Past Events:
Rose's Cafe Fall Wine Dinner – Supporting Sustain Abruzzo
Tuesday, Oct. 6th 2009 at 6:30pm
$65 per person + Tax and Tip
$45 – Dinner Only Exclusive of Wine
This fall, we will be focusing not just on Italy but, on a specific region of Italy, Abruzzo. Recently, an earthquake devastated this region that sits along the Adriatic coast. We have some close ties to the region via one of our distributors, owner of Villia Italia and founder of Sustain Abruzzo – Lorenzo Scarpone. We have chosen to highlight the plight of Abruzzo as it recovers from what some have called the ‘Katrina’ of Italy.
We have set out to highlight wines from Abruzzo and its surrounding areas. As always a portion of the proceeds from the dinner will go directly to farmers in need. Lorenzo Scarpone will be on hand to tell stories from the area and give us some background on Sustain Abruzzo.
The Dinner will include five courses with five wines. The focus of the dinner will be these wine selections paired with Mark’s take on California and Italian cuisine.
The menu –
Mark is working as we speak to fine tune the wine and food pairings. Having done this for the better part of the last decade here at Rose’s as well as many years at Fetzer, Mark has developed a refined palette and uses this to guide in creating the menu.
As always, this is a special evening at Rose’s Cafe, where we close the house to the normal foot traffic, and celebrate good wine, seasonal food, and great company. The wine dinner is reservation only.
Dinner format:
Guests usually arrive between 6:30 to 7pm. During this time prior to and during seating, we pass assorted pizzas and flatbreads along with the first wine of the evening.
Around 7:15pm we sit, have the introductions to Mark Gordon, Executive Chef of Rose's Café, Lorenzo Scarpone of Villia Italia and Simon Anixter – Rose’s Café Wine Director.
The dinner follows, with short breaks for Mark to talk about his food pairing and for Lorenzo to talk about the wines. They both will also take time to visit with individual tables for more specific questions.
Sustain Abruzzo – www.sustainabruzzo.com
Rose's Cafe Spring Wine Dinner with Palmina Winery
Tuesday, May 5th 2009 at 6:30pm
Mark Gordon, Simon Anixter and myself have been working closely with Justinian Brock, who represents Palmina Wines to put together a fun Spring wine and food pairing Dinner.
The Dinner includes five courses and five wines. The focus of the dinner is selections from Palmina wines paired with Mark’s take on California and Italian cuisine.
Why Palmina wines? Palmina produces a full range of wines crafted from Italian varietals grown in Santa Barbara County, California. Mark has found that Palmina’s wines are well suited for pairing with our cuisine at the Café.
The menu – As we move into the heart of spring, we are now seeing the first asparagus, green garlic, fava beans and strawberries, just to name some of the seasonal spring bounty. Over the next week, Mark will be working, in the kitchen and with local farmers and purveyors to finalize the menu.
The cost - $95 per person, plus tax and tip.
As always, this is a special evening at Rose’s Cafe, where we close the house to the normal foot traffic, and celebrate good wine, seasonal food, and great company. The wine dinner is reservation only.
Dinner format:
Guests usually arrive between 6:30 to 7pm.
During this time prior to and during seating, we pass assorted pizzas and flatbreads along with the first wine of the evening.
Around 7:15pm we sit, have the introductions to Mark Gordon, Executive Chef of Rose's Café, Justinian Brock of Vinifera and Simon Anixter – Rose’s Café Wine Director.
The dinner follows, with short breaks for Mark to talk about his food pairing and for Justinian to talk about Palmina and their wines. They both will also take time to visit with individual tables for more specific questions.
We will also take some time and talk about our charity recipient: Local San Francisco non-profit, Narrative Magazine. Narrative is the leading online publisher of first-rank fiction, nonfiction, and poetry. A nonprofit organization, Narrative is dedicated to advancing the literary arts in the digital age by supporting the finest writing talent and encouraging readership around the world and across generations.
Founders Tom Jenks and Carol Edgarian will be in attendance and speak at the dinner about Narrative.
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Rose's Cafe Summer Wine Dinner Tuesday, July 8th 2008 at 6:30pm
 Summer. School’s out and the warm weather’s on, or at least is was. Mark Gordon and Simon Anixter have been working closely with the folks at Vias Imports, to put together a fun summer Italian tasting. Mark has tasted the wines and has put together a terrific menu highlighting the characteristics of each wine.
The Dinner includes five courses and five wines. The focus of the dinner is Italian wines paired with Mark’s take on California and Italian cuisine. If you have ever wondered why some wines work better with one dish more than another, this will be a tasting that engages your palate as well as your mind.
Dinner format: Guests usually arrive between 6:30 to 7pm. We pass assorted pizzas and flatbreads along with the first wine of the evening. Around 7:15pm we sit, have the introductions to Mark Gordon, Executive Chef of Rose's Cafe and Tony Bernardini of Vias. Mark will talk about the first course pairing and Tony will talk about the wine. We will take a few minutes in between each course to talk about the food and the wine and why they were paired together.
We will also take some time and talk about our charity recipient: PAWS. Pets are wonderful support, is a volunteer-based organization that provides for the comprehensive needs of companion animals for low-income persons with HIV/AIDS and other disabling illnesses. They are a local Bay Area group and we are very excited to be supporting them through this dinner.
Rose's Cafe Winter Wine Dinner Tuesday, February 26th 2008 at 6:30pm
 Winter. The Holiday’s are over. The rain and snow
have arrived. We find that this is a great time to
host a wine and food pairing dinner. Mark Gordon and
Simon Anixter have paired us up with the folks at the
Empson House. Empson recently received Wine
Enthusiast ‘Importer of the Year” They are well known
for bringing great Italian wines to our tables. Mark
has tasted the wines and has put together a terrific
menu highlighting the
characteristics of each wine.
The Dinner includes five courses and five wines. The
focus of the dinner is Italian wines paired with
Mark’s take on California and Italian cuisine. If you
have ever wondered why some
wines work better with one dish more than another,
this will be a tasting that engages your palate as
well as your mind.
Dinner format: Guests usually arrive between 6:30 to
7pm. We pass assorted pizzas and flatbreads along with
the first wine of the evening. Around 7:15pm we sit,
have the introductions to Mark Gordon, Executive Chef
of Rose's Cafe and Enzo Duscenne of Empson. Mark will
talk about the first course pairing and Enzo will talk
about the wine. We will take a few minutes in between
each course to talk about the food and the wine and
why they were paired together.
We will also take some time and talk about our charity
recipient: GirlVentures The mission of GirlVentures
is to empower adolescent girls to develop and express
their strengths. They are a local Bay Area group and
we are very excited to be supporting them through this
dinner.
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Rose’s Café Fall Wine Dinner
September 11th, 2007 at 6:30pm
Our final wine dinner for the year. Mark Gordon,
Simon and myself have been working hard to put
together something different for the Fall Wine Dinner.
Simon has selected Stefano Biscotto of Trilussa Wine
Company to pair wines with our food. Stefano has
built an exciting book of Italian wines that will
allow us to showcase both Mark’s cuisine and his
wines. We have been looking forward to be able to
bring a different style to the seasonal wine dinners
here at Rose’s Cafe. Now that the pieces have come
together and we have tasted the wine and tried some of
the pairings we are ready to announce that the dinner
is set.
On September 11th this year Rose’s Café will pair with
Mark Gordon’s seasonal and regional faire. For the
most part the food will represent the region from
which the wine was grown. The dinner will be
highlighting six wines of Italy, including a Barolo and two wines that will be paired together the Graetz ‘Soffocone’ & the Selvafrossa ‘Trimpilin’.
These wines will be shared with their stories at the
dinner by Stefano, and as always Mark will be on hand
to talk about why each course was designed for the
wine served. Mark has spent time this past week
getting the backbone of the menu figured out. The
menu in its final form will be available for review in
the last week of August as we firm up the availability
of seasonal product.
As always a portion of the proceeds from the dinner
will go to a local charity. We have been working with
the San Francisco fire department, as the dinner falls
on September 11th, to support a local disaster
assistance charity. We will have a local Rose’s
regular and SF Fire Department Captain, Michael
Castagnola and his wife, joining us for the dinner to
say a few words about how our charitable donation will
be utilized.
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Michel-Schlumberger Wine Pairing Dinner
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