Courtesy Photo
A group of talented actors will be entertaining folks at the Murder Mystery on Oct. 17 and 18 at Rosa’s Lookout Inn, in Spruce. Each attendee will get a nice Italian dinner and a bottle of Sansilvestro wine from Woodberry Wine, out of Troy. Above, Rosa’s owner Tara Brilinski poses with a bottle of Italian wine from Woodberry Wine.

SPRUCE — You’ll find out more than just “whodunnit” on Oct. 17 and 18, at Rosa’s Lookout Inn.

Tickets are sold out for the Sunday, Oct. 17 Murder Mystery Dinner Theater, but some are still available for the Monday, Oct. 18 show. Both shows start at 6 p.m.

In addition to an interactive, entertaining evening full of hilarious characters, the event will feature a variety of gourmet Italian meals to choose from, as well as wine tasting and your choice of a bottle of Sansilvestro wine to take home. And a decadent dessert.

Not only that, but $10 from each ticket will go straight to the nonprofit, Feed the Need Alpena, which organizes pop-up food distribution events throughout the area, in conjunction with the Food Bank of Eastern Michigan.

Tickets are $90 per person, which includes all of the above, and gratuity and tax are already calculated into the ticket price.

“You get a lot for your money, plus the event itself is so fun,” said Tara Brilinski, owner of Rosa’s Lookout Inn, 6808 U.S.-23 South, Spruce.

The event will also include costume contests and raffles. Rosa’s has teamed up with Woodberry Wine out of Troy to present this entertaining evening out.

“It’s about the experience and not just the food,” said Brilinski

Rosa’s Lookout Inn, was just voted The Sunrise Side’s Best of the Best Italian Restaurant for the 10th year in a row. The Best of the Best is a contest put on annually by The Alpena News.

“So if you start with having the best servers, they’re super, super knowledgeable, they go through a lot of training, then work on the best food, and so on,” Brilinski said. “Customer service is the most important thing.”

She is excited about the Murder Mystery Dinner Theater, which will be the third one they’ve done.

Ten actors, both local and some from around the state, will be seated, one at each table, with the guests. The theme is 1970s, and guests are encouraged to attend in costumes or clothing appropriate to that era. The decor will be very groovy, with a disco style.

“This one takes place at Rushmore, which is a beauty school, and it happens to be in the ’70s era,” Brilinski explained. “It calls for an all-women cast, which, we don’t have all women, so it just kind of brings that fun aspect of some actors playing the opposite gender.”

One of those lucky “ladies” is local favorite, Matt Southwell, who has performed for many years with the Alpena Civic Theatre. Most recently, he showed off his cross-dressing talents as “Madame Coco” in “Sandy Toes and Salty Kisses.”

Other actors include Laura Williams, who is also the territory manager of Woodberry Wine out of of Troy. Joining Williams and Southwell in the cast of characters are Jesse Delling, Judy MacNeill, Jessie Howard, Warren MacNeill, Zachary Irving, Thomas Jore, Monica Unwin-Spears, and Jennifer Kozlow.

Williams will be discussing pairings of the featured wines with the featured entrees.

“Every guest that comes to our Murder Mystery will get a small sample of each of the wines,” Williams explained. “So they get four samples, and then they also … get a bottle of wine to take home with them from that selection of the Sansilvestro.”

There will be two white wines, and two red wines from Sansilvestro.

“One of my main driving factors for having events like this is to introduce people to new wines,” she said. “We really want them to expand their palette and pair Rosa’s Italian cuisine with amazing Italian wine.”

Williams explained that “similar weight wines should go with similar weight food.”

For example, seafood should be paired with a crisp white wine, and steak should be paired with a robust red.

“This whole thing is really just about having fun,” said Williams.

The cast is all-volunteer, and the organizers are grateful for their willingness to make this event happen.

Williams also owns My Wine Witch, which you can find out more about on Facebook and Instagram.

Brilinski has owned Rosa’s Lookout Inn for about 3-1/2 years.

For tickets, call 989-471-2118 or message Rosa’s Lookout Inn on Facebook.