Old Monterey District Blog

Monterey Public Library Friends & Foundation presents the 16th Annual Chocolate & Wine Fundraiser, held online on Saturday, February 27 at 7pm. Celebrate with chocolate, wine, and savories from the comfort of your home! Visit the library virtually, see what's cooking with an expert chef, discover online learning opportunities, and much more.

Tickets range $40-$100 and all proceeds benefit Monterey Public Library. Learn more and make your reservation here. You may pick-up your gift bag on Saturday, February 27, 1pm-3pm in the Pacific Street parking lot next to Monterey Public Library or pay an extra $10 for special delivery to your Monterey Peninsula home.

Ticket Options

$40 - Event registration only, no gift bag

$75 - Event registration with basic chocolate and wine gift bag
includes wine, chocolates, savories, printed program

$100 - Event registration with premium chocolate and wine gift bag
includes wine, chocolates, savories, printed program, commemorative wine glasses, face mask

Monterey Marriott Hotel invites you to leave the cooking to Chef Josh Silva-Arias and order our Valentine's Day Dinner To-Go, available February 13 and 14.

Our take-out Valentine's dinner menu includes: salad with lettuce, heart of palm, and sprouts; a surf and turf combination plate featuring Maine lobster tail and grilled New York steak; and mascapone cheesecake. View full menu here.

Price is $60 per plate plus 9.25% tax. No pre-ordering is necessary. Available for take-out on February 13 and 14, 4:30pm-9pm at Monterey Marriott, 350 Calle Principal in Downtown Old Monterey. For more information, please call 831-649-4234.

As a gift to the community, Youth Arts Collective has started an online Art Workshop Series consisting of projects that can be done at home or in the classroom and are appropriate for all ages.

The first in the series is the Magazine Collage Workshop, led by Marcia Perry and Raven Cook. The video, which lasts approximately 20 minutes, includes finished examples, instructions, and demonstrations for collage making to create your own personal expressions, compositions, and journals using recycled magazines and calendars.

Watch for the next art video coming to YAC's YouTube channel in two weeks: “All Hearts!” in which we'll create ribbon, paper and yarn heart mobiles. YAC's mentors wish all of you happy art making!

Youth Arts Collective is based at 472 Calle Principal in Downtown Old Monterey. Do art. Be kind.

In response to the COVID-19 emergency, the County of Monterey is seeking healthcare professionals and other healthy adults to meet the County's continued resource demands in critical areas of the COVID-19 emergency response efforts.

If you would like to learn more about volunteering opportunities for healthcare volunteers and general volunteers, please click here. There, you can read more information about volunteering and complete an Emergency Volunteer Form.

Please note that becoming an Emergency Volunteer is a lengthy and involved process and should only be undertaken if you can fully commit to a minimum of 16 hours per week for at least three consecutive weeks.

As one of Monterey's mainstays of the community, Epsilon Fine Greek Restaurant is trying to reopen its doors at 422 Tyler Street in Downtown Old Monterey. After 30 years of serving the community authentic homemade Greek food, combined with an incredible dining experience so many have come to love, Epsilon was forced to close its doors in early November due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

To assist with our reopening efforts, we have launched a GoFundMe page to ask the community for your support. Please make a donation if you are able.

Once we raise enough funds to help with our reopening, we'll host an appreciation dinner for all our friends who supported us with donations and we'll resume serving our take-out menu. Then, when Covid restrictions are lifted, Epsilon will return to its full amazing menu and dining experience.

We thank you for your tremendous support all these years and thank you in advance for your help in getting our 30-year-old restaurant back open to serve you once again.

Christos Hix
Owner, Epsilon Fine Greek Restaurant

Puma Road at Portola Plaza presents a February Rose Special! This month only, we're offering our 2018 rose at $10 per bottle or $100 per case.

Located at 281 Alvarado Street, Puma Road's wine tasting room is currently open for outdoor wine tasting and wine sales Thursday - Sunday, 1pm-6pm.

Monterey County Youth Museum misses all of you a lot and we want to try something... Please have your kid(s) decorate a heart (or five or ten) with marker, crayons, or paint and then write something they love on it. When you're done, drop it off at MY Museum at 425 Washington Street in Downtown Old Monterey and stick it in between our doors.

Our staff will collect the hearts and hang them on the front window of the museum. We want to cover the windows with all that love. It would make us and everyone that walks by so happy! Keep in mind: you can write anything your kid loves, but *extra credit* if it happens to be something about MY Museum.

The Super Bowl is happening this Sunday, February 7, and Crown and Anchor has some to-go specials perfect for you and your family to enjoy as you watch the big game!

They're offering 20 chicken wings (your choice of hot buffalo or BBQ sauce with ranch dressing) for $20. They're also offering one rack of baby back pork ribs (2-3 servings) along with 12 oz. bowl of chili beans and a 12 oz bowl of mac and cheese with bacon bits for $35.

Please call to place your order by Friday, February 5, 831-649-6496. Pick up after 1pm on Sunday. Gratuity and service will be added. Crown and Anchor is located at 150 West Franklin Street in Downtown Old Monterey.

Celebrate Valentine’s Day with your sweetheart on the patio of Esteban Restaurant or take your meal to-go and enjoy an evening of romance in the setting of your choice on Sunday, February 14, 4pm-9pm. Esteban's three course, prix fixe dinner menu showcases thoughtfully prepared and locally sourced dishes. $60 per person.

VALENTINE'S DINNER MENU

Salt Roasted Red Beet Salad
local garden greens, feta, caramelized spiced walnuts, pickled red onion, ginger-cranberry vinaigrette

Grilled Mishima 5-Star American Wagyu Butcher’s Steak & Seared Wild Sea Scallops
with crispy Yukon potatoes, roasted heirloom carrots, chimichurri, brava sauce

Chocolate & Caramel Pot de Creme
with candy cap streusel, port Chantilly creme

Esteban Restaurant is located at 700 Munras Avenue adjacent to Casa Munras Garden Hotel & Spa in Downtown Old Monterey. Please call 831-375-0176 to secure your table on the patio or pre-order dinner for curbside pick-up. (Selections from our curbside menu will also be available for to-go orders.)

MY Museum presents an engaging online conversation with New York Times bestselling author Katherine Center followed by a Q&A on Saturday, February 13, at 4pm. Tickets are $20-$65. All proceeds go to MY Museum to support the nonprofit organization during its temporary closure during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Katherine Center is the author of several novels about love and family: The Bright Side of Disaster, Everyone Is Beautiful, Get Lucky, and The Lost Husband. Her books and essays have appeared in Redbook, People, USA Today, Vanity Fair, and Real Simple as well as in numerous anthologies.

Katherine believes joy is just as important as sorrow. That’s why her stories are always about resilience and struggle and finding ways to savor life’s moments of grace. That’s why her characters joke around so much, even in the shadow of hardship. And that’s why Katherine will never, ever, run the main character over with a bus in the final chapter.

Katherine is a graduate of Vassar College and the University of Houston’s Creative Writing Program. She lives in Houston with her husband and two children.

Great news, everyone! On January 25, 2021, the California Department of Public Health announced that the recent Regional Stay-at-Home Order has lifted and regions throughout California have reentered the Purple Tier of Covid-19 restrictions.

This means that restaurants may now offer outdoor dining and hair salons, barbershops, nail salons, skin care spas, massage studios, and tattoo parlors may reopen.

You're invited to call to your favorite hair professional or personal service provider and make an appointment. But please be patient - the announcement was a surprise, and it may take a day or two for businesses to get up and running again.

The coronavirus remains prevalent here, so please continue to follow the mask and social distancing protocols required by Monterey County to keep everyone safe. Be aware that most restaurants continue to offer take-out, curbside pickup, and delivery, while many retail stores welcome orders online and over the phone along with curbside pickup and shipping.

Youth Arts Collective invites you to visit our virtual Valentine's Art Show featuring new artwork by YAC students. Our online art exhibit and store will open on February 10 on our website and run through April 2021. Support young artists from our community!

Youth Arts Collective is a nonprofit art studio and mentorship program for motivated high school and college artists. Our mission is to inspire creativity, kindness, and confidence in our youth through expression and mutual respect. YAC continues to operate, in a socially-distanced manner, during the pandemic.

Do art. Be kind.