Trattoria Neapolis rolled out the red carpet and delighted guests with nearly 40 different drink vendors at their private sold-out birthday bash celebrating their one-year anniversary at the exquisite Lake Avenue location with “What We Love.”
“The event really embodies what the restaurant is about. We call it ‘What we Love’ because we love Foothill Family, we love our community, but we also love our wine and our beer and our cocktails, our spirits and I must say the food. So you can see it’s a celebration of all that,” Proprietor Perry Vidalakis said.
In a delectable night of sampling, the chefs made food for each area of the restaurant featuring a whole roasted suckling pig, a variety of wood-burning oven pizzas, duck breast, rabbit, steamed mussels, octopus, Barolo risotto and so many more mouth-watering dishes.
So what else does Trattoria Neapolis love? They especially love Foothill Family Services choosing to donate $10 of each ticket sold to their services as well as the proceeds from a live auction with high bidding items.
“We feel gratified on both fronts; people are coming out to the restaurant and to support Foothill Family Services as well. Our hope is to make this an annual event. Were excited about the partnership,” Vidalakis said.
Foothill Family Service’s mission builds brighter futures—empowering children and families in the community to overcome challenges and achieve success in relationships, school and work.
The real highlight of the evening involved opportunities to meet the chef, winemakers, brewers, distillers and roasters who created the delectable offerings. With expert winemakers from California and Italy, artisanal cocktails from Neapolis’ own ‘Godfather of the L.A. Cocktail Scene,’ craft brews from Southern California and premium spirits the unique evening flowed easily into the glass.
One of these tantalizing handcrafted liqueurs was a third generation Italian family recipe fashioned by Manuela Zaretti-Carling and her husband in Ventura. Using the vast lemon resources grown in the protected valleys and rolling hills of Ventura County, Manuela has the lemons hand picked for her specialty Limoncello that was “conceived in Italy, born in California.” Ventura Limoncello features three award winning citrus liqueurs: Limoncello Originale, Limoncello Crema and Blood Orangecello.
“My husband when we were married 20 years ago fell in love with it, but I never thought he was actually going to push me to make it,” Manuela said.
Manuela came from Rome not imagining her grandmother’s recipe could be such a success. In the six years of business the Limoncello has been awarded two gold medals at the San Francisco World Spirits Competition.
One guest could not imagine herself celebrating her birthday anywhere else. Marianne Hooper invited four of her girlfriends out to celebrate her birthday at her favorite restaurant’s one year birthday.
In the jam-packed restaurant, the Fire Department entered the scene to verify codes were being followed.
The evening ended with more music by the live band, premium coffee by Stumptown and pastry desserts including a roasted Bartlett pear Tiramisu. The celebration of food, drinks, Pasadena, South Lake Avenue, Foothill Family Services and one year of community support to Trattoria Neapolis was a success.
For more information about Trattoria Neapolis, please call (626) 792 3000 or visit http://www.trattorianeapolis.com.
