Napa Valley…the vineyards…fine wine…the verdant countryside…and the roar of the Raceway! 

Infineon Raceway is one of the most unique venues in all of sports. Nestled in the Napa Valley, surrounded by fields and home to a heard of sustainably raised sheep (who needs lawn mowers!), the NASCAR speedway is a one-of-a kind experience for racing enthusiasts and anyone up for a unique experience. Recently, authors of the popular wine country blog Cardigan and Cook visited the track and enjoyed an afternoon of food and fun. Check out their post.

This week we raise our glasses to toast Spiaggia honored this week by Wine Spectator Magazine. The celebrated, award-winning Chicago restaurant helmed by Tony Mantuano received the “Best of Award of Excellence” an award recognizing restaurants with outstanding wine lists.

The restaurants that earn the “Best of Award of Excellence”  have wine lists that display either vintage depth, with offerings of several top producers from major regions or excellent breadth spread over several winegrowing regions. This year’s honors mark the 30 year anniversary of the publication’s international restaurant award.

Congratulations Spiaggia!

Cooking is our business, but it’s also at the heart of who we are. Making great food together with family, sharing recipes and heartfelt hospitality is how we got our start more than 30 years ago. Today we have the opportunity to pass on our tradition in the kitchen with a whole new generation of chefs.

This summer, our Downtown Disney locations created a unique three-part Kids Cooking Class, a program designed to share fun, practical and creative cooking skills with a class of aspiring young chefs.  The dishes on the menu included a chicken finger “sushi roll” from Wolfgang Puck Cafe,  ravioli gigante inspired by Portobello, and a chocolate chip cookie sundae from Fulton's Crab House. Participating kids donned proper chef toques and crisp white aprons and received special instruction from Levy chefs. Each child got a chance to create and taste their own dishes while our chefs had the opportunity to share their passion for cooking. Everyone had a lot of fun. (No food fights reported.)

This year, we will host our fourth MLB All-Star game in sunny Arizona at beautiful Chase Field. Of course we are gearing up for fans and preparing to serve up ballpark classics like hot dogs and burgers. (In fact, we expect to serve more than 80,000 hot dogs during the All-Star weekend!) But we know our guests like variety and the menu is filled with taste tempting options and Southwestern fair to satisfy the cravings of every die hard baseball fan at the ballpark. Here’s a look at what All Star fans can enjoy:

Snake Bites: Introduced exclusively for All-Star Weekend, Snake Bites are tasty taquitos filled with habanero chicken and pepper jack cheese served with ancho-lime dipping sauce.

Enchilada Dog: A Phoenix specialty, this chargrilled, footlong sausage is locally made and filled with cheese and three types of chilies and topped with a spicy remoulade and fresh pico de gallo.

The All-Star Summer Heater: This grandslam worthy sandwich is made with mortadella, smoked ham and salami, topped with jalapeno-olive relish and pepper jack cheese, and served smoking hot on grilled focaccia bread with onion rings and fried pickles.