It's Time for Wicked Wine

For a spooky and swank place to don a costume this Halloween weekend, look no further than , the charming wine bar at Rockaway Beach in Pacifica.

This Saturday night marks the wine bar’s 1st Annual Wicked Wine Bar Halloween Party. Drink specials, desserts, a costume contest with prizes, and live music by Mighty Mississippi are all part of the mix.

“Mighty Mississippi is a fantastic acoustic blues band that I like to think of, certainly in this context, as something out of a haunted New Orleans mansion with front porch Southern 1930s and ‘40s era style music,” said A Grape in the Fog proprietor Beth Lemke, who was recently featured in More magazine for realizing her dream of opening a wine bar after losing her tech job to the recession.

“From my early 20s I wanted to open Lemke wrote on the wine bar's website. “I was also inspired by my great aunt Mona Nystrom-Hood, who ran a wine and beer joint in North Beach in the 1930s and ‘40s. She was a bon vivant who lived life to the fullest, was beloved by the community, and loved her community back. I felt a calling to create a space that would both support and nurture the sense of community you feel in our small town—where you can get out of the house or away from work, meet with friends, relax and maybe try a new wine.”

Since opening in April 2010, that’s exactly what A Grape in the Fog has quickly become. The wine bar offers a changing menu of boutique wines from around the world available by the glass, flight or bottle. Craft-style beers and cheese or charcuterie plates from a small plate menu are also available.

It's also the place to go for a number of events bringing people together such as Spice up yer’ Sunday gumbo nights, Quiz Nights on Mondays, Wine & Dine Wednesday, and Friday Night Flights featuring $12 flights.

“The suppers have been very popular, and we’re getting ready to go onto Open Table and really make the suppers an organized affair,” said Lemke. “We’re looking forward to that, holiday events, as well as a whole new salon series called Wine and Conversation this new year.”

Right now, however, Lemke is looking forward to this weekend’s Wicked Wine Bar party.

“There’s always something going on at A Grape in the Fog," said Lemke. "This weekend’s Halloween party will be a lot of fun with the band dressed up and looking spooky and for the costume contest we’ll be giving away prizes of bottles of wine and gift certificates to the wine bar.”

The wine bar’s Tuscan seaside-inspired décor will be decorated for Halloween, perhaps transformed into a dark and spooky wine cellar.

“I don’t know yet what I’ll be for Halloween either, so I’m keeping that a mystery, too,” said Lemke. “It’ll be a surprise for even me!”

IF YOU GO

1st Annual Wicked Wine Bar Halloween Party, Saturday, Oct. 29, (8 p.m. to 12 a.m.). Mighty Mississippi perform (8-10 p.m.). No cover. Located in Rockaway Beach, north of the Clock Tower at 400 Old County Road, Pacifica. Call (650) 735-5854 or visit http://agitf.com/ for more information.

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