Hello everyone. On behalf of Jill and I, we want to again wish our best to those affected by the fires. For those of us who have helped and supported the victims, please continue to show and give that support. They need us right now, and we continue to be with them.
I want to announce our 19th year of Falltacular. We’ve been blessed this many years with your help, and the support of the winemaker community, to raise money for our charity, www.laurashouse.org. The vision and goal for Falltacular has always been and for as long as we’re fortunate to do this work, we will battle with them against domestic violence, for the victims of violence, to defend them and restore their lives through legal support, education and a new start. This is our collective goal.
Many of you have been with us since the beginning, some just new to the event last year. The same for our winery partners. Whatever your tenure, we welcome you to attend on March 15th. For now, to message the next few steps in a simple fashion, it’s time to buy tickets and decide the Friday BYOB dinner.
To buy tickets to the Saturday event, you are now welcome to pay with credit card, and for the ease of administration, we encourage this method of payment. Each ticket will cost $125 and you can buy as many as you want. Just click here. There will be a dropdown called “My donation is for *” allowing you to select ‘Falltacular’. As you complete payment, there is a small bubble option for “Increase My Impact”, which allows you to cover the credit card transaction fee. This ensures the entire amount of your credit card donation goes to Laura’s House. I ask that you cover this fee to help us raise the maximum we can. Once you pay, your name and amount of tickets is added to a list, which I will receive, track and publish. Can you pay by check? Yes, you still can simply mail a check to Laura’s House in Alison Viejo, CA for the amount of your tickets. They will inform me if checks arrive, and I will add your tickets to the paid list.
The other thing I want to announce is whether we have the Friday BYOB dinner or not. (Should you not be interested in the dinner, you can simply skip the rest of this message.). For Friday dinner details, please read on…
For the Friday dinner, it’s been a Falltacular tradition. We’ve done Brick, Maison, Luciana’s, etc.–it’s how we had traditionally kicked off Falltacular, what had been in the past almost 80 of you on our biggest Friday nights. Yet for the past few years, I have seen attendance drop to about 40-45 paid, and I’ve heard mixed feedback that the venue is too crowded, or the food wasn’t quite right, etc.
Considering that feedback, I had given thought to just letting you all dine where you wanted yet I know this is an important kick-off for some of you. So, my pursuit is to balance doing this right, both for your joy and finding a great restaurant partner IF interest exists to do it.
To determine if the Friday dinner is going to be held, let me first show you the options and the minimum spend/attendance commitment that is tied with each.
LUCIANA’S Dana Point:
· The Outdoor Patio (by the front door). $3,250 (incl tax and tip) minimum. For comfortable spacing, (last year was 40 and I heard it was too tight) I’d recommend we limit to 35 people. This equates to $90-95 per person, with 35 people committed.
· The elevated Piazza (on the corner). $5,200 (incl tax and tip). To keep the price similar to the Outdoor Patio, we will need at least 55 people paid.
THE DOHENY CAFÉ Dana Point (the old Maison location, run still be Danielle of Maison):
· For the space, it’s 40 a person minimum. The price for credit card is $105 all-in, or $95 for cash.
So, how do we decide go/no-go for Friday? Simple. Please reply to me here and tell me how many people and for which choice. It’s a verbal commitment but consider carefully please because I will use the replies to conclude a decision. After my message here runs for several days, I will review the replies. Should we get enough people for one of the options, then I will ask for money and lock the restaurant choice that has been chosen.
If we don’t get sufficient verbal interest for one of the choices, then I will come back to you and tell you that, and then let you make informal plans with each other as you wish for Friday. You’d be welcome to dine at Luciana’s, the new Maison, even Basanti in San Juan or anything else locally you would want to arrange.
OK, that’s the plan. Please reply with verbal commitments if you are interested.
That’s it for now. More details to follow but for this moment, let’s get the Saturday ticketing completed and a decision about the Friday dinner made.