GEORGETOWN: There Are Many Holiday Happenings at Via Umbria To Make You Feel Festive

This December, Via Umbria, the Italian food emporium and café in Georgetown will celebrate the holidays with a month full of cooking, cocktail and cookie-making classes, festive drinks and Italian dinner parties. Below are the details, but please let me know if you have any questions.

Georgetown GLOW – December 2 – January 1st
As part of the Georgetown BID’s annual GLOW celebration, Via Umbria will offer three cocktails that light up with the addition of special illuminated ice cubes, including:

• Santa’s Sleigh - Italian Drinking Chocolate, Peppermint Rumpleminz, with a candy cane garnish
• Partridge in a Pear Tree - Prickly pear aperitivo, lemon juice, gin, prosecco
• Dominic the Donkey - Bourbon, lemon juice, amaro, aperol

Italian Christmas Cookie Making Class - Sunday, December 11,4:00-5:30 p.m.
Join Executive Chef Johanna Hellrigl in the kitchen as she recreates her favorite Italian Christmas cookies, including biscotti alle spezie (spiced cookies, including mostaccioli with chocolate) and palle di neve (snow balls). Roll up your sleeves and learn how to bake and decorate these traditional Italian cookies and take some home with you.
Price: $25

Christmas Cocktail Class – Tuesday, December 13, 7:30 p.m.
Cocktail director Michael Rovezzi will help guests spice up their holiday by demonstrating five different seasonal cocktails giving attendees the opportunity to mix and shake up a cocktail themselves. Utilizing the spices and spirits of the season, including rosemary, grapefruit, fennel, brandy and winter spices, guests will be shown five Italian Christmas cocktails to serve for the holidays. A $25 ticket fee for this class includes a tasting of five different craft cocktails and instructions for creating a full cocktail. Cocktails will include the Rosemary Me; the Moscato d’Agrumi; the Fennel is your Frond; the Christmas In Barolo; and Italian Mulled Wine. More info available at: http://viaumbria.com/december-13-christmas-cocktail-class.html

Italian Christmas Dinner: Feast of the Seven Fishes – December 15, 7:00 p.m.
Celebrating Christmas in the traditional Italian way means Festa dei sette pesci, the Feast of the Seven Fishes. At Via Umbria, enjoy the traditional seafood feast prepared by Chef Johanna Hellrigl, and ask Via Umbria’s in-house wine experts about the perfect pairing for your meal, or select your favorite cocktail or beer from the cafe to enjoy with your dinner, available for purchase at retail price. The meal is served at a communal table. Pre-purchased tickets are required to join the dinner and can be purchased online at viaumbria.com/events, by calling 202/333.3904 or emailing feedme@viaumbria.com. Tickets are $100 per person, exclusive of tax and gratuity. More info is available at: http://viaumbria.com/december-15-cyob-dinner-feast-of-the-seven-fishes.html

Throughout the month, Via Umbria will host a number of other “Italian Dinner Parties” with 'choose your own bottle' options available, as well as bottomless Rossini brunches on Sundays except for Christmas Day. They will also show holiday movies such as "Love Actually" and "The Holiday" (December 14th and 20th) with dinner to go with each. Chef Simone Proietti-Pesci is visiting from Italy and will host a demo and dinner on December 1st. All details are available on the Via Umbria website calendar: http://viaumbria.com/events#.

Finally, Via Umbria will offer 25 days of specials or discounts leading up to Christmas, with details on each day available on their Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/viaumbria.

Via Umbria is an Italian food market, café, wine shop and event space located in upper Georgetown, at 1525 Wisconsin Avenue, NW DC.