Late November and early December are highly anticipated times in Los Cabos, although hardly any easier on waistlines than the long, dinner-filled Christmas season that follows. This is the time of year, after all, when the region welcomes locals and visitors alike to share in its two biggest feasts.
There’s Thanksgiving, of course, which may not be a Mexican holiday, but is celebrated in absentia by the some 10,000 U.S. citizens who now call the area their home, as well as the hordes of tourists who flock to the region to escape chilly temperatures north of the border.
Resorts and restaurants throughout Cabo San Lucas and San Jose del Cabo serve Thanksgiving dinners that would pass muster on any U.S. table, from turkey and cranberry sauce to stuffing, mashed potatoes and gravy, and whipped-cream topped slices of pumpkin pie. In the spirit of the holiday, many also boast family style service and buffets for second and third helpings. Sheraton Grand Hacienda del Mar, for instance, is offering a buffet feast at its onsite Tomatoes Restaurant. JW Marriott’s Nak Grill, meanwhile, is serving up a family style Thanksgiving dinner with live music; and at Solomon’s Landing on the Cabo San Lucas Marina, diners will be treated to a traditional four-course meal as well as breezy seaside ambiance.
But despite the plethora of places to get stuffed on stuffing and other traditional dishes, Thanksgiving is not the biggest feast day in Los Cabos.
That honor belongs to the Sabor a Cabo Food & Wine Festival, the premier international gastronomic event in Los Cabos, and indeed one of the largest in Mexico. Sponsored by CANIRAC, the Los Cabos restaurant association, Sabor a Cabo (in English, Taste of Cabo) brings together over 50 top local and international chefs, as well as representatives from over two dozen wineries for an over-the-top extravaganza of eating, drinking and live entertainment.
Sabor a Cabo actually features two events. The first is a smaller rural food and wine tasting that showcases the area’s organic farming and ranching culture. The 2018 rural event already took place, Nov. 18, at Huerta Los Tamarindos, a farm-to-table eatery located just outside San Jose del Cabo.
The feast of all feasts, however, is still to come, and takes place Saturday, Dec. 1st at Quivira. There, on the shores of the Pacific and within easy view of one of the world’s greatest golf courses, three thousand or more hungry attendees will gather to experience the bounty of Baja, from its freshly caught seafood and award-winning wines to its most talented practitioners of the culinary arts.
Bountiful food and wine may be the primary draws, but Sabor a Cabo also has a reputation for featuring world-class music. Past performers have included legendary R&B band Earth, Wind & Fire, Grammy Award winning singer-songwriter Lila Downs, and Mexican rock group Mana–the best-selling Latin American band of all-time, with over 40 million albums sold.
This year’s headliner is Miguel Bose, a Panamanian-born pop new wave musician.
General admission and premium tickets to the 13th annual Sabor a Cabo are already sold out, but some regular and VIP tables are still available.