Postino East is one of the newest restaurants in Gilbert. It is nestled near Joe’s Real BBQ, Liberty Market, The Farmhouse Restaurant, Oregano’s Pizza Bistro, and the Hale Centre Theatre. It has a lounge area and an open outdoor patio that looks out toward the town’s water tower. Native Chris DeMarco first opened Postino WineCafe in the East Phoenix Arcadia neighborhood in April 2001 and one in downtown Phoenix in 2009. The Gilbert location is the third location and is housed in a building that previous restaurants have failed. DeMarco hopes to find success here. It offers the same menu offered at its Phoenix locations with most prices being under $13, including bruschetta, panini, soups and salads, all made with local ingredients and artisan breads. There are over 100 bottles of wine available to buy and six wines on tap at Postino East.

Over 20 of us met for Katrina’s birthday. Because of our size, we had to wait in the grassy area for a table to be available. My friend Juliana happens to work here and I asked her to help speed the process for us. I also ran into a local artist that I knew and she offered me a job to shoot some of her interior design work. I guess she saw some of my pictures on Facebook. While waiting, I walked Jaimie over to Liberty Market and gave her a tour of the place (she had never been there). Once we got in, her and I shared meals so we could sample some of the different foods. I ordered the Prosciutto with Brie Panini (Prosciutto with triple cream brie, fig jam and arugula) and Jaimie got the bruschetta sampler (warm artichoke, smoked salmon with pesto, roasted peppers with goat cheese and the ricotta with dates & pistachios). I love her passion for food and it was all delicious. My friends Heather and Geoffrey (newlyweds) from Redemption church happened to be there too. Heather was a team member on my first mission trip that I led into Tijuana. Her husband is a photographer and asked me to come to do some still life photo shoots with him. Wow.. two photo shoot offers in one night! It was a lot of fun catching up with them. We all had a fun evening and then we headed to Toby Keith’s to go dancing.