GEORGETOWN: October Events at Via Umbria

There are lots of upcoming events throughout the month of October at Via Umbria in Georgetown including a cheese party highlighting Mountain Top Bleu, a wine dinner with winemakers from Abruzzo, and a showing of Silence of the Lambs with an Italian buffet.

• On Wednesday, October 5, Via Umbria will host their monthly cheese club party, an event which highlights and celebrates cheeses from around the world. This cheese party will pay homage to Firefly Farms’ most highly awarded cheese, the Mountain Top Bleu, with a vertical tasting of the cheese’s different stages of ripeness. The event will be co-hosted by founders Mike Koch and Pablo Solanet along with Via Umbria’s cheese monger, Alice Bergen Phillips. Members of the market’s Cheese of the Month Club will leave with a ½ pound of Mountain Top Bleu cheese. The event will be held from 7:30-9:00 p.m. and tickets can be purchased here for $25 per guest. Admission is free for members of the club.

• Via Umbria will celebrate flavors of the Abruzzo region during the week of October 10. A demonstration dinner will be held on October 13 and guests will have the opportunity to learn how to create traditional fare from this historic Italian region with Chef Johanna Hellrigl before dining at the communal table. Instructional dinner service begins at 7:30 p.m. and tickets can be purchased here for $75 per person. On October 14 and 15, Via Umbria will host dinners featuring wines from Marramiero Winemakers. Guests will have the opportunity to learn firsthand from Marramiero staff about the complexity of winemaking and the care taken in every step of the process while enjoying a menu themed around the region’s traditional dishes. A “Choose Your Own Bottle” or CYOB dinner service will be held on Friday October 14th beginning at 7pm; tickets can be purchased here for $65 per guest, and a Wine and Dine dinner service will be held on Saturday October 15th beginning at 7:30pm; tickets can be purchased here for $110 per guest.

  

  Photo: www.thegeorgetowndish.com

• There will also be a series of CYOB dinners starting Friday, October 7. During Via Umbria's CYOB dinners, guests have the opportunity to partake in a short, guided wine tasting in the wine room to learn the secrets behind pairing wines with their meal, before choosing a bottle for the evening. The first dinner will feature the flavors of fall with a four-course prix fixe meal, and a wine bottle of the diner’s choice. The next CYOB dinner will take place on October 21 and will celebrate all things truffle with a four course menu that explores the flavors of this seasonal culinary delight.

• Continuing the restaurant’s celebration of truffles in October, Via Umbria will host a Wine and Dine Dinner on Saturday, October 22 to showcase the decadent flavor of truffles, specially shipped in from Italy. Each course will highlight truffles in some way, and each plate will be paired with a wine carefully selected by Via Umbria's wine experts specifically to enhance these flavors. Dinner service will begin at 7:30 p.m. and tickets, available for $110 per guest, can be purchased here.

• In preparation for Halloween, on Tuesday, October 25, Via Umbria will host a ‘dinner and a movie’ night with a big-screen showing of The Silence of the Lambs. Along with this nail-biting psychological thriller, there will be a buffet dinner including some fava beans and a nice Chianti. Food will be served at 7:30 and the movie will begin at 7:40. Tickets are $25 per guest and can be purchased here. 

Photo: pcs-gc.com

• Via Umbria will host a Wine and Dine dinner on October 28 with the winemakers of Le Marche's Fontezoppa Winery. The meal will highlight flavors of the fall season, and each course will be paired with a wine specially selected by the winemakers to complement the dish. Dinner service will begin at 7:30 p.m. and tickets are available for $110 per person here. 

Photo: pcs-gc.com

• Finally, Via Umbria will participate in several community events throughout the month. On the 14th and 15th of October, the restaurant will be among the 22 shops participating in Passport to Fall, Georgetown Row’s introduction to the autumn season. Throughout the weekend, Via Umbria will offer apple cider and spiked cider drinks, pumpkin food specials, and a free gift for customers with a valid Georgetown Student ID. Once purchased, guests can then redeem as a “stamp” on their passport for a chance to win a gift certificate. On Sunday, October 16, Via Umbria invites guests to an afternoon reception to view and purchase work from four artists from Washington Printmakers Gallery. The artists, Nina Muys, Rosemary Cooley, Deron Decesare, and Jane Mann will be displaying several pieces inspired by their love for Italy. The reception will begin at 2:00 p.m. in Via Umbria’s gallery.

 

Via Umbria is located in upper Georgetown, at 1525 Wisconsin Avenue, NW