Make Your Reservations Now for New Year’s Eve

If you’d like to join us on New Year’s Eve for dinner, better decide now.  Just like Valentine’s Day, those who wait to make reservations risk not getting a table. . .and you don’t want to be microwaving Swanson dinners on December 31!  Call the restaurant at 530-823-0320 to score your preferred time.

And the times, they are a changin’.  Back in the day like most joints, we would ring in the New Year with party favors, noisemakers and a gala midnight toast.  No mas.  These days its a more mellow program tuned to your chakra. . . we throttle back and provide our savvy clientele with a quiet sanctuary to acknowledge the dawn of the New Year.

Chef Alexander has created a fabulous, five-course dinner that can be your tasty, early prelude to the New Year, enabling you to return home safely, well before amateur hour begins.  Click here for the full menu preparations, an exercise in simplicity and elegance. . .Chef has made all the decisions, easing the agony of parsing choices.  We suspect everyone will be pleased (even vegetarians, who will be appeased).  Here’s the line up:

Course One:  Japanese Hamachi Tartare.  Course Two:  Puree of Parsnip Soup.  Course Three:  Seared Dayboat Scallop.  Course Four:  48-Hour Wagyu Beef Sabuton.  Course Five:  Valrohna Chocolate Torte.

Cost for the dinner is $105 per person, plus tax and tip.  To make reservations, you must call the restaurant at 530-823-0320; OpenTable.com is not available for this event.

How ever you spend the evening, have a great time and be prudent.  If you will be out and about, you have these choices:  appoint a designated driver; call a taxi or Uber; consume responsibly.  We want to see everyone make it home safely to enjoy the New Year!

Carpe Vino co-owner Gary Moffat presents a check for $5,000 to Placer Community Foundation board member, Ellen MacInnes, on the front porch of the company offices in a restored Victorian in Old Town Auburn. Pictured from left, PCF board members Larry Welch, Ruth Burgess and Pam Constantino; Carpe Vino co-owner Drew Moffat; Ellen MacInnes; PCF board member Ken Larson; Gary Moffat; and PCF CEO Veronica Blake.

Carpe Vino co-owner Gary Moffat presents a check for $5,000 to Placer Community Foundation board member, Ellen MacInnes, on the front porch of the company offices in a restored Victorian in Old Town Auburn.
Pictured from left, PCF board members Larry Welch, Ruth Burgess and Pam Constantino; Carpe Vino co-owner Drew Moffat; Ellen MacInnes; PCF board member Ken Larson; Gary Moffat; and PCF CEO Veronica Blake.

Members Donate $5k to Placer Community Foundation

Earlier this year, Drew and I decided we had to make a change. . .we needed to find another way to express our gratitude to our 1,200+ Carpe Vino Wine Club members for their loyal patronage and our solidarity in the appreciation of fine wine and great food.  Hosting our annual blowout party for 400 people in the middle of our busiest two weeks of the year just wasn’t sustainable logistically and because of the physical toll it took on our crew.

So, last week–as promised–we made a donation to the Placer Community Foundation for $5,000 in your name, the members of the Wine Club.  We’re actually neighbors with the PCF in Old Town, and CEO Veronica Blake and a gaggle of her board members walked over for the check presentation on the porch of our Victorian on Court Street.

The PCF prepared a very kind statement for our news release:  “We greatly appreciate the Moffats and the Carpe Vino Wine Club for their donation for food-based initiatives and programs directed at the homeless,” said Foundation Chair Pam Constantino. “We are grateful and proud to partner with Carpe Vino to help make a difference in the community.”

I have to tell you, it was a very proud moment for Drew and me to be able to truly give back to the community.  We’ve been doing it quietly since the day we opened our business, but we know that in the hands of the PCF, this gift will be converted to action to help the less fortunate who live among us.