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The 2012 Atlanta Food & Wine Festival Recap

Wednesday, May 16, 2012 Posted in Event, General

Jerry Slater of H. Harper Station

The chefs have gone home, the tents have come down, and another year of the Atlanta Food and Wine Festival is in the books. Four days of dinners, cooking & booze seminars and tasting tents showcased the best that the South has to offer. There was no signature Food Network celebrity on the bill to bring in the hordes, just honest good food from restaurants from Texas to Virginia with a lot of Atlanta mixed in.

H. Harper Station's cured salmon with peach remoulade -- ridiculously good

Some of the longest lines were reserved for culinary outlets like The Spotted Trotter and Cardamom Hill that didn’t even have a brick and mortar location at the time of last year’s festivals. Many joked last year that the festival was really the Atlanta Food and Bourbon festival, and there was no doubt plenty of bourbon at this year’s festival. The spirits industry must’ve gotten wind of this and the bourbon folks were joined by tables hawking mezcal, acai spirits, pisco and more.

I managed to attend one wine seminar -- Ryan Mullins is a funny guy

The wine dinner I attended at Cardamom Hill, didn’t have much wine at all, but I wasn’t complaining. The dinner was a collaboration between CH chef Asha Gomez, George Mendes from Aldea in NYC and mixologist Gina Chersevani. Cocktails ranged from cachaca, red wine, and gin concoctions and homemade ginger & cilantro syrups and leek-infused vermouth. I’m still trying to replicate the gin+coconut milk+cilantro offering that paired masterfully with Chef Mendes’ house cured bacalhau (Hey Gina, call me!).

Happy festivalgoers & friends of mine

I don’t have the gift of words that folks such as Bill Addison and Ozersky have, so be sure to check out their odes to the festival that was. What I do have is photos, and I’ll let them do the talking. Cheers!

"The Shepherd" from Border Springs holding court at the lamb tasting trail

Chefs Terry Koval of Farm Burger & Whitney Otawka of Farm 255 and their crispy pig ears

 

With a cube of ice, please

Delta employees were everywhere at the festival providing refreshments at the seminars. Bacon brownies were served in the tents along with their signature Biscoff cookies

Saturday

Mussel bites from Lure

 

Logan Ayliffe and Jael Rattigan of Asheville, NC's French Broad Chocolates. I *crave* their chocolates. They happen to be really nice people too

Serving up Willett bourbon realness

Alma Cocina mixologist Kit Lewis created signature cocktails for the event

VeeV acai spirit

Fox Bros. BBQ

Angie Mosier listening to the story behind Ilegal Mezcal

Kevin Outz of The Spotted Trotter had a long line for his pork belly *15* ways

Avondale's Wild Heaven beer represented on craft beer row

Serious Cyrille Holota of BLT Steak

BLT Steak's summer beef skewers

We're more than just peaches, y'all

I met a ton of readers/Instagram followers who flagged me down. It was great meeting you Latasha!

Texas' Tito's Vodka

Whiskey Park after party with one of my favorite bartenders, Arianne Felder of Bourbon Bar

That’s all folks. For now. I’ve got more. Would you like to see them? Let me know in the comments.

 

 

 

 

 

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by Broderick

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The Atlanta Food & Wine festival is right around the corner

Monday, May 7, 2012 Posted in Event, food, General

Chef Hugh Acheson at the 2011 Atlanta Food & Wine Festival

It’s that time again!! Yes I used exclamation points!! If you’ve followed along on twitter and facebook, you’ll know that I’m a big fan of the Atlanta Food & Wine Festival. I can’t believe that it’s been almost two years since the launch announcement and a year since the inaugural edition of the festival took place in Midtown last year. The question last year before the event was whether the ambitious plan would pay off?  After over a year of planning and full schedule of activities and perfect weather, the answer was yes.

Madeira seminar

The event kicks off this Thursday with events all over the city, with the lion’s share taking place at the Loews Atlanta Hotel, with tasting tents nearby. Although Atlanta is the host to the festival, the event is truly regional in scope and features talent from throughout the South. Tickets to events range from $75 for events, $100 for the tasting events (expanded to three hours this year) to $500 for a three-day pass up to the exclusive $2,000 for the luxe connoisseur experience.

I attended last year on a press pass and will do so again this year. Last year I lucked into connoisseur level access through a friend and if you’ve got the means to do so, it could be worth it. In between the seminars you’ll have a relaxing place to rest between sessions, meet many of the chefs in town for the festival, and my favorite – signature cocktails from the city’s best mixologists. There are also seminars and special events reserved for those with connoisseur access.

Midtown Patch has a great rundown with the basics and the Atlanta Food & Wine Festival site itself has been updated recently with details of all of the seminars and restaurants who will be staffing the tasting tents. If there’s a Southern chef you’ve read about in the pages of Garden & Gun, Southern Living, Bon Appetit or Saveur – there’s a good chance they’ll be appearing at the festival this weekend. It’s a good idea to check out the tasting tent schedule as some exhibitors will change over the days of the event.

Dinners held around the city are hot tickets and some have sold out – this year provides a unique opportunity to preview two highly anticipated restaurants The Spence and The Optimist before they open their doors to the public.

If you’d like to see more photographs from last year’s festival – please check my previous posts here and here. Hope to see you this weekend!

P.S. It was a pure coincidence, but I realized that both chefs from our area that are up for a James Beard award tonight ( Oscars of the food world) are featured in photos in this post. Good luck Hugh and Linton!

 

 

 

 

 

 

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by Broderick

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Share Our Strength – Food Blogger Bake Sale

Friday, April 27, 2012 Posted in General

It’s that time of the year! The third annual Atlanta food blogger bake sale will take place on April 28th at the Ansley Mall location of the Cook’s  Warehouse from 9am-1pm.  We’ve moved around from Cabbagetown, to Buckhead, and now centrally located near Midtown at CW. I’ve attended a number cooking demonstrations and classes here and we’re happy that they’ve agreed to host us this year. They contributed to the Movember fundraiser I was involved with last year and are an asset to the community.  In addition to treats by bloggers, Bear Maker Bakery, Red Queen Tarts & Davio’s have donated sweets as well.

We had the honor of having the most funds raised for Share Our Strength last year and are of course gunning for the crown again this year.  Share Our Strength is a nonprofit that works to end childhood hunger, and 100% of the bake sale proceeds and online donations go to support their cause.  If you aren’t able to attend, please feel free to donate at our team’s website.

We’ve had generous donations so far by individuals and corporate donors including Red Clay Consulting, Goliath Consulting Group and Fifth Group Restaurants.  I also wanted to give a shout out to the media (Atlanta Magazine, the Atlanta Journal Constitution, Midtown Patch & Scoutmob to name a few) who have helped out in spreading the word – we really do appreciate it!

The bake sale is national, so if you’re not in Atlanta there may be a bake sale near you! Los Angeles, San Francisco,  Orlando and New York City are a handful of cities taking part.  A list of organizers can be found on Bloggers without Borders.

We hope to see you Saturday!

ATLANTA FOOD BLOGGER BAKE SALE 1544 Piedmont Avenue NE  Atlanta, GA 30324 (404) 815-4993 – APRIL 28th 9am-1pm

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by Broderick

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RED Restaurant

Monday, April 23, 2012 Posted in food, General, Restaurant

This weekend, Philips Arena’s new fine dining restaurant RED, made it’s debut.  After a somewhat slow period of new restaurant starts in the last year, this is only one of a number of high profile restaurants with plans to open in the next few months, with The Optimist, The Spence, Lure and KR Steakbar just to name a few.

View from the bar

The arena shelled out $2 million for the two-story restaurant, which seats 250 and is open to all Atlanta Hawks ticketholders and will also open for selected concerts.  I attended a media preview party on Friday before regular service began the next day.

They’re certainly counting on plenty of cocktails to recoup their investment and struck a deal with Diddy’s favorite vodka company to splash their name on the bar.  I snapped a couple of photos on my iPhone and hadn’t planned on putting up a blog post but I changed my mind and it wasn’t for the Ciroc.

I was really happy to be able to go to a professional  sporting event and see a nice array of local craft beer taps on display along with their big beer compadres.  Both the bartender and our server seemed a bit confused when I ordered Wild Heaven‘s Ode to Mercy and Terrapin‘s Hopsecutioner, but this was only their second service ever and I’m sure the service kinks will be worked out.

In addition to those beers, SweetWater 420 and Red Brick‘s Blonde were also available. Knowing my friends at Monday Night Brewery, I’m sure it’s only a matter of time until they muscle their way into the bar as well.

Once exiting the restaurant, my craft beer high was let down, where the big boys still hold court on the beer taps, even in the club seats, so I’ll definitely remember that the next time I head to a Hawks game. I’m not the biggest basketball fan but I had a good time.

SIDE NOTE: The wonderful Laura Carson Miller interviewed me for an article on southern food picks in Atlanta. I get asked this question a lot by readers and could’ve easily mentioned Empire State South, The Colonnade, Miller-Union etc. but decided to take one safe pick and one unusual one. Please check out the piece on SheKnows.com

 

RED 1 Philips Drive, Atlanta, GA 30303 404-878-3604

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by Broderick

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Steady Hand Pour House

Saturday, April 21, 2012 Posted in coffee, General

This is Steady Hand Pour House co-owner Dale Donchey giving me the evil eye for not visiting the shop lately.  I stumble at excuses but in truth, with my Instagram addiction (and those of the SH owners) – he certainly knows where I hang out and drink coffee. Thankfully it’s rarely at the Green Mermaid, because these guys and other folks around town have spoiled me with great tasting coffee.

Steady Hand is a great little coffee shop smack dab in the middle of two chain coffee shops and not only surviving, but thriving. On my latest visit, on a gorgeous spring day in Emory Village,   coffee brewed to order from Chicago’s Intelligentsia was the main draw but tea was selling at a furious clip as well.  Patrons also enjoy what’s arguably my favorite coffeehouse patio in town.

If you see Dale, tell him I said hi and that I’ll be back soon, I promise.

STEADY HAND POUR HOUSE 1593 North Decatur Road Atlanta, GA 30307

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by Broderick

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