Looking for a perfect evening for your Valentine’s Day? We’ve got it! Whether celebrating friendship or love, spend a casual evening with W&R and Big Booty Bob and The Backside Kickers enjoying classic rock and roll, blues and country standards along with fine food and exquisite dessert. Bring your sweetheart or best friend for a night of fun.
Call 209.371.6117 for reservations! But hurry, Big Booty Bob packs em in, and bring your dancing shoes!
We, at Wine & Roses, are ecstatic about our new partnership with Peerless Coffee and Teas.
Peerless Coffee and Tea is a 3rd generation family business. As you can see, the first Peerless beans were roasted in 1924 by John and Natalie Vukasin in Oakland, California.
With over 80 years of roasting experience, Peerless now markets more than 125 different types of coffee with choices including varietals, estate coffees, organics and flavored beans. Peerless works hard to create the perfect coffee experience for their customers, which we are now proud to call ourselves.
Peerless Coffee and Tea’s founder John Vukasin came to the new world with an entrepreneurial spirit and a deep desire to succeed. Coming from the coffee cultures of Europe, he began to experiment with his own coffee once he hit land. That experiment grew into the Peerless Coffee and Tea. By spending 4-6 hours in front of the roasters and at the cupping table, John honed his craft to a near-perfect science. He balanced tradition with a penchant for experimentation, always looking to improve on what he had developed the day before. A constant desire to produce the world’s best coffee kept his pursuit strong.
"Start with the best coffee beans money can buy, blend the coffees using unique recipes (some are 75 yrs old!), artisan roast in small batches in order to bring out the special characteristics of each bean, package and sell the coffee immediately to ensure the freshest coffee in town."
Along with their award winning coffees, Peerless offers a full line of gourmet teas hand selected from premier tea growing regions around the world. It’s a simple yet complex formula. While the history of tea dates back 2300 years and the history of Peerless dates only 80+ years, the devotion and expertise they have in the art of tea is parallel. For over 80 years, Peerless has sourced the world’s finest teas to be offered to their customers.
"Our Philosophy is simple; source the best and deliver fresh."
Peerless’ attention to detail and their superior customer service is what sets Peerless Coffee & Tea apart, and has made it a coffee industry leader in the Bay Area. We welcome Peerless to Lodi and to Wine & Roses!
Won’t you join us for a cup of coffee or tea?
Join us for another installment of Six and Six. An intimate wine setting in which we offer Six tastes paired with Six Wines. This time we are feturing the amazing and unique Micheal David Winery. We invite you to be our guests for delightful evening.
Looking for some great holiday house dressings? Look no further. From our kitchen to yours, Chef Didier and his culinary team have created these amazing, warm salad dressings that will put some magic into your holiday table.
Citrus dressing
House dressing
Butter Lettuce & Warm Shrimp Salad with Fennel & Japanese Citrus
W&R Autumn Salad- Field Greens, Fuji Apple, Autumn Fruits, Lodi Olive Oil & Rose Petal Jam Crostini
We meet lots of brides and grooms every day that are planning their wedding- the details, the guest lists, the menu, the flowers- every detail imaginable that is particular to that one special day when you become husband and wife. It is exhilarating, this planning process, and it can be fun and at some points stressful, but nonetheless, an exciting time. If you have followed this series, you will know that I always say that while planning your wedding is important, it’s more important to plan for your marriage. So with that, I came across this ”guide to love” that I thought I would share with all of our brides and grooms out there planning for their wedding day, the day that will lead you into a lifetime of love with each other.
What is love? Love can be defined as both an action and a feeling. The action of love generates a blissful feeling called by the same name. When the action stops, the blissful feeling is replaced with pain. There is a similar feeling called lust which may be confused with love. You need to decipher between the two in order to have a healthy heart. Every person is capable of great love (and its opposite, fear, which generates all painful emotions such as hate, greed and jealousy).
While there are many different ways to define love and there are many different ways to love someone (or even yourself), the simple foundation of love is this:
Say it. When you say the words “I Love You”, they should carry with them the desire to show someone that you love them, not what you simply want to feel. When you say it, make sure you really mean it and are willing to do anything for that special person.
Empathize. Put yourself in someone else’s shoes. Rather than impose your own expectations or attempt to control them, really do understand how they feel, where they come from, and who they are. Realize how they could also love you back just as well.
Love unconditionally. If you cannot love another person without attaching stipulations, then it is not love at all, but deep-seated opportunism (one who makes the most of an advantage, often unmindful of others). If your interest is not in the other person as such, but rather in how that person can enhance your experience of life, then it is not unconditional. If you have no intention of improving that person’s life, or allowing that person to be themselves and accepting them as they are, and not who you want them to be, then you are not striving to love them unconditionally.
Expect nothing in return. That doesn’t mean you should allow someone to mistreat or undervalue you. It means that giving love does not guarantee receiving love. Try loving just for the sake of love. Realize that someone may have a different way of showing his or her love for you; do not expect to be loved back in exactly the same way.
Never stop loving. Even if you have been hurt before you should not stop giving love.
So, to all of our beautiful brides and grooms: start and end your day with unconditional, unexpected, empathetic love that you want to shout from the rooftops! Share that love on your wedding day with your families and friends and let that love guide you through your lifetime with each other.
Invest in products and souvenirs that encourage sustainable living.
During the last century, whales, tigers, rhinoceros, and elephants reached the edge of extinction. Every day, several dozen species vanish from existence. Half the plant and animal species on earth may disappear before the end of the twenty-first century. Over-exploitation is one of the leading causes, because poaching- whether for meat, eggs, feathers, or skins- is very lucrative and is a strong temptation to people living in poor countries.
What can you do?
In developing countries, poaching often brings greater profits than respectable jobs in a sustainable industry. The best way to discourage poaching is to invest in products that have been developed sustainably, for a fair wage, in equitable conditions. It may take some extra research, but do some research on the country your are visiting and seek out sustainable cottage industries that employ native people. Then buy their wares.
Chef Didier and Owner Kathy Munson attended a newly created Lodi Chapter of Slow Food last night held at Lucas Winery. Slow Food? Yes. Slow Food is an international movement founded by Carlo Petrini in 1986. Promoted as an alternative to fast food, it strives to preserve traditional and regional cuisine and encourages farming of plants, seeds, and livestock characteristic of the local ecosystem. The Slow Food movement has since expanded globally to over 100,000 members in 132 countries. Its goals of sustainable foods and promotion of local small businesses are paralleled by a political agenda directed against globalization of agricultural products.
A Restaurant in Greece supports Slow Food with this placard
Slow Food is an idea, a way of living and a way of eating. It is a global, grassroots movement with thousands of members around the world that links the pleasure of food with a commitment to community and the environment. There are two basic principles: 1-From Plate to Planet, and 2- Good, Clean & Fair Food. In the United States, members of Slow Food USA’s 200 chapters celebrate the amazing bounty of food that is available and work to strengthen the connection between the food on our plates and the health of our planet.
FROM PLATE TO PLANET: Members are involved in activities such as:
GOOD, CLEAN & FAIR:
Good: The word good can mean a lot of things to a lot of people. For Slow Food, the idea of good means enjoying delicious food created with care from healthy plants and animals. The pleasures of good food can also help to build community and celebrate culture and regional diversity.
Clean: Clean food means nutritious food that is as good for the planet as it is for our bodies. It is grown and harvested with methods that have a positive impact on our local ecosystems and promotes biodiversity.
Fair: The belief that food is a universal right. Food that is fair should be accessible all, regardless of income, and produced by people who are treated with dignity and justly compensated for their labor.
Slow Food’s Vision: Food is a common language and universal right. Slow Food USA envisions a world in which all people can eat food that is good for them, good for the people who grow it, and good for the planet.
Slow Food is about the people who take the time to be part of it
Wine & Roses is proud to become active and involved with the Slow Food Movement. To learn more about Slow Food, visit www.slowfoodusa.org. If you want to get involved locally, contact Randy Caparoso at 209.642.6882
*Thank you to Slow Food USA.org for providing information for this blog.
For more
It’s that time of year again…Decadent Affair, our annual exclusive bridal event.
Decadent Affair is near and dear to our hearts as is any bridal show or event that one plans. I can say that it is special to me because it was a distant thought, a dream when I first started my journey with Wine & Roses 6 years ago. I have seen it go from an exciting “what if” to a concept, to a name, to a date, to a 1st time event, to a repeat event planned with more love and passion every year for the last 5 years.
What makes this bridal show different from all the others? Well…lots of things, starting with our Marketing material. Each year, we pick a real bride that got married at Wine & Roses to be the poster model for Decadent Affair. We pick brides that embody a W&R bride- authentic, gracious, humble, and beautiful on the inside. Our brides are everyday brides and the process of choosing the bride that will represent Decadent Affair is genuine and conducted with great care. Proudly, two brides we have chosen were part of our W&R team at one time and were also married at W&R.
Erin Parker-LoBue, W&R Employee, W&R bride, 2007 Decadent Affair Bride
The second secret of success is: our partners. We are fortunate to work with the best vendors in the business. We proudly hand select the vendors that participate in Decadent Affair. This process is also authentic; the vendors chosen are vendors from our referral list. To choose vendors for our referral list, the vendors are put through a process of qualification, so to speak, based on the quality of their product/services, value, relevance in today’s wedding industry, and service given to all of their brides and grooms. When we put a vendor on our list, it is a commendation of the highest regard. We are confident that all of our brides and grooms, no matter which vendor they select from our list, will receive an unparalleled experience. It is these vendors that make up Decadent Affair, and every year they bring a level of professionalism and grace to the show and raise the bar for the next year. In many cases, our families of vendors donate their services to make Decadent Affair what it is, and we are immensely proud and grateful to call them our partners and friends.
Lastly, Decadent Affair is not just an event; it is a genuine passion, an affection of the W&R Sales team. Charina, Angela, Cassaundra, Emily, Julie, and Catherine put this event together as if it was their own wedding, or their daughter’s wedding. The care, the attention to detail, the consideration of the brides, the time, the deliberate selections, the careful choices…all of that and everything else they put into the planning of this event in addition to the energy and support of the entire W&R team makes this not just another bridal show, but the most Decadent of all Bridal Affairs.
I invite you to join us Sunday March 20th from 5:00pm-7:30pm for Decadent Affair.
Decadent Affair 2011 (Erin Hopps-Stacher, W&R Employee, W&R Bride, 2011 Decadent Affair Bride)
Buy Fair-trade Products, and help combat child labor
Worldwide, approximately 211 million children between the ages of 5 and 14 years are forced to work. Three-quarters of these children work in agriculture. Employed on sugar cane, tea, tobacco, and coffee plantations, they often work in fields freshly sprayed with pesticides, sometimes working even while spraying is taking place. The fair-trade label guarantees that a product comes from an equitable situation in which there is fair payment for workers, forced labor is forbidden and of course, children are not used a cheap labor.
What can you do?
Buying fair-trade products is, among other things, a way of safeguarding basic human rights, in particular the rights of children.
Look for this symbol when purchasing products
To find out more about fair-trade, visit the Fair Trade Foundation
Recycle Your Christmas Tree
As soon as Christmas is over, countless Christmas trees are dumped on sidewalks, to be picked up with the household waste and burned in incinerators. This process, which is costly for the community, involves the waste of a raw material that could benefit the soil. Some towns collect the trees for composting. In Georgia, more than 135 communities and organizations sponsored a ‘Bring One for The Chipper’ Christmas tree composting event. Over the last 5 years, the program has recycled almost 4 million trees.
(Discarded Christmas trees in San Francisco are picked up curbside, sent through a chipper, and then used as fuel at a waste-to-energy facility. Last year through the city’s curbside tree recycling program, around 500 tons of Christmas trees were saved from landfills and recycled.)
What can you do?
If your local authority does not collect Christmas trees, ask if it can arrange to do so. Also, consider alternatives, like a potted Christmas Tree that can be planted in the garden. You can also get an artificial tree.
