March 12 - A Special Wine Dinner with Jeff Gaffner of Saxon Brown

Great news!   Owner/Winemaker Jeff Gaffner of Saxon Brown will be at Solare to lead a 4-course Solare Dinner designed by Executive Chef Filippo Piccini where each course is paired with carefully selected wines from the Saxon Brown vineyards in Sonoma. Chef Filippo does a fabulous job of creating dishes with ingredients that absolutely complement the wines. 

Saxon Brown wines are crafted, literally from the ground up. Jeff spends at least as much time in the vineyard as the cellar. This commitment to a wine’s roots is a grounding principle of Saxon Brown. As a third generation Sonoma farmer, Jeff has spent his entire career as both a grower and winemaker and as such, believes that only great vineyards can make truly great wine.  Learn about Field Blends!   http://saxonbrown.com  $88/person includes 6 Saxon Brown wines and the 4-course dinner by Exec Chef Filippo Piccini.   6:45pm Dinner and 6:15pm Reception with Jeff. Reserve today via email or call 619-270-9670

March 11 - A Dinner & Evening w/ Mezcal – Mezcales de Leyandes

Read this: One of Solare’s top favorite mezcal producers is Mezcales de Leyanda – you will see it on our bar – and one of their partners is Chef Danny Mena. Danny will be here in San Diego from NYC on March11, and will be teaming with Chef Filippo Piccini for a 4-course tasting menu. A mezcal pairing dinner! Danny is one of New York City’s top Mexican chefs, acclaimed by such publications as Vanity Fair, Los Angeles Times, The New York Times, & Rolling Stone. Danny owns and is exec chef at Hecho en Dumbo in the Bowery District.

$88/person ~ limited seating. Includes the 4-course dinner and 6 great mezcals including a special bottle that Chef Danny Mena is bringing. 6:30pm Dinner ~ 6pm Reception. Reserve today via email or call 619-270-9670
RSVP Today ~ Join Us!

March 09 - Cooking Class: Fish and Shellfish + Fish Market

Meet at Solare and drive together to a local fish market (less than 3 miles) to learn about fish and buying fresh fish with confidence. Then we all head back to Solare to prepare and cook some great seafood dishes. Chef Filippo Piccini will teach you how to cook fish and seafood … Tuscan-style! Seafood lovers will not want to miss this opportunity. NOTE that for this class, the fun starts at 10am instead of the normal 10:30am as we are visiting the fish market. We meet at Solare with an Italian-style coffee of your choice and a pastry. Italian wine is served for students interested in “cooking with wine”. – Limit 10 — $85/student that includes the class, wine, and lunch. Reserve today via email or call 619-270-9670.

February 24 - Margarite’s Amazing BYOM Event!

Margarite says: Friends, Food, Fun, Frivolity…Together served with magnums of great wine. Keeping the tradition alive in 2019 in grand style with the twelth (12th) annual Bring Your Own Magnum (BYOM) of your yummiest wine Party, Sunday, February 24 2:00 P.M. – 5:00 P.M. at Solare Ristorante in Point Loma at Liberty Station. Red, white, rosé, or sparkling, it’s all good. We’ll sip and sample each magnum, while nibbling on light appetizers and sharing our resolutions for the New Year. And we are featuring special guests: Wine Columnist Frank Mangio, of Taste of Wine TV.

You may want to dine at Solare Ristorante when magnums go dry. For anyone interested in dinner reservations following the event, should make a Reservation asap here; the full Solare menu is available, and there will be no corkage fee for anyone staying for dinner.

In addition, to enhance our celebration at BYOM, we thought it would be nice share with those less fortunate, especially as these have been challenging economic times for many. If you would like to contribute a non-perishable food item to St. Vincent De Paul Village of “Father’s Joe’s, http://my.neighbor.org, they would greatly appreciate the donation and a bin will be set up to collect them at the party. Thank you, and best wishes!

Your donation may be tax deductible please review with your accountant for guidelines. (Here is the Tax ID for Farther Joe’s: 33-0492302). Or if you prefer please make a donation to the Moores Cancer center at UCSD by clicking here. ~~ Any questions … click here.

February 23 - Cooking Class: Lasagna from scratch … with Chef Filippo & Maria!

Baked pasta … Lasagna! A whole lesson dedicated to traditional Italian baked pasta – with a focus on the best Lasagna. The incredible one-of-a kind, Maria, and Executive Chef Filippo Piccini will teach you how to master the technique of baking pasta, and everything you want to know about lasagna. The lesson will be held in our kitchen with Maria and Chef Filippo!! Don’t forget to bring your baking glove! The fun starts at 10:30am at Solare with an Italian-style coffee of your choice and a pastry. Italian wine is served for students interested in “cooking with wine”. Limit 10 – $85/student that includes the class, wine, and lunch. Contact us for details. Reserve now!

Lasagna, one of the most celebrated of the Italian food staples, has a long and luxurious history. The term “lasagna” comes from the Greek word, “lasagnum,” meaning dish or bowl. The ancient Greeks used baking dishes of that name, which they eventually transferred to the Romans. The Romans, who ended up using the same style of dish, also developed a type of food which they used the term “lasagnum” for: it was served in said dish, with layers of a pasta-like food with other fillings in-between. With the extent of the Roman empire, this new “lasagnum” dish spread all across Europe, eventually reaching Britain, where it was published in the very first cookbook.

After remaining dormant for many decades, the early form of lasagna once again surfaced. The early Italians changed the name from “lasagnum,” to “lasagna,” which is the current form. Over the years, the word “lasagna” began to change definitions; the word previously referred to the serving dish it was baked in, but began to simply mean the delicious pasta meal in the dish itself. In modern cooking terms, it now means layers of thin pasta, with meat, cheese, and tomato sauce squeezed in between. Lasagna sure has come a long way.

The fun starts at 10:30am at Solare with an Italian-style coffee of your choice and a pastry. Italian wine is served for students interested in “cooking with wine”. – Class size limited — $85/student that includes the class, wine, and lunch. Reserve today via email or call 619-270-9670

February 19 - Meet Alessandro from Borgoluce Winery

Learn about Prosecco from the best! Here’s why …

If you’re available … my friend, Alessandro Samogin, from Borgoluce Winery in Italy will be in town … and he will be at Solare from 5pm to 7pm Tues Feb 19 with a selection of his amazing boutique Prosecco’s.

I highly recommend you join if you can because:

+ The winery is amazing. Borgoluce is located in Veneto between Verona and Venice – and it has been continuously owned by the same family since 958 AD. Yes, 958 AD … over a thousand years.

+ Alessandro is a super cool charismatic guy that live on the property and has been their “face of Borgoluce” for a long time.

+ This is a GREAT opportunity to really learn about Prosecco.

+ And … you want to meet Alessando if you are considering a trip to Italy. You want to stay at the Borgoluce Estate! The Borgoluce Estate is huge (3,200 acres!) and they have an incredible agriturismo wonderland. Everything from vineyards to cheese production to honey to livestock and a great bed & breakfast. Click here and just look at all the categories of photos they have: http://www.borgoluce.it/en/photogallery

Let me know if you’d like to join me – it’s an Open House style – come any time between 5pm and 7pm. $25 includes the Borgoluce Prosecco’s and appetizers by Chef Filippo – and fun times with Alessandro.

Here is a cool video too of Borgoluce: https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=22&v=Dna34Mt-4Jo