Kathleen Hill: Super Bowl super wines

Super Bowl super wines:|

Super Bowl super wines:

Sonoma County and Sonoma County vintners spent $1 million for exposure at San Francisco’s Super Bowl City, where many county wineries will take shifts and pour for the thousands of expected guests in the Taste of Sonoma Lounge.

Sonoma Valley wineries participating include Anaba, Bryter Estates, Kenwood Estate, Muscardini Cellars, Arrowood, MacRostie, St. Francis, Viansa, Three Sticks, Gloria Ferrer, Laurel Glen, Patz & Hall, B.R. Cohn and Ravenswood. It’s amazing that, among those, only Anaba, Bryter, Muscardini, Three Sticks, Gloria Ferrer and Patz & Hall are still owned by their founders.

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Meanwhile, back here in Sonoma without the drive and traffic, Victor Hill Winery is having its own Super Bowl 50 Party at its cellar on Eighth Street East. They will provide Super Bowl 50 on a 60-inch screen, a whole roasted pig (apparently honoring the “pigskin” sport), finger foods and snacks, a glass of Victor Hill wine (keep the logo glass), and non-alcoholic beverages for designated drivers. Team colors and jerseys encouraged. $40 public, $30 wine club members. 2:30 to 7:30 p.m. 21481 Eighth St. E., Suite 2, Sonoma. Reserve at superbowl@victorhillwines.com.

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Sonoma County Tourism’s sonomacounty.com recently named the “Best Restaurants in Sonoma County,” hardly mentioning any from Sonoma Valley.

“They” highlighted Valette in Healdsburg, Bird & Bottle in Santa Rosa, Amy’s Drive Thru in Rohnert Park, Trading Post Market & Bakery in Cloverdale, and Ralph’s Martini House in Healdsburg, while suggesting people revisit Fig Café in Glen Ellen among its “revamped gems.”

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Chef Charlotte Haycraft, of Table de Touron and Chateau Dumas, and I, and several former and future Chateau Sonoma travelers will attend the Evoke magazine launch party Saturday, Feb. 6 at Chateau Sonoma at Cornerstone. Sample bubbles and desserts from the magazine’s recipes and get your copy, 4 to 6 p.m. Free.

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Chevy’s Fresh Mex (not to be confused with Chipotle) has signed on to sponsor the 64-lap NASCAR K&N Pro Series West race at Sonoma Raceway. Chevy’s will create a new cocktail menu in its restaurants and race giveaways and will have concession stands under the main grandstand, paddock and above Turn 2.

Chevy’s’ is owned by Real Mex Restaurants of Cypress, Calif., which also owns El Torito, Acapulco, and El Torito Grill restaurant chains and several other single Mexican restaurants from New York to Torrance.

Incidentally, Chipotle restaurants appear to have been cured of various viruses that were making people sick.

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Margie Brooke of Community Café has formed an Organic Farm Club at her almost urban Fryer Creek Farm on Leveroni Road near the Lodge at Sonoma. People interested in learning organic gardening can drop in Saturday mornings from 8 to 10 a.m. and soak up info from horticulturist Steen Berrig of Opus Horticulture. You get to garden, plant, feed, harvest etc. Margie also has a small petting zoo with mostly rescued animals from pigs to a llama, horses and a four-horned sheep. For more info contact Margie at margieotl@gmail.com.

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The famed Michael Mina will throw in the apron and close his Bourbon Steak restaurant in the Westin St. Francis Hotel on Union Square in San Francisco on March 31. His Bourbon Steak house at Levis Stadium in Santa Clara is a much bigger success, especially this Super Bowl weekend.

Some of us remember the “Terrace” at the St. Francis Hotel before it was replaced with outside restaurants. As a little girl and teenager my mother used to take me there for the memorable lobster salad on butter lettuce. Such food memories.

But this just shows that famous chefs and restauranteurs, some whom open and close many restaurants, are not always successful. Never fear, start ups.

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Divewalk Café just announced that they are serving pho, apparently inspired by co-owner Marc Sloop’s taste experiences with a Vietnamese friend in high school.

Hence their popular service of Banh Mi sandwiches on Basque rolls as well Hanoi Tacos with slow-cooked chicken with Sriracha aioli on a Jalisco corn tortilla ($7-$8). Divewalk’s pho features homemade beef broth over rice noodles with bean sprouts, Thai basil, Jalapeño slices ($10-$13).

And Divewalk is still selling the great, lusty breakfast and lunch crêpes that got them started. 19449 Riverside Drive, Sonoma. Open Thursday and Friday 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. and Saturday-Sunday 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. divewalkcafe.com.

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Plan ahead:

According to Betty Ann Bruno, former television news anchor and leader of Sonoma’s Hula Mai happy hula dancers, her group and the Sonoma Valley Woman’s Club will co-host a Luau Luncheon on Saturday, Feb. 27, all to raise funds to restore the Woman’s Club’s historic building.

What Bruno refers to as the “ubiquitous in the islands plate lunch” will be served and include both Kahlua pig and teriyaki chicken, white rice, macaroni potato salad and Lomi salmon, with coconut cupcakes and fresh pineapple, among other Hawaiian delicacies. Caterer Patrick Landeza of Landeza’s Island Catering is also a “music celebrity,” according to Bruno, as an award-winning slack key artist and composer. Bruno says, “I have known him longer than he has known himself. I used to dance with his mother back in the ‘50s.”

Guests will also enjoy entertainment by Hula Mai Dancers, music by Del Madina’s King of Kanikapali Hawaiian Group, a silent auction to restore the Woman’s Club’s historic building, and a ukulele jam session. $35. Lunch served at noon. 534 First St. E., Sonoma. For tickets call Pat Hoggatt at 939-8927 or Conni Wilson at 996-7753.

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Happy National Chocolate Fondue Day and World Nutella Day.

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Next Friday: Valentine’s specials for your Hallmark Holiday

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