Food, Wine, and Opera

SARASOTA — On Saturday, the Sarasota Opera House hosted a Food and Wine Festival to benefit its youth opera and education programs. The event showcased the very best food in the Sarasota/Bradenton area while raising money for a worthy cause.

For 40 years, the Sarasota Youth Opera has allowed thousands of students to experience opera by participating in chorus, mainstage productions, summer workshops, and fully staged youth opera productions complete with professional orchestras, sets, and costumes.

Participating restaurants included East West Catering, EVOQ – Westin, Five-O Donuts, Happy Soul, Jack Dusty, Mattison’s, Marcel, Michael’s On East, Molly’s Pub, Nothing Bundt Cakes, Pier 22/Grove, Rose & Ivy, Sage Restaurant, Selva Grill, and Wolfie’s Delicatessen. Wine was provided by 99 Bottles, beer by Gold Coast Eagle, and cocktails by Nautical Gin.

While every eatery brought its A-game, several swerved into the sublime. Top honors would have to go to Michael’s on East for their gourmet slider, which saw a pork/ground sirloin patty sandwiched in a perfect sourdough brioche bun, topped with sprouts, a long slice of pickled okra, and house aioli. Sage was a very close second with a perfectly soft, moist new potato, hollowed out and filled with impossibly tender shredded beef short rib.

Wolfie’s Delicatessen came in a close third, serving moist yet crisp latkes topped with fresh creme and chunky, extra-ripe applesauce. Honorable mentions go to the opera house's next-door neighbors, Rose & Ivy, for the pork bao buns and the perfectly simple yellowfin tuna sashimi topped with jalapeno by East West Catering.

Mark Tuchman, 99 Bottles Taproom & Bottle Shop proprietor, did an outstanding job sourcing the wine. Had you told me that none of my favorites would be reds, I never would have believed it, but starting with an excellent white sangria and sparkling Cava, it only got better. My favorites of the day were Argiolas Costamolino Vermentino di Sardegna DOC and Francois Montand Brut Rose.

Sardinia is an Italian island in the Mediterranean Sea. The island's climate is perfect for harvesting beautiful Vermentino grapes in autumn. This is way over on the dry, unsweet end of the spectrum, the only place I tend to find palatable whites. Argiolas Costamolino Vermentino di Sardegna ($16) was perfect for a hot, sunny afternoon with a fruity and floral fragrance, solid crispness, stone fruit, and citrus flavors.

Usually, rosé is second only to prosecco among my least favorite wines. Still, a server insisted I try Francois Montand Brut Rosé ($12.99) if only to experience what rosés were like before so many American winemakers turned them into overly sweet offerings geared towards those who don’t really like wine. This dry, pale, and minimally sweet rosé also proved perfectly refreshing on a sweltering final day of summer. The sleeper of the day was when I happened upon the Nautical Gin tent upstairs.  They served a mini Mari-Thyme (Nautical Gin, fresh lemon juice, elderflower liqueur, simple syrup, and a splash of club soda), providing more welcome relief to the midday heat.

The event even included a performance by the youth opera. The Sarasota Opera will kick off its Fall season with The Music of Giuseppe Verdi concerts on Friday, Nov. 15 at 7:30 p.m. and Sunday, Nov. 17 at 3 p.m. Tickets are currently available here.

On October 18, The Greatest Show on Earth will return to the building where it premiered in 1952 when the opera house building was home to the Florida Theater. The circus-themed film was shot in Sarasota and directed by the legendary Cecil B. DeMille. Starring Charlton Heston, Jimmy Stewart, Betty Hutton, and Cornel Wilde, the movie won two Academy Awards, including Best Picture. Tickets are currently available here.

Dennis "Mitch" Maley is an editor and columnist for The Bradenton Times and the host of our weekly podcast. With over two decades of experience as a journalist, his Sunday opinion column has appeared in TBT since 2010. He is a graduate of Shippensburg University and later served as a Captain in the U.S. Army. Click here for his bio. His novels and short story collection are available here.