY 41011
859-643-1234
www.Chalkfoodwine.com