Taste of Little Italy will return to San Diego June 18-19. The popular food event will feature dishes and drinks from more than 20 neighborhood restaurants over 48 square blocks.
To learn more about what to expect this year, CBS 8 was joined by: Chris Gomez, District Manager, Little Italy Association; Roberta Cotta, Partial Owner & Manager, Puerto La Boca; Katie Reinholtsen, General Manager, Queenstown Public House; and Fabrizio Cavallini, Executive Chef, Bencotto and Monello.
To learn more about the event and buy tickets, visit https://www.littleitalysd.com/events/taste-of-little-italy
[Music] if you live anywhere near the coastline in San Diego you know it’s kind of June Gloom out there too it’s actually drizzling a little bit so why not have a big bowl of pasta to make yourself feel better because you know what bikini season that’s still several months away here in San Diego taste a Little Italy it is coming back it is going to be amazing this year mark your calendars it’s Tuesday and Wednesday of next week we’re going to give you a little preview here this afternoon on the for of chrisom as Little Italy District manager Chris thanks for coming with us here on the Flor okay so tell us what you can expect at Taste of it Little Italy this year uh so this year we have over two days June uh 18th and 19th uh from 4:00 to 8:00 p.m. uh people can come and experience 20 different restaurants each day uh we have as you see today three restaurants that are going to be uh showcasing some of the cuisine they’re going to be doing but the great thing about the taste of Little Italy is that it’s not all Italian like we have Argentinian Steakhouse we have Queenstown New Zealand food and then we have traditional pasta oh that looks so good and everything smells incredible I have a problem though Chris I went to your website and it said it was sold out we released a special batch for today and a little tomorrow too so stay tuned serious okay so I’m going to tell our friends at home hang tight I’m going to tell you how you get these tickets because up until like a few minutes ago it was sold out so let’s come over here real quick I want to introduce you to Katie from Queenstown Public House and your philli thanks for coming here with us on the FL Katie what do you guys have uh for folks to taste next week so we’re going to be featuring our catch chili it’s going to be organic um ground turkey we have our cornin it white beans jalapenos run onions and cheddar cheese with our fresh made tortilla chips that looks so good my eyes are on that giant burger though what is that um so Philip’s going to do a little thing for it right now so this is the be lamburger okay which is 100% organic grass-fed lamb um plated with mint jelly fried egg and beetroot which pairs really well with the lamb wow that looks so good and then if you’re coming in for French though yes we have our famous French toast it’s paired with strawberries um bacon and then we have our um cinnamon honey butter and then the syrup right here for you as well I bet that’s so good but if you’re coming to the taste of Little Italy expect that amazing chili yes okay so that’s what we’re going to be tasting again this is from the Queenstown Public House which is right there in the heart of Little Italy okay now I want to introduce you uh to Roberta from Puerto laoka thanks for coming in thank you for having us your name is Rulo tell me what you’re going to be uh serving up for folks next week uh we’re serving our specialty the skirt steak called enta and along with our chimy churi sauce that it’s uh homemade and a taste of our very own malbach uh bottle and labeled in Argentina oh my goodness so I did notice that if you said that the chimy Cherry sauce was homemade but do you sell it in the jar too yes we sell it in a jar we make it at the restaurant and it’s a 16 o ‘s jar and you can take home anytime you want okay so you can bring the little taste of Little Italy back home with you some of the other dishes that are out here this is our Lomo it’s a fon topped with a reduction of malback wine sauce and porini mushrooms and we have some empanadas we have different flavors beef chicken spinach and cheese corn and cheese and ham and cheese and this is a skirt steak as well this is H for two people it’s a platter meant to be shared I like how you say that although I’m pretty sure I could finish that myself if I was hungry enough that looks really good all right you’re slicing into that skirt steak here so how we serve it yes you slice it we slice it thinly I can see that and you put it at the chimy churi sauuce chimu on top which looks really good and that’s what you’re going to be tasting how we serve it with a little glass of Mal as well oh even the way you say that just makes it I know it’s going to taste good just cuz the way you said it sheers to the taste of Little Italy that looks really okay so now it’s time for our pasta cuz we’re not coming down to Little Italy without trying some of the pasta we have our friends fabrio cavalini cavalini from benot how did I do good everything good so we have two different kind of pasta so Tuesday we will serve the Cavatelli in truffle cream sauce and mushroom and Wednesday we will serve mono the handmade with kacho Pepe and bacon okay so tell me about these giant cheese wheels well this is a 24 months parmesan Oran so it’s coming from north of Italy there between mod and Penta so it’s very the best cheese in the world okay I don’t say that the people say that okay and this is Pino Romanos coming from of course the area around Rome okay so so you put the hot pasta on top of it and then the cheese sort of melts all yeah with the with the hot of the pasta and we scrape the cheese mix together and serve and there you go well your favorite dish by the wayant for me it’s going to be the oete this is for commonly known as like an ear shaped pasta so it actually the the sauce sits right inside of it and you just get all of it get a little bit every single bite so wor it oh that’s going to be fun okay so the taste of Little Italy again it is next Tuesday and Wednesday we’re almost out of time but really quick I want to come over here to Chris because folks are saying wait I thought it was sold out it’s not it’s not go get your tickets now we released some batch just for the segment okay go to the website the website uh little sd.com their $55 uh ticket and like I said their small small number pass but the great thing is so much food you can actually split one passport for two people all right sounds good to me I’ll see you down there taste a little Little Italy if I can say it right next week