September 10, 2006
“If you are going to America, bring food.” – Fran Lebowitz
TIME SURE DOES FLY WHEN YOU’RE HAVING FUN, and I can’t think of anything more fun than the third annual Italian food and Wine Festival to be held at Belmar in Lakewood from 10 am to 7 pm, Saturday and Sunday, September 23 and 24. The two-day food festival is part of the five-day citywide Festival Italiano from September 20–24, celebrating Italian culture and featuring the sights, sounds and flavors of Italy.
Wow! The first festival was held on one day on one block of Alaska Drive and was packed. Last year it was one day, two blocks of Alaska Drive and was still jammed all day long. This year it will be held for two days on two blocks of Alaska Drive. And folks, it’s gonna be packed again. Just pray for good weather cuz the last two years it was stupendous.
If you want to know about the new, free performance by the Jefferson Symphony Orchestra or all the other events and vendors, visit the Belmar website at www.belmarcolorado.com. I’m here to talk about the grub.
At this writing there are more than two-dozen vendors serving meals and snacks, four vendors serving wine, and another two-dozen vendors offering merchandise and services including several travel agencies that specialize in tours to Italy. G and I can be found at the travel agency booths. But onto the grub.
I assume y’all know that food will be for sale (as opposed to freebie samples) but at very reasonable prices. The following will be serving meals and sangies
Abrusci’s Italian Restaurant (3244 Youngfield St, 303/232-2424; www.abruscis.com). Owner Steve Progar and his talented crew will be offering sausage sangies and rigatoni. If you want some of their fabulous house made tiramisu, you’ll have to go to the restaurant and get it there.
Avanti Catering, a specialized caterer, will be serving Italian beef sangies; pasta; and meataball sangies.
Carmine Lonardo’s Meat Market (7585 W. Florida Ave, 303/985-3555) will be serving their famous house made sausage & peppers along with: stuffed cannoli; Italian ice; and pepper shooters.
Deli Italia (1900 Wadsworth Blvd, 303/238-7815; www.deliitalia.com) will be offering antipasto salad; sausage & pepperoccini salad; olives; and tomato & snap beans.
Mici Handcrafted Italian (1531 Stout St, 303/629-6424; www.miciitalian.com) will be serving their popular pizza. But watch out for the bald guy (or two or three).
Nonna’s Chicago Bistro & Wine Bar (6603 Leetsdale Dr, 303/399-2000) will be serving sausage on a stick; meataball sangies; cannoli; and homemade giardiniara (four kinds of Italian peppers).
Oliveto Cucina Italiana (3355 S. Yarrow St, 303/988-2400; www.olivetorestaurant.com) will offer marinated chicken & veggie skewers; and cannoli.
Polidori Meats (3327 Tejon St, 303/455-5701) will serve sausage & peppers; and sausage on a stick. Sounds yummy to me.
Three Sons Italian Restaurant (2915 West 44th Ave, 303/455-4366; www.threesons.net), will be feeding the masses Italian beef sangies; meataballs; and pasta.
Tonali’s Meats (6260 West 52nd Ave, 303/940-8700). This family of butchers will be serving up some mighty fine steak.
Tony Rosacci’s Fine Catering (1201 E. Caley Ave, 303/662-9353; www.tonyrosaccicatering.com) will serve lasagna Bolognese; garlic Parmesan breadsticks w/dip; Italian chocolate (an oxymoron); and dipped biscotti. In case you ain’t made the name connection, these are the same folks who own Tony’s Meats and Specialty Foods (7421 W. Bowles Ave, 720/377-3680; www.tonysmarket.com). If there’s a dude with a cockeyed chef’s cap, that’s Chef Mick.
Valente’s Italian Restaurant (6995 West 38th Ave, 303/421-5115; www.valentesitalianrestaurant.com) Mr. Ray will be serving toasted ravioli w/sauce; cavatelli; tiramisu; and meataballs. Ever have Chef Robert make one of his one-pound buggers? Yo!
Virgilio’s Pizzeria Napoletana (7986 W Alameda Ave, 303/985-2777; www.virgiliospizzeria.com) will be offering pizza; meataballs, cannoli; and their unbelievable garlic knots.
Wholly Tomato (955 Lincoln St, 303/860-0041; www.whollytomato.com) will serve gourmet sangies. Since this is a healthy place to eat, it's anyone’s guess what the sangies will comprise of, and their website was temporarily down when I was writing this.
Most of the next dozen or so vendors don’t operate restaurants but will be serving snacks and dessert items. I’m not going to list the address info cuz if you like their stuff you can get that info from their booth if they want you to know how to find them.
In addition to all the stuffing and slurping, there will be bocci tournaments, wine seminars, chef demonstrations, Italian lessons, a Balistreri Vineyards Children’s Grape Stomp, Children’s Italian Story Time every hour, the symphony that I mentioned earlier, Italian film classics at Century Theatres and the famous Italian flag throwers! For all the info on the festival, visit their website at www.belmarcolorado.com and click on the link for Festival Italiano.
Cya.
In his real life Jay Fox is a CPA. He offers all kinds of good tax planning advice, financial calculators and the latest in tax news at his website: www.jayfoxcpa.com. He just writes this column for the money.