Thanksgiving alone makes November a month to give in to one’s appetites, but in our neck of the woods there’s another exceptional epicurean excuse: the San Diego Bay Wine & Food Festival!

This year’s gustatory gala, the 14th annual, is underway from November 12th through the 19th, when the climax of the whole affair, the Grand Tasting, goes down at Embarcadero Marine Park North. And listen up: Elegant accommodations at one of the most beautiful hotels in downtown SanDiego, the Sofia, put you within earshot of the festival’s figurative dinner bell.

Big-name chefs, insightful food discussions, and of course an all-around feast to remember: Don’t miss the 2017 San Diego Bay Wine & Food Festival, and take advantage of the Sofia Hotel’s proximity and fabulous hospitality while you do!

Events & Celebrity Chefs

The San Diego Bay Wine & Food Festival always draws quite the lineup of celebrity chefs, restaurateurs, and various other culinary movers-and-shakers, and the 14th go-round certainly lives up to the caliber of past years.

You can take a gander at the full roster of the 2017 festival’s “personalities” right here. A sampler platter? How about Katsuya Fukushima, executive chef of and partner in Daikaya, Bantam King, and Haikan, three awesome eateries covering a whole lot of territory in that rarefied realm of Japanese cuisine; Mei Lin, Season 12 winner of the popular TV series Top Chef; Tommy Gomes, fishmonger with Catalina Offshore; and Catt Fields White, the CEO of San Diego Markets.

The San Diego Bay Wine & Food Festival itinerary is similarly stuffed to the seams. Monday the 13th at the LOT Liberty Station sees the screening of Fermented, a new documentary starring internationally known chef Ed Lee. On Wednesday, November 15 at 6 PM, Kitchens for Good will host “Behind Farm to Table,” a panel discussion on the state of farming in the U.S. that’ll also feature some hands-on clinics in cheese-making and butchery.

At noon on Friday the 17th, Executive Sushi Chef Jeffrey Roberto will teach “Sushi + Sake” at Sushi on a Roll, a unique lesson that’ll also debut, for that day only, a special SanDiego Bay Wine & Food Festival Roll. That evening at 7 PM, meanwhile, Chef Aron Schwartz of Marina Kitchen will host fellow kitchen maestros Susette Gresham (Acquevello), Bernard Guillas (The Marine Room), and Kelly Mariani (Scribe Winery) for the edible nostalgia of the “Roots Dinner Experience,” focused on wine-paired dishes important to their careers.

And then of course there’s the Grand Tasting on Saturday the 18th, which begins at noon (unless you’ve landed yourself Early Admission for an hour before). More than 60 San Diego-area chefs will be on hand for this party, which’ll come lubricated by 700-plus wines plus all manner of craft beers and spirits. That comes followed up by a rooftop Stella Artois-presented after-party at Jsix centered on Asian cuisine, with Jsix’s Executive Chef Anthony Sinsay, the aforementioned Chef Fukushima, and Charles Phan, chef/owner of the Slanted Door restaurant line in San Francisco all whipping up some tip-top eats.

Take in the San Diego Bay Wine & Food Festival With a Room at the Sofia Hotel

So bring along that appetite of yours to the 2017 San Diego Bay Wine & Food Festival this week, and make your base of operations the Sofia Hotel: one of the leading hotels in downtown SanDiego—and home, mind you, to its own fantastic restaurant, Currant American Brasserie!