Recap: Chocolate & Wine @ W Hotel, Art By Aaron Chang

I'm still knee deep in backlogged posts, but I just got home from the W Hotel, and it was a great event and I wanted to encourage people to go down tomorrow to check out an art opening by Aaron Chang, a pro surfer and amazing photographer. His art was already up tonight.

Jake and I were there for the wine & chocolate tasting. The wine was provided by Whole Foods (from Thornton Winery) and the organic chocolate came from Chuao Chocolatier (with stores in North County including UTC. Also available at Whole Foods) The pairings were delicious...4 chocolates and 4 wines, but it was plenty to get a good feel for both. I'm not even a chocolate person...I'll take meat and cheese over sweets anyday, but this chocolate was incredible.

(BTW, I just found out that Chuao is having a toy drive this weekend. Bring an unwrapped toy to any location Friday through Sunday and get a free Chocopod.)


More pics if you 'keep on reading'


After a brief introduction about the wine and food, we had at it. All these events at the W are free and open to the public, though they prefer and RSVP just to get a sense of how many people will attend. I've mentioned in the past that I've done wine, sake, and tequila tastings and they were barely attended. One time I was the only person there.


This event had a good amount of people and we chatted with a couple friends that Jake ran into and I wandered to take pics.

The art by Aaron Chang really fits well in Magnet, the lobby of the W Hotel, which has always had a SoCal beachy feel (despite the insistence of downtempo techno always playing in the background.) Three screens hang over the seating area with these huge displays of various fins behind, then there are some large photographs that can be viewed on the mezzanine.


And just for kicks, we went up to Beach, since it was Jake's first time at the W San Diego. It was pretty empty, save for the couple that probably should've been in their room (ahem).



Anyway, that was our quick little 2 hour stint at the W. My belly is happy and I'll probably be back tomorrow to meet Aaron before walking over to TNT. Surf enthusiasts, drink enthusiasts, and San Diego enthusiasts should definitely check it out. I'll be sure to keep posting the W events because I've never been disappointed.