Sample Fine Wine, Beer, Food, Music and Art Sunday

This Sunday at Casino San Clemente, residents can sit back with glasses of top-flight wine or beer; munch mouth-watering gourmet cheeses and other light fare; listen to award winning live performers; and soak in the spring weather and beautiful art from 20 renowned local artists.

For $40 per ticket -- 100 percent of which goes to support vital programs at the San Clemente Boys & Girls Club -- guests can chow down, drink up and bid on dozens of fine paintings and handcrafted jewelry.

Also up for auction are local artisan Bob Lloyd's perfectly balanced fishing poles, complete with painstakingly hand-lathed handles, state-of-the-art reels and precision hardware.

And a $10-donation will buy you a brightly-decorated bottled created by a Boys & Girls Club member.

Or keep your wallet shut and sit back and enjoy the wine, food and music, secure in the knowledge your ticket to a lazy Sunday afternoon is paying to educate, entertain and stimulate hundreds of local kids.

Tickets -- which come with parking passes -- are on sale online, at the door, at the Boys & Girls Club and other various locations around town. The event runs from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. Sunday.

The Exchange Club of San Clemente, the Casino, The San Clemente Art Association and other local businesses have teamed up to put on the show.

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Food and Wine

From Casino San Clemente --

The Cellar, wine bar restaurant and cheese shop, will be offering a hand-picked selection of both white and red wines. Featured will be the Tablas Creek “Rhone Ranger” organic white blend, the Cameron Hughes chardonnay and Innocent Bystander’s moscato.

For red wine lovers, they’ll be pouring Chateau Smith’s cabernet sauvignon as well as 19 Crimes’ red blend. As a tempting addition to the wine offerings, The Cellar will offer a light bite of an artisan cheese with local Sqirl jam.

Wende Gavin, future manager of the Casino café and a gourmet chef at Jay’s Catering, has lots of mouth watering surprises in store for auction guests throughout the afternoon.

Next to the beer station she will be serving Fried Chicken Sliders, a crunchy sandwich with heat from the mayo and a hint of sweetness from the slaw. “It’s a celebration in your mouth” assures Wende.

In the back Rock Garden attendees will also find the Mac & Cheese station – a “grown up” offering with assorted topping choices including smoky bites of bacon.

After the live auction closes around 4 p.m., Jay’s will be opening their famous S’mores Station with the standard loves of chocolate, marshmallow and grahams for do-it-yourself enjoyment.

Music and Entertainment

Sponsored by Farmers & Merchants Bank --

Jazz vocalist Elizabeth Lamers brings her spectacular vocal talents featuring works of the Casino’s golden age such as Cole Porter, the Gershwin’s and Rogers & Hart. Elizabeth has sung backup for Linda Ronstadt and K.D. Lang and is an award winning songwriter. She has performed at the Hollywood Bowl, The Greek Theater in LA. and numerous international locations.

Jasmine Commerce, a singer and songwriter from the San Diego area, will be performing in the Rock Garden during the event. Jasmine has won awards locally such as “Vintage America Voices Contest” as well as “One to Watch” artist of the month and has opened for such notables as Joss Stone, Matt Costa and Natasha Bedingfield.

Jonathan Blake Salazar, “Best Male Artist” award winner (SoCal Music Live Awards), offers his signature blues in the ocean-view Patio of the Stars. Jonathan’s guitar music should provide the perfect background for an afternoon of wine, light bites and live/silent art for auction, all to benefit the Boys & Girls Club of the South Coast Area.