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Dining Out Interest Group

We are a group of people who enjoy good food and good company, and who like to sample the best of the restaurant scene in the Santa Cruz area. We meet on the third Tuesday and Wednesday of the month at 6:30 pm, at different restaurants. Contact the leader (see below) if you plan to participate in the Dining Out Group events.  You can also check the OLLI calendar for schedule and venue.

We have a few ground rules to make everyone’s life easier. Each month an email is sent out with the name of the restaurant, etc. A member who plans to go sends an RSVP by the Friday before the week of the dinner, selecting Tuesday or Wednesday. We meet at 6:30 p.m. and are usually done by 8:00. Each table gets a collective bill, and to be sure there’s enough to cover the tab, everyone stays until it is paid. Each participant pays with cash for what he or she eats and drinks. We provide slips to keep track of your meal, so there’s little problem in figuring your tab. Please expect to “round-up” to the whole dollar. Once you have totaled your meal, add 30% for tax and tip. It is helpful to bring a pen or pencil and some people also use calculators.

Join the fun, make new friends, and enjoy the variety of cuisines we sample.

Things to remember: 
  1. Contact your hostess for the evening you plan to attend a week before the event so that we can arrange adequate reservations. If you find you cannot attend thereafter, please notify us of your cancellation.
  2. Plan to be at the restaurant promptly at the time indicated. The waiters will have to proceed with our orders once the group has arrived. We cannot wait for late arrivals.
  3. Please bring CASH only to pay your bill. We will provide a tally sheet so that you can keep tabs on your orders. You will add 30% to this total to cover tax and tips, rounding off to the nearest dollar. Sadly, we cannot ask the restaurants to accept coupons.
  4. Remain at your tables until your hostess has collected your sheets and payment, and until the total bill has been settled.

Group Leaders

The Tuesday leader is Diane Zacher, dianezacher@gmail.com, 786-9550.
The Wednesday leader is Kathy Hatfield, b40mom@gmail.com,431-3587.

During the past three years we dined at the following:

Shadowbrook (Capitola); Scotts Valley Grill (Scotts Valley); O’Mei (Santa Cruz); Tepa-Sahuayo (Watsonville); Aqua Bleu (Santa Cruz); Kelly’s French Bakery (Santa Cruz); Café Sparrow (Aptos); Bittersweet Bistro (Aptos); the Bleu Spoon (Aptos); Tyrolean Inn (Ben Lomond); Restaurante Barolo (Bayview Hotel, Aptos); Michael's on Main (Soquel); Soif Wine Bar & Restaurant (Santa Cruz); Sawasdee (Soquel); Sesnon House, Cabrillo College (Aptos); Green Valley Grill (Freedom); Ma Maison (Aptos), La Bruschetta (Felton), Johnny's Harborside (Santa Cruz), Center Street Grill (Santa Cruz), Stockton Bridge Grille (Santa Cruz), Hula's Island Grill (Santa Cruz), La Posta (Santa Cruz), Sushi Totoro (Santa Cruz), Au Midi (Aptos), and Hindquarter Bar & Grille, and Bluewater Steakhouse (Capitola), Chaminade Resort (Santa Cruz), Khyber Pass (Santa Cruz), Star of Siam (Soquel).