Club Auto Sport and Michi Sushi Catering

"Sex and the City "in San Jose was a sleek showcase full of sexy sports cars and delicious sushi hosted by Ralph Borelli, founder of Club Auto Sport and sponsored by Michi Sushi Catering. It also showed how "wedding professionals" are really talented at producing events outside of weddings.

For instance this amazing sculpture by "Chisel It" displayed a whole salmon embedded in the ice along with Michi Sushi's logo in ice!

As guests arrived they were greeted at the front entrance by a red Tesla Roadster. An all electric vehicle, the Tesla Roadster has 0 emissions, can travel up to 245 miles per charge and can go from 0 to 60 in 3.7 seconds. I had the pleasure of seeing a Roadster in person last year as a friend of ours has one. I'd love to have an electric car but at approximately $100,000 the Roadster is definitely out of my price range. I've read online that the Model S, available in 2012, will be somewhere around half that price possibly putting it in my price range if business goes well for the next two years :)

As I walked the red carpet I knew there would be cool cars and great sushi:

You’re Invited to Sex and the City

An Evening of Exotic Cars, Exquisite Food & Extraordinary Entertainment

Presented by Club Auto Sport and Michi's Catering

Don't miss out on this summer's hottest party featuring a private collection of exotic cars, exquisite international cuisine, and extraordinary live entertainment.

Come and celebrate with old friends and meet new ones. Don't miss out on the all you can eat sushi!

The first person I saw was Event Coordinator Christina Romero (who helped produce this event) of Elegant Occasions being interviewed near the entryway. That's her in the purple dress in the upper let photo. Christina wanted to make sure that credit was also given to her colleague Sophie Lai, of Simply Perfect - It's Your Day, who collaborated with her in the days leading up to the event and on the big day. As you can see hundreds of people were there! Unfortunately I missed the live entertainment as I had to leave fairly early to attend a previous engagement I had before deciding to attend the Sex and the City event.

I have to admit I'm not a really a car buff but the cars I saw that evening had me ooh'ing and ah'ing as I walked through the immense showroom floor. The 80,000 square foot space has an in house kitchen, bar and lounge and is available for parties and events so if you're looking for somewhere unique to host an event for people who love racing, sports and classic cars, this is probably the perfect place! More details on Club Auto Sport's "Car Condos" in just a bit.

The custom lighting for the event was provided by North American Theatre Technology. Lighting details included the purple up lights on the back wall behind the sushi bar and the colored gobos above the sushi bar that included both the name of Club Auto Sport and Michi Sushi's multi-colored fish logo.

A snapshot of Natti and her hubby and all of the chandeliers that she brought along to add some sparkle and bling to the evening.

Guests waiting in line for custom, made-to-order, handrolls from the sushi bar.

While the concept of a sushi bar will definitely make a special event more special, the process is time consuming so be sure to hire enough sushi chefs for a large crowd. If your guest list will exceed 100, possibly set up two separate stations in different areas to cut down on guests having to wait for too long and to prevent lines around the sushi bar from becoming too congested.

And gorgeous sushi rolls on display by Michi Sushi.

I spotted several race cars on display that evening. This one was for the Canary Foundation.

Enthusiasts can buy or lease storage space for their collectible cars. Here the cars have their own video monitors where owners can create a custom video about their car for other enthusiasts to enjoy when they drop by.

Read about the #22-Maxwell House, 1991, Ford Thunderbird

The Michi Sushi staff also served hand passed hors d'oeuvres.

For large crowds additional hand passed hors d'oeuvres and/or a buffet including maki-sushi rolls would be a good idea.

Here Mike Shin of Michi Sushi Catering welcomes the guests and introduces Mr. Sheen Shin, chef of Michi Sushi, who made one of the most unique entrances I've ever seen...

Four fish accompanied an enthusiastic Mr. Shin onstage. The large tuna in the photo above and on the far right in the image below weighed one hundred pounds and was so heavy that another employee had to leap onstage to help keep it from slipping.



The smaller of the four fish displayed to the crowd as they left the stage.

And what was this crowd all about?

Mr Shin had begun slicing and serving the fresh tuna sashimi to the waiting crowd right in the middle of the event space!

And one last sexy car to share with you: A silver Lotus. Sweet. It's for sale if you're interested...

Gift Boxes for the Guests

This was the first year of what is to become an annual event. The venue and cars set the stage for Sex and City, and many guests came dressed in the spirit of fashion the series was known and loved for. You may have noticed in the photos that not everyone came dressed to the level of sophistication that paid homage to the event's namesake, but perhaps next year more will join in the fun.

And a great video by Cinematt Le Noveau Video.

The story about how the concept of Club Auto Sport has evolved over the past two years and how other business owners are benefiting from the opportunity to share space at Club Auto Sport is inspiring and well worth reading in this Silicon Valley/San Jose Business Journal article.