It's no secret that The Tasting Room at Uptown Park is the premier location for both informal events like happy hour mixers or private soirees like wedding rehearsal dinners. It's also not exactly a mystery that The Tasting Room is one of the best spots in The Galleria area for winding down after a long day of holiday shopping or an even longer day sitting under those harsh, florescent lights of the office.
What is pretty surprising about The Tasting Room is the variety of evening events and live music on a nightly basis.
In just one example of the painstakingly planned and executed events at The Tasting Room Uptown Park location, organizers have hand-picked tantalizing truffles from local chocolatier Cacao & Cardamom and paired them with an incredible variety of wines and beer. A small smattering of the pairings of the December 11th event (from 6-8 pm) include a lychee basil chocolate with Domaine Weinbach Gewurztraminer Reserve Personnelle and the five spice praline coupled with Rare Wine Co. Madeira, Charleston Sercial, Special Reserve. For a mere $20 ticket, guests will experience six different pairings in the comfortable and casual European atmosphere of The Tasting Room.
Of course, the holiday season wouldn't be complete without an Ugly Sweater Day, or if you can't make it until after work hours, Ugly Sweater Evening on Dec. 14 from open to close. The premise is simple: Find the tackiest, most obnoxious holiday sweater (maybe that one hidden in your closet with the Rudolph whose nose lights up?) and wear it to The Tasting Room for a free dessert or small plate. Don't worry about feeling out of place — even the staff will be sporting some ugly sweaters.
It's the perfect time to try one of chef Jonathan LeBlanc's new winter menu items completely risk-free. But honestly, the bigger risk will be whether or not Houston weather cooperates with the layered clothing, because everything LeBlanc's kitchen staff prepares is risk-free to food lovers.
Despite the risky warm weather and Mother Nature's inability to register the fact that it is December and she probably shouldn't be giving us highs in the 80s all month, The Tasting Room is one of the best places in the city to enjoy such a tropical climate. The amount of outdoor seating is just right for lows in the mid-60s and to lure you back inside are talented musicians playing every night of the week.
The Tasting Room is so dedicated to providing local musicians with a forum and treating their guests to that they employ a live music coordinator whose job is to create the daily music calendar. Just a sampling of recent musicians include acoustic sets from Wasi; popular cover band Kosmic Latte; singer/songwriter Ken Gaines; guitarist/vocalist Melody Behrens (who actually is set to release an album this month); Flamenco guitarist John Acevedo and many more.
If that's not enough to entice you to come by after your Galleria-area shopping spree, consider this: New Year's Eve isn't that far away. Shouldn't you have plans on where to drink that bubbly? Yes, The Tasting Room at Uptown Park has an event for that too.
Now that you know about The Tasting Room's in-house events, there's no excuse to end 2012 without toasting a glass or two in Uptown Park in the few remaining evenings of this year.
