Show 156, January 23, 2016: Jim Walker, President, Newport Beach Restaurant Association, Newport Beach Restaurant Week

Dine Newport Beach Restaurant WeekWe greatly anticipate Restaurant Weeks on the “SoCal Restaurant Show.” It’s a chance for food enthusiasts to experience new dining spots (on their best behavior) at great values.

Celebrating 10 Years of Good Taste” Newport Beach Restaurant Week is on through Sunday, January 31st. Special prix-fixe menus are featured at over 60 participating establishments with lunches for $10, $15, $20, or $25, and dinners for $20, $30, $40 or $50.

Jim Walker, the President of the organizing Newport Beach Restaurant Association, joins us with all the needed 411. Make your reservations now! www.dinenb.com

In its 9th year, Newport Beach Restaurant Week was created by the Newport Beach Restaurant Association to drive business to its member restaurants and build awareness for the Newport Beach culinary community. The event not only introduces new business to restaurants, but also enhances the economic vitality of Newport Beach.

Newport Beach Restaurant Week is reported to be the top grossing culinary event for the City of Newport Beach. In 2015 it generated $4.6 million in consumer spending. Culinary sales tax revenue is impressively the 2nd largest sales tax generator in the City.

 

Show 37, August 3, 2013: Life Is Beautiful Festival in Las Vegas

Life is Beautiful FestivalLas Vegas, a spot known for excess on a grand scale, has never seen anything quite like this before and it’s a really big one!

It’s the Life is Beautiful festival set for some 18 blocks of Downtown Las Vegas (including the grounds of a large casino hotel) from October 25th through Sunday, October 27th. It’s an impressive line-up of world class music, food, art and learning. Tickets are already on sale.

With more than 60 prominent chefs and restaurants, 24 wineries and 24 breweries participating in the culinary part of the festival alone, L.I.B presents the attendees with a full-scale food festival experience. The elite Culinary Advisory Board is headed by Chef Bruce Bromberg of the Blue Ribbon restaurants in New York. (His Las Vegas flagship is Blue Ribbon Sushi Bar & Grill at The Cosmopolitan.)

“The food experiences of L.I.B. were carefully designed to be interactive, innovative and unexpected,” says Jolene Mannina, Head of Culinary Arts for the festival. “Working with the vision of our Culinary Advisory Board of 12 world-renowned chefs, we’ve created an approach that we feel will set us apart from other food festivals, giving both our patrons and chefs a chance to enjoy something new, fresh and, of course, delicious.”

Jolene is a local celebrity in her own right in the Las Vegas culinary community. Food critic and former ABC Radio correspondent Al Mancini (creator of the popular Eating Las Vegas guidebook series) calls her the “Queen of The Scene”. She originated a much-talked-about late night chefs’ completion series, the Back of the House Brawl.