“This fall, the Academy Award-winning film, SIDEWAYS, will stream on Hulu in celebration of its 20th Anniversary. Hitching Post Wines has partnered with Searchlight Pictures to showcase Hitching Post Highliner Pinot Noir, the wine featured in the movie. The Highliner Pinot Noir is always one of the most consistent, highly regarded wines of Hitching Post, and the 2021 is one of the best vintages of the past two decades. This 2021 vintage has a special label to commemorate the film and the Anniversary. In celebration of this partnership, Hitching Post 2 and Hitching Wines announce a series of special events, including three Hitching Post + Sideways Winemaker Dinners scheduled for September and October. Hitching Post Wines will also offer specially produced and limited edition SIDEWAYS Highliner Pinot Noir wine available for purchase at the Buellton restaurant, the adjacent Hitching Post tasting room and select retailers throughout California.” Chef and Winemaker Frank Ostini and Winemaker Gray Hartley of Hitching Post Wines join us to uncork all the signature events.
“Housed in what was for generations the family-run Bond Fruit & Dairy Stand, the seasonal Stonecat Café in Hector, Finger Lakes, NY has a rich history of connecting the community to healthy, locally grown ingredients. Founded in 1999, the Stonecat Café was an early leader in the farm-to-table movement in the region. Stonecat Café’s late owner and founder, Scott Signori, believed passionately that food is life and how we choose to nourish our bodies has a direct connection to and impact on our communities. When we feed our bodies with vibrant fun food, grown locally and sustainably, we sustain the soul of our community helping local farms and businesses to thrive. Scott passed away tragically in late 2021 at 54, leaving a lasting legacy of passion for good food, wine and scotch. His character, integrity and kindness live on in the Hector community and beyond” as does the Stonecat Café now led by a team of restaurant professionals who were also loyal friends of Chef Scott. General Manager Katy Dunlap joins us to share the inspiring story of resilience that is Stonecat Café.
“Knox & Dobson crafts premium, ready-to-drink cocktails expertly designed to be shared and enjoyed anywhere. Their multi-award-winning bottled cocktails are made with an uncompromising commitment to excellence in quality, craftsmanship, and taste, featuring the highest quality ingredients including premium barrel-aged whiskies, Maraska Maraschino Liqueur and authentic Angostura Bitters.” Knox & Dobson will be sampling their premium, ready-to-drink cocktails at the upcoming Manhattan Beach Food & Wine Festival the evenings of Friday, October 11th and Saturday, October 12th at Manhattan Village. Knox & Dobson’s President, Rob Levy, is our guest to serve up a taste of Knox & Dobson’s quality libations.
Our own Chef Andrew Gruel, the menu-maker behind the full-service Calico Fish House (in the Sunset Beach area of Huntington Beach) provides another timely and informative “Ask the Chef” segment where he responds to listeners’ thoughtful inquiries. Complying with ADA requirements (and their associated costs) are a concern for independent restaurateurs. There are also ADA requirements for Websites. Some ambitious attorneys also use this as a possible revenue source. Chef Andrew offers his perspective.
All of this and heaping helpings of extra deliciousness on this week’s not-to-miss show!
Good morning Southern California and welcome. If you're food obsessed you've come to the right place. Join us for the next two hours and you won't go away hungry. One of the first American culinary icons Julia Child said people who love to eat are always the best people. We agree. Live from the AMA 30K LAA studios at Angel Stadium and Anaheim, The SoCal Restaurant Show is on the air. And good morning and welcome back. It is The SoCal Restaurant Show and happily we're here with you every Saturday morning from 10 a.m. until 12 noon right here on AMA 30K LAA, the home of Angels Baseball 2024. It can also catch us on the AMA 30 Angels app and the halos are home. Tonight it's the mid-game in a three-game set with the pesky Houston Astros and the halos are looking forward to evening up the series. I'm Andy Harris, the executive producer and co-host of the show. Happy to be here and thanks to you for being part of our listening audience this morning. We definitely appreciate it. My colleague Chef Andrew Grulle of the Calico Fish House in the Sunset Beach area of Huntington Beach on Pacific Coast Highway. We'll be joining us a little later in the show with his usual Ask the Chef segment and we'll be discussing an area of concern for restaurateurs this morning. There is something called the Americans with Disabilities Act that restaurateurs are definitely motivated to comply with and it's kind of an expensive proposition for an existing restaurant particularly for an independent family owned restaurant in terms of all these compliance issues and if that wasn't enough they also have to be compliant with their website which is equally tricky and what kind of adds to the equation there is there there is a group of attorneys out there that you know though one would think they're trying to do the best for their clients what they love to do is file suits against restaurants that seemingly are not in full compliance and obviously looking to settle for a certain amount of money so as I say it's a complicated issue and we definitely want to get chef Andrew's perspective on this because we recently did have an inquiry from a small independent restaurant that's looking for some guidance in this area so it's still something that is on people's minds and we want our listening audience to understand what the variables are that are part of that. Glad to say we have Charles with us in technical excellence this morning so good morning Charles do keep up with us on social media there's a lot of good information there that connects between Saturdays what we try to do is give you some visuals of the restaurants and food items that we're talking about if we're talking about a wine or a winery there's some visuals that go along with that and in particular if you look at either our Facebook or Instagram feed I have been in the Finger Lakes region of New York this past week I was co-chair of the International Food Wine and Traver Writers Association's annual development conference for their members that was based in the southern Finger Lakes in Corning had a chance to enjoy some incredible wine that the Finger Lakes is gaining actually a national and international reputation for as well as a lot of good dining obviously with the rural nature of the Finger Lakes formally most of it was farmland and grapes were originally grown there for table grapes and and Concord grape juice before they got into growing wine grapes and that's something that we'll be discussing more next week with Somelier David Nershey who is the first vice president of the International Food Wine and Traver Writers Association and quite the expert on the history of wines in Finger Lakes so we look forward to that but meanwhile website is easy it's SoCalRestaurantShow.com no difficulty there Facebook is SoCalRestaurantShow X or Twitter or whatever you want to call it is SoCalRestaurant and as we love to say for the very best and provocative food imagery Instagram to @SoCalRestaurantShow so again a lot of good information there just to enhance what we do here on Saturday mornings as I mentioned I was in the Finger Lakes traveling quite extensively for the last week and I will be sharing the highlights of a lot of my winery and restaurant visits with you the listening audience in the coming weeks and we're actually going to start that great adventure this morning we're going to be talking about the Stone Cat Cafe in Hector Finger Lakes and in all the inspirational stories I have heard and witnessed or been a part of in the restaurant business for a lot of years Stone Cat Cafe is a story of perseverance and Stone Cat very much was the vision of their founding executive chef proprietor Scott Signore who tragically passed away of a very virulent form of breast cancer in late 2021 at really the young age of 54 he knew once he was diagnosed what his prognosis would be and he wanted to leave the legacy of Stone Cat Cafe for his employees for his area regulars and for the legion of visitors that participated and enjoyed that restaurant since it was founded in 1999 so he left a blueprint for the future that his staff was so dedicated to perpetuating that that happened and the restaurant is alive and well I'm happy to say and we will be speaking with their general manager this morning to get the full story but as I say very inspiring and the fact that the restaurant still even exists is really amazing given the circumstances of chef Scott's passing so I was delighted to get to Stone Cat Cafe and learn their story both from their general manager and their executive chef who had known and worked with Scott during his lifetime and during the course of the run of Stone Cat Cafe starting in 1999 we really enjoy the folks behind Hitching Post 2 and Hitching Post Wines up in Bueilton and up in the Santa Barbara area we've talked to owner chef and winemaker Frank Costini many times over the years and his winery partner Gray Hartley wonderful people very dedicated to the community believe it or not this fall marks the 20th anniversary of the release of the Academy Award Finney Academy Award winning feature film Sideways that is centered around the Hitching Post restaurant and Hitching Post Wines featured prominently in the film including Hitching Post 2 there is a series of anniversary celebrations that the folks behind Hitching Post 2 and Hitching Post Wines are involved with with the Searchlight Pictures who produced and released the film and will be catching up with both Frank and Gray on all the happenings it is as I like to say Sideways is the gift that keeps on giving to the Santa and as Valley then we will finish up with another in our preview segments of the upcoming Manhattan Beach Food and Wine Festival which is October 11th and October 12th we'll be visiting with Rob Levy who is the principal of Knox and Dobson that is the craft spirits firm with ready to drink cocktails and they will be sampling at the festival so is always a lot on our plate this morning you are listening to the SoCal restaurant show we're proudly presented by Melissa's World Variety Produce and West Coast Prime Meats give us a minute we'll be back with Hitching Post Wines
