Jersey Shore Season Finale Party!
Come join us for fist pumping, good food and wine for the Jersey Shore Season Finale on October 21st between 8 and 11pm. Our tears will unite into one salty hot-tub of love that Snooki and The Situation will soak with us in. Alright, guido and guidettes, remember, to avoid a cover charge arrive wearing your best Jersey Shore fashion! Thursday, Oct 21 @ 8pm-11pm (Show airs at 10pm) Vino Napoli (next door to Little Napoli Bistro Italiano) Dolores St & 7th Ave Carmel-by-the-Sea 831.626.2032
Joey & the Gang – Sopranos
Joey Pantoliano, James Gandolfini, Steven Schirripa, Michael Imperioli, Federico Castelluccio, Steven van Zandt, Tony Sirico, and Dominic Chianese. They all signed this for me, and it hangs in Little Napoli.
Pèppoli, Under the Tuscan Moon – Oct. 8, 2010
With visiting Chef Liza Shaw of A16 and Chef Arturo D. Moscoso of Pèppoli Ciao Amici (hello friends), Our Under the Tuscan Moon dinner series continues at Pèppoli at Pebble Beach on October 8, 2010. Visiting chef Liza Shaw of the legendary A16 in San Francisco and Pèppoli chef Arturo Moscoso will each prepare two original dishes in the four-course prix fix dinner for you to choose from. As most of you know, Pèppoli at Pebble Beach is our Tuscan themed restaurant that was inspired by the Antinori family's Pèppoli Vineyard in Tuscany. The restaurant features world-class Antinori wines paired with
ABCs of the Aperitivo
Ciao Amici (hello friends), Mr. Italy is here to explain the Italian tradition of the "aperitivo". Stopping off at the local wine bar for a glass of prosecco or Italian cocktail after work is the perfect way to end your day, or begin your evening by meeting up with friends to get the night started. I also want to introduce my cousin Kristine Jannuzzi as a contributing writer for ASK MR ITALY. Our Pèpe ancestors came "over on the boat" from Avellino and landed in Hoboken, New Jersey. As Italian-Americans, Kristine and I are proud of our heritage, travel to Italy often, and
Italy’s top winemaker teams with Pèpe on Péppoli
When Marchese Peiro Antinori—on a trip to Carmel three years ago from his vineyards in Tuscany to attend the Maters of Food and Wine at Highlands Inn—expressed a desire to dine with his best California Customer, his wine distributor told him, “Then you’ll want to have dinner with Richard Pèpe of Carmel-by-the-Sea." It turned out to be an historic meeting between the renowned Italian vintner and the Carmel restaurateur. Since that time, Pepe—owner of Little Napoli—has flown back and froth across the Atlantic, hatching culinary plots with Italy’s most famous winemaker whose family vineyard holdings date back to 1385. What began as
Italy’s famed Antinori has enviable vineyards in California, too
What higher compliment can Italy’s greatest vintner pay to the sun and soil of California’s vineyards than to purchaser and plant 600 acres to Cabernet Sauvignon high above the Napa Valley and to vinify the grapes for his Atlas peak label under the name of “Consenso”? The Italian winemaster, Marquese Piero Antinori—who is referred to in Hugh Johnson’s “Encyclopedia of Wine” as “the voice of Italy in world wine circles”—told The Pine Cone this week, “I’m in love with that property!” Comparing his Napa Valley vineyard to similar vineyards he owns in Tuscany, the marquese said the Atlas peak property is hilly
The Carmel Pine Cone – Pepe & Pants
Many months ago, I received an email from my father asking if I knew some guy named Rich Pepe. “Sure, I’ve met him,” I said. “Mr. Italy, right? I believe we were both judges for the Monterey County wine Challenge.” Turns out, my father went to the same high school as Pepe in Cliffside Park, New Jersey, and a mutual friend of theirs (Nick Giarra, Class of 65) had just returned from a trip to Carmel to visit Mr. Italy himself. Of course, I’ve yet to cross paths with Pepe since this miraculous discovery, but the man has inadvertently won
Carmel Restaurant Owner Dons Boxing Gloves for Charity
Restaurateur Rich Pepe will get “beat up for charity,” at a celebrity boxing match in the Hyatt Regency Monterey Saturday, April 11. “A few months ago, famed boxing trainer Max Garcia asked if I would jump into the ring and be one of the celebrity boxers at his fundraiser,” Pepe explained. “Before I had time to think, I said ‘Yes,’ and then wondered what I just gotten myself into!” But he didn’t back out, and took to training with Garcia, who with his wife, Kathy, owns a boxing gym in Salinas. The Garcias are dedicated supporters of the Kinship Center, which helps abused
Winemaker Rich Pepe falls into vat of zinfandel!
You’ve got some splainin to do! By Kelly Nix CARMEL RESTAURANTER Rich Pepe can chuckle now. But falling noggin-first, Buster Keaton-style into a 6-foot-by 6-foot vat of zinfandel isn’t so funny. Well, maybe a little. “I’m in this soup of juice and grapes and skins and I’m half dizzy,” said Pepe, owner/chef of Little Napoli restaurant in Carmel. “I hit my head and shoulder, and everybody is laughing, and I’m like, ‘Ouch!’” He also fractured his elbow. Pepe’s tumble happened as he and 15 of his friends were in the process of making wine for “personal use” at a Carmel Valley home Oct.
Neapolitan Appeal
Our World Traditions Meet New Jersey-Style Italian At Napoli In Carmel For Italians, the center of family life occurs around the dinner table, where warm, lively conservation enhances the flavor of soulful, hearty food. Carmel’s Caffé Napoli adopts each diner into an oversized Italian American clan—arrive here and it’s suddenly Sunday dinner in South Jersey. The senses come alive in concert—the smell of grated hard cheese and tomatoes, the sight of animated, arm-waving dialogue, the sounds of silverware gnashing and Sinatra’s dulcet tones as a calming undercurrent. This is the way it was meant to be, the way it was for chef-owner
Pebble Beach Resorts adds another jewel to its dining crown.
Dining Review “Can you believe this used to be a sand mine?” My dining companion’s initial comment as we sat squarely in the middle of the opulent Tuscan villa-like surroundings that is Péppoli. From sand mine to the Bay Club at the Inn at Spanish Bay to what is now the fifth jewel in the crown of sophisticated restaurants partnered by Marches Iero Antinori—“the most important winemaker in Italy”, according to Wine Spectator magazine—world-class Pebble Beach Resorts just got a whole lot worldlier. Manoel Errico is the restaurant manager at the newly opened Péppoli, a veteran with the company from Spanish
The Delectable Dozen
Once again, another year has gone by and our local restaurants have created much for which many of us are thankful. Each year at this time, I list the dozen or so restaurants, reviewed in the past year, which stand out for me as being above the rest of the pack. This process of picking personal favorites obviously suffers from a subjective bias, but, if nothing else, my list provides a focus for other people to pick over and critique, as a way of identify8ing their own preferences. Over the course of the year, I have written reviews of 50 or so restaurants