Posts Tagged ‘Cape May event’

CAPE MAY CRAFT BEER & CRAB FESTIVAL

August 3rd, 2012 by johnmatusiak

Saturday, Aug. 11, 2012 is the first annual “Cape May Craft Beer & Crab Festival” taking place on the beautiful grounds of the Emlen Physick Estate located at 1048 Washington St, Cape May.   Guests of The Bacchus Inn Bed & Breakfast can enjoy this  all-day festival featuring local and regional craft beers along with crab and other summer food favorites.

Music will be playing all-day long on outdoor stage that includes Reed’s Blues, The JL3 Band, New Pony, Dave Landry, The Kelly Carvin Band, and The Kruno Spisic Band.  Activities include games, face painting, jugglers and acrobats.  There will also be arts, crafts, a farmers’ market, and much more.

The Craft Beer Tent will feature beers from local and regional breweries.  These include Cape May Brewing Company , Tuckahoe Brewing Company, and Victory Brewing Company

Sponsored by the Mid-Atlantic Center for the Arts & Humanities (MAC), this fun summer event will
benefit free educational outreach programs.  For more information, call 609-884-5404 or 800-275-4278

TO THE OTHER SIDE AND BACCHUS! – Special Mother’s Day Weekend Event with Medium Craig McManus At The Bacchus Inn B&B, Cape May

May 1st, 2012 by johnmatusiak

by Craig McManus

Join Medium and Cape May Ghost Writer Craig McManus, for a spirited Mother’s Day Weekend May 11-12, at The Bacchus Inn. Craig will be hosting two channeling groups on Saturday, exclusively for guests of the Bacchus.

May is a wonderful time to enjoy the sites and sounds (without the crowds) at America’s oldest seaside resort, and possibly reconnect with your friends and loved ones on the Other Side. Craig’s Channeling Weekends are an uplifting and wonderful experience.

After you arrive on Friday evening, there will be a meet and greet at a local restaurant. On Saturday, Craig will host two group-channeling sessions of ten people each, one in the afternoon, and one in the evening. Craig’s incredible abilities as a medium allow him to reconnect those of us here on the Earth with our loved ones on the Other Side. During teatime, Craig will relate some of his experiences about the ghosts of Cape May, the theme of four books he has written about Cape May’s paranormal side. This will be one of the most unique Mother’s Day weekends you have ever experienced!

The price for this weekend event is $50 per person plus whichever room you choose at The Bacchus Inn. You must be staying at The Bacchus Inn and Cottage to participate in this event. Space is limited to twenty guests. Please call The Bacchus Inn to make reservations or for more information at 609-884-2129.

For more about Craig, check out his website, www.craigmcmanus.com.

Craig McManus

Craig McManus Investigating The Bacchus Inn Cottage

 

 

February in Cape May

January 30th, 2012 by johnmatusiak

It may be cold outside, but there is plenty to do this winter in Cape May. February is a great time for couples to get away and enjoy some romance and quality time. The weekend of February 10-12, is the perfect time to visit a cozy Cape May Bed & Breakfast like The Bacchus Inn B&B. Whether to celebrate an early Valentine’s Day or just to relax, The Bacchus Inn is a special place to spend a weekend. Each morning of your stay you will get to enjoy a hot breakfast and perhaps sit by a warm fireplace while enjoying an afternoon snack.

As far as things to do while in Cape May, many of the fine restaurants are open on the weekends, as well as the shops on the Washington Street Mall. The Physick Estate museum house, the Cape May Lighthouse, area wineries, and trolley tours are all operating for business.

If you are looking for something fun and different to help chase away the winter blues, step back in time to the Roaring 20’s, when we saw the birth of the Flapper, liquor was illegal, the popular dance was the Charleston, and Al Capone was enemy #1. The Cape May County Museum is hosting its second “Rum Runners Ball” on Saturday, February 18, at Congress Hall in Cape May. The evening begins at 6 p.m. with hors d’oeuvres and cash bar, followed by dinner and dancing. Tickets are $75 and are available by calling the Museum at 609-465-3535 or online by visiting the Museum website www.cmcmuseum.org and clicking on the “Calendar of Events”. Period dress is optional but encouraged. Prizes will be awarded for best costumes.

Don’t forget to check out The Bacchus Inn “Specials & Packages” page for upcoming specials.

‘Tis the Season to be Jolly …

November 15th, 2011 by johnmatusiak

and just to make things extra jolly this season, why not come to Cape May and enjoy one of our many wine events. Guests of The Bacchus Inn B&B will have a choice of several different events taking place this season. There is the ever-popular “SELF-GUIDED Wine Trail” taking place daily from 11/18 – 1/1 (no tours 12/24 & 12/25). If you are interested in immersing yourself in a wine-filled weekend, consider the “Cape May Wine Weekend” which includes a wine tasting dinner, a winery cellar tour, and a wine class during the weekend of 12/9-12/11. You will need to reserve early for the “Cape May Wine Trail” tour, tasting, and lunch event because it offers limited availability and is taking place on 11/19 and 12/30 only. Additionally, the Mad Batter restaurant is hosting a five-course “Wine Dinner” on 12/9, seating is limited, so reserve early.

For more information about any of the above mentioned tours, please visit capemaymac.org

For overnight accommodations, contact John & Lisa at The Bacchus Inn Bed and Breakfast – (609)-884-2129 or reserve your getaway on-line.

The Bacchus Inn Participates in the CMHA Sponsored “Cape May Chopped” Competition – 3

November 15th, 2011 by johnmatusiak

Part 3 of 3: “Celebrating the Victory” – Lisa Matusiak of The Bacchus Inn Bed & Breakfast won the locally adapted “Chopped” cooking competition that took place on Thursday, September 15. The event was one of many Cape May Food & Wine Festival events taking place in Cape May from September 15-25, 2011.

After Lisa was named the victor, she was presented a BBQ accessory set in a wooden box that was inscribed “Cape May Chopped – September 15, 2011”. Once the hand-shaking and congratulations were over, Lisa, John, their children, and several friends headed over to Lucky Bones Backwater Grill for a celebration dinner.

Soon after the event, many guests that came to stay at The Bacchus Inn had read about the event on-line and asked Lisa to cook her winning dish. She agreed to try and re-create the breakfast dish. It was well received and eventually became a regular in the late-summer/early-fall breakfast rotation. Perhaps the next time you stay at The Bacchus Inn B&B you will have the opportunity to try out Lisa’s award-winning “Strawberry-Stuffed French Toast w/Crunchy Pretzel Topping and Chocolate-Bailey’s Sauce”!

bacchus inn breakfast

The Bacchus Inn Participates in the CMHA Sponsored “Cape May Chopped” Competition – 2

September 26th, 2011 by johnmatusiak

Part 2 of 3: “The Competition Begins” – Lisa Matusiak of The Bacchus Inn Bed & Breakfast agreed to compete in the locally adapted “Chopped” cooking competition that took place on Thursday, September 15. The event was one of many Cape May Food & Wine Festival events taking place in Cape May from September 15-25, 2011.

The competition challenged 6 participants to create a brunch dish using all the food items from the “mystery basket”. The items in the basket were not revealed until the competition began. Each participant had use of an electric frying pan, a limited pantry of cooking staples, and the items they brought, which included their knives, utensils, and bowls. The competitors were given 30 minutes to prep, cook, and plate 3 portions of the same dish for the judges to taste. The six competitors were Cape May innkeepers who are amateur chefs with no formal culinary training. The 3 judges for the event were David Craig of Lucky Bones, Chris Huber of Black Duck and Godmothers, and Jamie Kelly of Island Grill.

At approximately 4:00pm, the commentator of the event, Jan Pask of CMHA, welcomed all the participants, judges, and the members of the audience. After all the introductions were made, Jan directed the participants to turn the electric frying pans on and to open the “mystery basket” in front of them to reveal the items they were required to utilize in their brunch dish.

Lisa looked at each item carefully. First, she saw a small loaf of Italian bread, half dozen eggs, and a half quart of half-n-half and thought, “OK, there is a lot that can be done with these 3 items.” Then she saw the strawberries and chocolate chips and quickly decided that the dish was probably going to be something sweet. She then saw the bag of hard pretzels and thought to herself, “What in the world am I going to do with pretzels?!”

As the participants were still absorbing the items in the basket, Jan announced the 7th “surprise” item that was required to be used, a shot of Bailey’s Irish Cream! For a short moment Lisa considered drinking the shot, but then reconsidered and turned her attention back to the items in the basket and to what her next move was going to be.

Lisa decided that this was going to develop into a French toast dish. So, while pondering the question of what to do with the strawberries, chocolate chips, pretzels, and the Bailey’s, she cut the bread into 3 thick slices. She then cracked 3 eggs into a large mixing bowl and added about a cup of half-n-half. As she added some salt and sugar, the idea of stuffing the bread with the strawberries started to sound good. So she put the egg mixture aside and cut up the strawberries. When she added the strawberries to the pan with some butter she concluded that the pretzels and chocolate chips would somehow get added in after cooking the French toast.

Lisa took a knife and cut slits horizontally into each piece of bread and stuffed the cooked strawberries into the slits in each of the pieces of bread. She put the 3 pieces of stuffed bread into the egg mixture and allowed them to soak for a couple of minutes. This is when it occurred to Lisa that she could melt the chocolate chips to make a sauce, but what to do with those pesky pretzels?

She added more butter to the frying pan and placed the egg-soaked bread in the pan to brown. Then Lisa poured the chocolate chips into a small metal mixing bowl with a little half-n-half. She placed the metal mixing bowl in the corner of the electric frying pan next to the slices of French toast, hoping the chocolate would melt enough to make a sauce.

The commentator, Jan, calls out that the competition is 15 minutes in and that there is 15 minutes to go.

While the toast was browning and the chocolate was melting, Lisa took the bag of hard pretzels and placed it on the table. She then picked-up her wooden cutting board and used all of her strength the crush the pretzels into the smallest pieces she could get, while thinking to herself that a food processor would make this so much easier!

At this point, Lisa flipped the French toast and stirred the now melted chocolate chips. This seemed to be a good time to add the Bailey’s shot to the melted chocolate.

After a couple more minutes, Lisa took the French toast off the frying pan and placed one on each of the three plates sitting in font of her cooking station. Then she took the chocolate off, too, thinking that she would return it to the heat right before serving to warm it up again. Now the frying pan was available to make a topping using the crushed pretzels, butter, and some “raw” sugar that was available from the pantry.

Jan calls out “5 minutes to go”.

Lisa spooned some of the topping onto each of the pieces of French toast. Lisa took the bowl with the chocolate sauce and placed it back on the heat and stirred it with a whisk. Jan announces, “2 minutes to go”. Lisa took the whisk and drizzled the chocolate sauce over each piece of French toast. Done!

Then Jan calls out, “5 … 4 … 3 … 2 … 1 … competitors stop cooking!”

Jan then invited each participant to take their brunch dish up to the judges. When it was Lisa’s turn, Jan asked her to tell the judges and audience what she had made. Lisa said, “Today I made Strawberry-Stuffed French Toast with a Crunchy-Pretzel Topping and Chocolate-Bailey’s Sauce”. She watched as the judges each tasted her dish and wrote down their evaluation of her dish on the score card. When all 6 of the participants’ dishes had been tasted, Jan asked the judges to tally their scores and determine the winner.

As the judges came to a consensus, Jan gave each of the competitors a certificate for participating in this event. Then Jan asked the judges if they had made a decision, they indicated that they had.

The winner of Cape May Chopped is … Lisa!

Coming Soon – Part 3 of 3 “Celebrating the Victory”.

Strawberry-Stuffed French Toast with Crunchy-Pretzel Topping and Chocolate-Bailey's Sauce

Strawberry-Stuffed French Toast with Crunchy-Pretzel Topping and Chocolate-Bailey's Sauce

The Bacchus Inn Participates in the CMHA Sponsored “Cape May Chopped” Competition

September 17th, 2011 by johnmatusiak

Part 1 of 3: “Preparing for the Competition” – The Bacchus Inn Bed & Breakfast has reason to be proud this week as Lisa Matusiak, our chef, owner, mom, and wife, competes in the locally adapted “Chopped” cooking competition on Thursday, September 15. The event is one of the many Cape May Food & Wine Festival events taking place in Cape May from September 15-25, 2011.

Lisa was invited to compete late Wednesday afternoon with a telephone call from Jan Pask, Vice President of Cape May Historic Accommodations (CMHA), after one of the participants dropped out of the competition. Lisa, although slightly apprehensive, agreed to participate. After making dinner for her family Wednesday night, she prepped the breakfast for the next morning, as she normally does. The breakfast for Thursday morning was Challah Bread French Toast, a sweet dish, for 11 people. After that, she spent some time Wednesday night with her recipe book and watched a little food network to help get her into the creative cooking mind-set.

On Thursday morning, Lisa got JT, our oldest son, off to school. Lisa then did some work for The Bacchus Inn and took care of our youngest son, Ian. After making lunch, Lisa made an iron-on Bacchus Inn logo and ironed it onto a new apron purchased at one of her favorite stores in Cape May, The Cape May Linen Outlet. She then prepped her knives, bowls, and utensils that were suggested to bring by the event organizers and headed, on bicycle, to the “Chopped” event at the VFW hall on Congress St. in Cape May.

Lisa knew little about the other 5 competitors because of her late entrance into the event. The only information that she knew was that all the competitors were Cape May innkeepers and amateur chefs with no formal culinary training. The 3 judges for the event were David Craig of Lucky Bones, Chris Huber of Black Duck and Godmothers, and Jamie Kelly of Island Grill. Each judge is a respected member of the culinary/restaurant community in Cape May.

The competition offered each participant a mystery basket filled with 6 food items that were required to be used. Each participant had use of an electric frying pan, a limited pantry of cooking staples, and the items they brought, which included their knives, utensils, and bowls. The competitors were given 30 minutes to prep, cook, and plate 3 portions of the same dish for the judges to taste.

Coming Soon – Part 2 of 3 “The Competition Begins”.

Cape May’s 2nd Annual Volleyball Beach Bash

July 13th, 2011 by johnmatusiak

This weekend Cape May will be hosting the 2nd Annual Great American Volleyball Beach Bash. It will be held on the beach adjacent to Cabana’s Beach Bar and Grill on Saturday, July 16th. It is a fun event to either participate in or for bed & breakfast guests to sit on the beach and watch. Cabana’s will also hold an After Party from 3pm – 7pm with drink specials offered to everyone attending and food discounts for event participants. This is an event that visitors of Cape May should not miss!

To participate, please register at www.greatamericanvolleyball.com

West Cape May Strawberry Festival this Weekend

June 3rd, 2011 by johnmatusiak

Got Strawberries? We do!
Well, actually the West Cape May Strawberry Festival has strawberries … lots of strawberries. Although the name is the Strawberry Festival, it is not all about the strawberry shortcake, strawberry lemonade, strawberry jams and jellies, it is also about live music, arts & crafts, antiques, fresh produce, BBQ, and lots of other yummy foods offered by local vendors. Guests staying at Cape May Bed and breakfast’s can enjoy good food, good music, and good times at the festival. The West Cape May Strawberry Festival begins at 9:00am and goes until 5:00pm on Saturday, June 4th. It is a popular Cape May event. The festival is held at the Wilbraham Park in West Cape May, walking distance from The Bacchus Inn Bed and Breakfast.

Cape May Jazz Festival kicks of the spring season in Cape May

April 7th, 2011 by johnmatusiak

Cape May Jazz Festival starts April 8th and continues to the 10th. Guest of the Bacchus Inn bed & breakfast have attended this event and consistently rave about the experience.

This event has venues throughout Cape May. Some venues are larger and some more intimate. Each spaces offers a unique experience.

The music offers various jazz, blues , and latin. This year Kevin Eubanks and Poncho Sanchez are featured April 8,9, 2011 as well as many more artist.

Kevin Eubanks

The Cape May Jazz Festival goes on all weekend with several shows on Friday, Saturday and Sunday.
Tickets for Cape May Jazz Festival 2011 are available online: https://www.capemayjazz.org/maxed_store/tickets.cfm

Accommodations are still available at The Bacchus Inn online:
www.bacchusinn.com


To help you make your trip a special one, please let us know your coming by making a reservation!

Click here to make reservations!

We have put together a few specials to help you out with your special getaway!

View our specials here!

Check the calendar to see if the room you would like is available, and then let us know!

Click to check availability!

If you have any questions or would like more information, please contact us at 609-884-2129 or 866-844-2129, email us, or use our online request form.