Carmel has long been defined by its forested residences, white sand beaches, addictive eateries and quaint shopping scene. Now, though, the wordsmiths at Mirriam-Webster are  updating the definition of Carmel to include the phrase, “outright eventful.”

(They already had Tradewinds Carmel locked in, by the way: Tradewinds Carmel, proper noun: Boutique luxury hotel dripping with all of the character of Carmel and its own unique appeal that helped earn it the 2011 Excellence Award from Trip Advisor.)

The Carmel definition needs adjusting because the tide of world-class events around here simply refuses to ebb. The wealth of stimuli this season starts with this weekend’s Monterey Jazz Festival.

The Jazz Fest has made its name—which happens to be as good as any going—with arguably the most impressive perennial lineup of genre stars in the galaxy. This year’s no different.

Ivan Neville’s Dumpstaphunk, Soul Rebels Brass Band, Kermit Ruffins with Glen David Andrews, Huey Lewis and The News, Herbie Hancock, Sonny Rollins, Poncho Sanchez and his Latin Jazz Band and Terence Blanchard are just a few of the dozens of artists appearing. These guys collect Grammys like most collect parking tickets.

This high pedigree doesn’t stop with the Monterey Jazz Festival, as a cursory peek at the upcoming lineup reveals rather rapidly. Bob Weir, Jerry Seinfeld and Thomas Friedman are among those arriving who can call themselves the very best in their field.

Some highlights:

Sept. 15
The Temptations at Sunset Center

Sept. 16
Pinotfest Monterey at Del Monte Beach House

Oct. 15
Jerry Seinfeld Live at Golden State Theatre

Sept. 29
Thurston Moore and Cass McCombs at Henry Miller Library

Sept. 29
The Bacon Brothers at Sunset Center

Oct. 7
Sandy Hackett’s Rat Pack at Sunset Center

Oct. 7-8
Further With Phil Lesh and Bob Weir of the Grateful Dead
at Monterey County Fairgrounds

Oct. 7-9
Robinson Jeffers Fall Festival at various locations throughout Carmel

Oct. 9
Pianist Nobuyuki Tsujii at Sunset Center

Oct. 12-16
Carmel Art and Film Festival at various locations throughout Carmel

Oct. 13
Alt-country rockers Ryan Adams and Jason Isbell at Henry Miller Library

Oct. 20
Howie Mandel at Sunset Center

Oct. 23-24
Monterey Symphony Concert 1: Lisztomania at Sunset Center.

Oct. 25
The Miles Davis Experience at Sunset Center

Nov. 3-5
Big Sur Food and Wine Festival at locations throughout Big Sur

Nov. 3-5
12th Annual International Film Festival at Golden State Theatre

Nov. 10
MOMIX: BOTANICA Dance Company at Sunset Center

Nov. 11
Chamber Music Monterey Bay Presents Morgenstern Piano Trio at Sunset Center

Nov. 15
David Sedaris at Sunset Center

Dec. 2-3
Smuin Ballet’s Holiday Program at Sunset Center

(Charlie Rosewood is a regular contributor to the Tradewinds Carmel Hotel Blog. Also see his post on the 2010 Pebble Beach Food & Wine event.)

To better know where you’re going, the saying goes, it helps to know where you’ve been.

That’s a particularly delicious endeavor when it comes to Pebble Beach Food & Wine.

Last year my palate and I traveled to some amazing places over the course of four sensually unforgettable days.

I learned “life savers” from the master himself, Thomas Keller, as he coached a demo crowd on some of his most useful tools at Napa’s Ad Hoc—elements prized for their invaluable versatility—like a sweet onion tapenade for use with meats like lamb or pork or even on crackers with cheese and tomatoes (or thinned with olive oil and seasoned with vinegar to be used on cruidtés, fish or chicken). Later it was Ming Tsai schooling audiences on everything from chicken ( “Kosher chicken might be $3.50 a pound instead of $2.50. It’s worth it.”)  to crab cakes (“Julia Childs would say this about burgers. Pack loosely. Let the spaces fill with juices. Same with crab cakes.”)

At the breathtaking Grand Tastings, I detected two trends: 1) more sweets; and 2) a back-to-basics ethic.

On the dessert front, our own Anastasia Simpson of Spanish Bay whipped up cubical “peanut butter bar” creations whose nougat hat and smooth moussey magic paved a highway to attendee hearts. Celebrated pastry visionaries Angela Pinkerton of Eleven Madison Park and Sherry Yard of Spago conjured predictably mind-blowing sweet dreams—buttermilk sorbet and fudge cookie treats, respectively.

But it was the simple presentations that most spoke to me. One of my favorite tastes of the whole week: grilled cheese. Really. One livid lady—”Oh my God! I could make that myself! It’s pool party food!”—missed the point. You gotta be that much better to impress with an old blue collar friend than with a foie gras-foam-pâté smoothie. And Tommy Habetz and Nick Wood, chef-owners of Bunk Sandwiches in Portland, Oregon, did something extraordinary, melty, rich, delicious, comforting, dynamic, familiar and original with their grilled Tillamook vintage white extra sharp cheddar cheese and apple chutney with slow roasted pork belly. Another simply spellbinding taste also ranked among the very best all weekend. Sean O’Toole of Bardessono in Yountville deployed pata negra proscuitto on a basic slice of sourdough and whoah was it good.

Maybe five minutes after I tried that—I’m telling you, these Grand Tastings are a whirlwind— another understated dose of aha! appeared from Charles Phan of The Slanted Door in San Francisco. The star of nuanced Vietnamese cuisine gave a subtle tumeric-fish sauce marinade to some Alaskan halibut and, in his hands, it was magic.

The next day some delicious escargot with edible flowers and microgreens immaculately presented by Tyler Florence created some of the longest lines of the weekend, and spoke to one of the strengths of PBF&W: The stars themselves enthusiastically serve.

The next longest line was generated by Maine lobster flatbread pizza by Mark Gaier and Clark Frasier of Arrows Restaurant in Maine, named number 14 of the country’s top 50 by Gourmet in 2006.

This is knock-you-silly stuff—and I haven’t even mentioned the wine—as Paul Robertson, aka one-of-the better-sommeliers-on-the-planet-period (formerly of French Laundry and today one of only 127 master soms in existence), put it at a Champagne panel, “We think it should be Pebble Beach Wine & Food.”

He’s got a point. The chefs are spectacular and everpresent, but the wine is truly overwhelming. At the three-hour Grand Tastings, you could sip a nimble Storybrook Zin or test drive a Testarossa Pinot every single minute and still miss out on 80 wineries. (Not wines. Wineries, who were often pouring several tastes.)

This all bodes beautifully for 2011.

Thirteen different dinners approach epicurean absurdity—heck, the lunches are lavish all by their lonesome: Note the $200 “Don’t Mess With Texas,” pulling five of Texas’ best chefs to pair with Penfolds’ nicest wines and Pebble Beach Lodge backdrop.
This year’s $500 “Delicacy Dinner,” for instance, brings together Joachim Splichal (Patina Restaurant Group), Charlie Trotter (Charlie Trotter’s), Daniel Humm (Eleven Madison) and Gale Gand (TRU) with seven wineries like Veuve Clicquot, Hundred Acre and Rubicon.
Demos by Jacques Pepin, Tyler Florence and Tom Colicchio, who is also the focus of a special tribute “10 Years of Craft” dinner—represent sure-fire sell-outs, and the Grand Tastings remain a spectacle unparalleled west of Aspen: You can’t chew twice without stumbling over several Masaharu Morimotos, Tim Loves or Michael Symons or a tiny-production, huge-reputation winemaker. The key is to keep moving, but there are so many tastes and personalities and talents that pull you in that the key is swallowed along with the lobster cones and truffle terra cotta.
April 28 will be here before we know it: 1-866-907-FOOD or www.pebblebeachfoodandwine.com.

Please share comments below with your own memories of gustatory delights, tips for what to do while in town, or whatever comes to mind….

Like there weren’t enough excuses to come to Tradewinds Carmel already, what with the angelic, within-walking-distance white sand beaches, the flood of foodie-adored restaurants, the custom Balinese robes, serene setting, unbeatable views and the jet bathtubs.

But a few more couldn’t hurt.

Long weekends created by Martin Luther King Jr. Day (Jan. 17) and Presidents Day (Feb. 21) make it a little more possible to squeeze in all the splendor of Big Sur, the Monterey Bay Aquarium, River Road wine tasting, Carmel Valley’s trails, Pebble’s 17-Mile Drive and Carmel’s incomparable coast in one trip—though it’s still darn difficult.

The Chinese New Year (Feb. 3) is all the more fun to celebrate in the area’s only Eastern-style sanctuary. Besides, meditation on the year gone by is easier in a context like the Zen garden or the infinitely peaceful rooms appointed with trickling ponds, fireplaces and custom platform beds from Bali.

The AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am (Feb. 7-13) remains the game’s best celebrity tournament, and the storied Pebble links are just minutes from Tradewinds.

Valentine’s Day (Feb. 14) in Carmel-by-the-Sea is about as romantic a setting as lovers could conjure. Impeccable restaurants bred to wow on occasions like this lie everywhere in the forested streets, appealing to all palates and providing seamless service.

The Sea Otter Classic (April 14-17) is arguably the best bike festival in the world, and only getting stronger after two decades. Note the 10,000 athletes and 50,000 fans, the nearly 200 classes of road and mountain bike racing, including Cross Country, Dual Slalom, Super D, Downhill, the mountain bike tours, demos, stunt show, kids’ playhouses, food court, beer and barbecue garden.

The Big Sur Marathon (May 1)—still worthy of Runner’s World’s words “If we were told that we could run only one marathon in our lifetime, Big Sur would have to be it”—rounds out the many reasons to make it to Tradewinds, and that doesn’t even include the wine-and-food festivals. More on events like Pebble Beach Food & Wine (April 28-May 1), the finest tasting compilation this side of Aspen, and the intoxicatingly flavorful Big Sur Chanterelle Festival and Cook-off (TBD February/March).

(Tradewinds Carmel, the unofficial Monterey Jazz Festival hotel.)

Our culture has a collective case of inappropriate superlative-itis.
Nothing can simply be “impressive” or “cool”—it has to be
soaked in OMGs and labeled “the best ever” and “absolutely
unbelievable.”

That said, Monterey Jazz Festival’s assemblage of the coolest thing
our culture has ever conceived—yes, jazz—makes some of those
superlatives impossible to resist on an annual basis.

This year qualifies completely. The September 17-19 lineup’s
outright inspiring. It’s the best ever. It looks absolutely amazing.

Returning legends like Chick Corea and Dianne Reeves, Roy Hargrove
and Chris Potter, Christian McBride, Billy Childs and Kenny Garrett
will shine on no fewer than eight stages.

Harry Connick Jr. will wrap his satin songs around listening hearts
for the first time in MJF’s 53 years. Ahmad Jamal, Angelique Kidjo,
Les Nubians, Delbert McClinton, Trombone Shorty, Nellie McKay, Indo-
Pak Coalition and Septeto Nacional de Cuba will all debut their
creative takes on the genre—simultaneously reminding audiences that
MJF has remained a destination for the best in jazz precisely because
it doesn’t linger on legends alone, but enthusiastically celebrates
the edgy and inventive. Note Friday’s “New Grooves Party” featuring
Brass, Bows & Beats; Nellie McKay; Rudresh Mahanthappa’s Indo-Pak
Coalition; and The House Jacks.

All told 500 artists—including artist in residence Dianne Reeves—
will flood the Monterey Fairgrounds’ 20 acres for three dramatic days.

Parlay that music with morning walks to Carmel Beach or the
village’s many storied breakfast joints and evenings reclining in
Tradewinds’ massage tubs and you’ve got the makings of a wildly,
unbelievably epic weekend. Like, OMG.

There’s a reason the U.S. Open has sold out 23 years straight—and when it hits the Peninsula, it brings that much more historic anticipation than normal.

After all, this is where The Golden Bear crushed a one-iron into 40-mile-an-hour wind, hitting the pin and leaving it within five inches of the 17^th hole to win in 1972, where Tom Watson holed a miracle chip at the same windswept spot in 1982, and where Tiger Woods won by a 15-stroke margin after uncorking the best four-day total (272) ever in the 2000 national championship.

As Sportscenter’s Rick Reilly told me the other day, “something really historic always seems to happen when the U.S. Open is here.”

Despite a game in disrepair, a desperately unraveling personal life and a bum neck, on the strength of that record domination a decade ago, Woods is a favorite.

He shares that favored role with Phil Mickelson, defending Masters champ and even more of a Tiger foil than ever after attending to his cancer-stricken wife and mother in the weeks leading up to Augusta while Tiger’s hoochies continued to appear from seemingly every strip bar and nightclub he ever frequented. The fact that Phil has long been a jovial AT&T Pro-Am attendee, and has won here three times, deepens golf fandom’s desperate desire to see him end a skid of five U.S. Open second place finishes.

He’ll have to hold off a field of 156 pros, though, and survive famously intense conditions that include a long and carniverous rough, more length and more bunkers than Pebble Beach has ever seen, fairways that have shrunk as much as 50 percents and poa annua greens that have traditionally given Woods reason to whine.

It all makes for a heady weekend of golf. And Tradewinds’ strategic positioning about a 3-wood from the Carmel-Pebble Beach gate makes it an ideal homebase that conveniently accesses the course, the beach and the town’s many restaurants.

A shuttle to the tournament leaves from Carmel Plaza about every half hour between 7am-7pm (and until 5:30pm Sunday) for $20/day; $80/week.

For more on the U.S. Open, call (800) 698-0661, or visit www.usga.org, www.pebblebeach.com.

Also, for a local’s tips on food, music, etc. during the Open, see Things That Come with the U.S. Open blog on the Special Edible blog.

The delights are many on the Monterey Peninsula this season.

Fifty world-class chefs. Names like Ming Tsai. Thomas Keller. Michel Richard. Cat Cora. A full 250 wineries – 250! – Chappellet, Charlemagne, Far Niente and Domaine Serene among the many.

All deliriously, deliciously, stuffed into one giant gourmet ravioli of an event.

Actually, thats not true. There are two Lexus Grand Tastings during the sumptuous lazy Susan of events that is Pebble Beach Food & Wine, which starts spinning Thursday, April 8, continuing nonstop through Sunday, April 11.

It includes rare dinners (with chefs like Charlie Trotter and Thomas Keller collaborating, or five of Food & Wine Magazine’s best new chefs getting busy), demos from guys like Wolfgang Puck and Jacques Pepin, and wine tastings including 30 Years of Veuve Clicquot Champagne, often a handful occurring at the same time. The opportunities can make it darn hard to decide on a plan for the weekend, and can make just a half hour on the website seem hedonistic.

But the seemingly endless epicurean excellence unfolding from the Beach Club to Spanish Bay desists at high noon Saturday and Sunday and the masses skip, hearts thundering, mouths watering, to the Lexus Grand Tasting pavilion, where many of the planets most skilled chefs will assemble in a temporary tent the size of a tennis stadium, in two shifts, and distribute artfully arranged ambrosia morsel by creatively crafted morsel. And while that avalanche seems overwhelming on its own, given all the awesome events, its actually a relief to have so many flavors in one place.

Spring on the Monterey Peninsula is similarly stuffed with events. The Sea Otter Classic sends tens of thousands of bike enthusiasts pedaling to Laguna Seca Raceway April 15-18. The Big Sur International Marathon that inspired Runners World to declare, If we could run only one marathon in our lifetime, Big Sur would have to be it, happens April 25. The Salinas Valley Fair is May 13-16 and The Castroville Artichoke Festival honors the supreme thistle May 15-17. Meanwhile, the Monterey Bay Aquarium has debuted a new exhibit with sea turtles, rare shorebirds and jovial freshwater penguins called Hot Pink Flamingoes.

Better yet there’s more where that came from. Please spotlight your favorite upcoming or overlooked event for the Spring by clicking on the comment button below.

There’s a reason the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am is the biggest and best professional-amateur event on the planet.
No, make that many reasons: Bill Murray might dance with an old lady in a sand trap (true story). George Lopez could crowd surf again (it’s almost automatic). Chris O’Donnell and Josh Duhamel will bring the most gorgeous to the galleries and Kelly Slater might sign your surfboard (it happens annually). More reasons? Don Cheadle. Brandi Chastain. Michael Bolton. Ray Romano. Clay Walker. Chris Berman. Vince Gill.
And that doesn’t scratch the surface of the better-than-scratch pros who love to play here, particularly with the 2010 U.S. Open coming to Pebble Beach this June. Lefty will have that look in his eye. Vijay will be one focused Fijan. Blockbuster names like Jim Furyk, Sergio Garcia, Brian Gay, Tom Gillis, Retief Goosen, Padraig Harrington and Mike Weir will lead a field as deep as the Pacific next to Pebble’s storied 18.
For one of the biggest weekends of the year, few home bases rival the Tradewinds: It’s a 10-minute shuttle to any of the courses, or a still-tame walk along Carmel Beach and onto the links, and a short walking distance for celebrity watching in Carmel. Let’s play.

Information Hub: Leave comments below with celebrity sightings, tips on where to hang out, eat, park, etc.

Don’t miss next year:
The 2011 AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am will be held February 7–13.

2010 Details:

Television Coverage:
(All times are Pacific Standard Time)
Thursday 2/11/10
12:00–3:00 p.m. (Live)
5:30–8:30 p.m. (Replay)
The Golf Channel
Friday 2/12/10
12:00–3:00 p.m. (Live)
5:30–8:30 p.m. (Replay)
The Golf Channel
Saturday 2/13/10
12:00–3:00 p.m. (Live)
CBS
Sunday 2/14/10 (Live)
12:00–3:30 p.m.
CBS

Purse:
$6,200,000 professional
($1,116,000 first place)
$100,000 pro-am

Courses:
Pebble Beach Golf Links
6737 yards Par 72

MPCC Shore Course
6875 yards Par 70

Spyglass Hill Golf Course
6933 yards Par 72

Previous Winners:
Phil Mickelson (three-time champ), Tiger Woods, Vijay Singh, Mark O’Meara (five-time champ), Jack Nicklaus, Tom Watson, Ben Crenshaw, Johnny Miller, Payne Stewart, Davis Love III.