Yanni's Bar & Grill

10/08/2026

Smoked salmon pasta starts tonight and stays until we run out.

Tri-color rotini, garlic cream sauce, smoked salmon, tomatoes, capers and zucchini. Two pours by the glass: ZD Chardonnay for the cream, Benton Lane Pinot Noir for the salmon.

Planning on Saturday? The patios are booked and seating is limited inside, so please call ahead for a reservation: (858) 527-0011

10/07/2026

October is Domestic Violence Awareness Month. On Saturday, October 17, the Scripps Ranch Hidden Valley House Auxiliary is bringing its Hope Blooms fundraiser to Yanni's, and we're honored to host.

The afternoon, 11:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m., supports the residents and staff of the Hidden Valley House emergency shelter, operated by Center for Community Solutions. Yanni will be running the paddle raise.

Ticket sales close this Friday, October 9, and only a few are left. The link is in the first comment.

If you or someone you know needs support, Center for Community Solutions runs a free, confidential 24/7 crisis hotline: 888-385-4657.

Tickets and donations: https://www.hvhauxiliary.com

10/01/2026

Moussaka is back tonight.

Layers of silky eggplant, a spiced meat sauce, and a thick blanket of béchamel baked until the top turns golden. It's the dish Greek grandmothers judge you by, and ours holds up just fine.

We're pouring the Beronia Rioja Reserva with it, by the glass or the bottle. Beronia was started in 1973 by friends from San Sebastián who belonged to a txoko, one of the Basque Country's members-only cooking clubs. Good food, good company, a bottle on the table. Sound like anyone we know?

For the heat, Max has a new c***r: homemade apple c***r with rum and Cointreau, iced with a cinnamon sugar rim.

Call ahead to reserve your table: (858) 527-0011

09/30/2026

We've carried their w**es for 25 years. We've been trying to visit for years, too. This time, we finally made it.

Yanni and Denise spent a day at Costa Lazaridi in Kapandriti, north of Athens. Natalia welcomed them and guided the tasting with Christos Fotiadis, the facilities manager. There was a museum that walks you from the grapes to the barrel, Mr. Lazaridis's private collection in the cellar, and a tasting that started with Malagouzia.

Then came the corkscrews. There seemed to be more than a thousand of them. Those of you who know Yanni will understand why this part of the tour felt familiar.

They finished the day at Marathon, where the Athenians beat the Persian army in 490 BC. In Denise's words: "A little history after our own very enjoyable w**e marathon."

The Amethystos Cava, one of the w**es we carry, is the bottle Yanni wanted to highlight from this visit.

Denise's full story and all 22 photos are in the first comment.

09/28/2026

We made a promise in last week's newsletter: when the pumpkin cheesecake comes back, you'll hear it from us first.

"Us" means the Yanni's email list. It's where we announce each week's specials, along with the stories Yanni and Denise bring home from their trips. Last week's was a farm in Crete, a dolmathes class, and a MasterChef winner whose cookbooks Denise already owned.

If you'd like to be first to know, the sign-up link is below. One email a week.

Join the Yanni's email list:

Be first to know about seasonal menus, special events, and exclusive offers from Yanni's Bar & Grill. Join our email list and become part of the family.

09/27/2026

I was a little starstruck.

While we were staying in Archanes, a small, beautiful village outside Heraklion, Yanni and I spent a day at Peskesi Farm. Our guide, Panagiota, took us through the gardens. It was beautiful at every turn.

And then we met Irini Tzortzoglou, who won MasterChef UK in 2019. I follow her on Instagram and have bought her cookbooks, so it was quite a surprise to find ourselves getting to know her and her husband, John. We discovered so many connections. Greece really does feel small sometimes. Everyone seems to know each other!

Then they fed us. Tirouzouli, olives, eggplant with bulgur, and the best zucchini fritters ever. That is my verdict, and I'm sticking with it.

That evening we learned to make dolmathes at a cooking class. Yanni, meanwhile, kept asking when the w**e was coming.

Denise's full story from Peskesi Farm, with all 27 photos: https://yannis-sardinia-w**e-mission.vercel.app/crete/peskesi/

Has that ever happened to you? Running into someone you admire in the last place you'd expect?

Denise

09/24/2026

The beef brought a plus-one.

Surf and turf is on this week at Yanni's: ternderloin medallions, cooked the way you like it, sharing the plate with sautéed shrimp in a garlicky scampi sauce.

We're pouring a 2017 Burgess Cabernet Sauvignon by the glass with it. It comes from hillside vineyards on Howell Mountain in Napa Valley: black currant, a little mint and sage, and a silky finish. The Cab has the backbone a filet wants, and those herbal notes get along very well with garlic. Shrimp usually asks for a white. This time it made an exception.

Call ahead to reserve your table! 858-527-0011

Your neighborhood. Your restaurant.

09/19/2026

In March, at a restaurant in Agios Nikolaos, I had a glass of a young red I could not stop thinking about. A Syrah and Kotsifali blend, half and half. I asked the waiter where it was from. Then I asked the next waiter. I asked most of Crete.

This month Denise and I finally found the family. Karapidakis, in the village of Alagni, outside Heraklion. We drove out for a tasting and arrived in the middle of harvest. The whole village was bringing grapes. Nobody had slept much. They sat us down anyway and poured all three w**es. Somehow every one was better than the one before it.

They also make raki. They distill it themselves. Of course we bought the raki.

We are hoping there is a way to get these w**es to San Diego, because a bottle that tastes this good should not have to stay on the other side of the ocean. I'll keep you posted. In the meantime the lasagna's on and the Cretan red we already pour is waiting for it.

The photos, including the one where I stop taking notes and just drink, are in the journal: https://yannis-sardinia-w**e-mission.vercel.app/crete/karapidakis/

Yanni

09/18/2026

That was a rough one, Scripps Ranch.

Four days in a row over 90, and up here we ran hotter than the coast. For about a week the patio was a place you looked at through the window. You came in anyway. You sat inside, ordered the cold things, and told us it was hotter at your house. We noticed, and we're grateful.

So here's your reward: the marine layer is back, the evenings have that first little chill, and all three patios are open. The oven's back on too. Beef lasagna is on the dinner menu this week. (858) 527-0011.

Question for the neighborhood: what's the first thing you order on the first cool night of the year? Wrong answers accepted. Baklava à la mode is not a wrong answer.

09/09/2026

You know how Yanni meets you at the door like you're family? Last week, somebody did that to him.

He and Denise drove into the hills of Crete to visit Fragospito, a little family w**ery that makes one of the reds on our list. They got there at 1 p.m. It was harvest. Nikos Gavalas and his daughter Christina had been picking grapes until 5:30 that morning.

They opened the doors anyway. Walked them through the vines. Poured everything. And then, because apparently that wasn't enough, they made lunch: an omelette on the spot, a salad from their own garden, and a plate of watermelon. In the busiest week of their year.

Denise called it "a very special day." Yanni came home with a bottle he could not carry by himself (photo 4) and a car packed in a way we're not going to describe (photo 5).

The w**e they were pouring is the same Fragospito Cabernet Sauvignon / Syrah we've had on the list at Yanni's. This week it's on the table next to the new Chicken Eggplant Parm, by the bottle, at dinner.

Scripps Ranch, be honest: who in this neighborhood would feed you lunch on four hours of sleep?