Best of the Fest
Best of the Fest: Five great reasons to reserve tickets for the Asheville Wine and Food Festival
We’re not bragging, but we are excited about this year’s WNC Magazine Asheville Wine & Food Festival on August 13.
There are plenty of reasons to attend, and here are a few offered up as appetizers for the big weekend. Bon Appétit!
No. 1
How Sweet It Is
If the Grand Tasting is savory, then Sweet is the new luscious complement. On Friday, August 12, after you’ve dined at one of the many downtown restaurants offering discounts in conjunction with the event, make your way to the Grove Arcade for live jazz and unabashed decadence—champagne, port, cocktails, gourmet chocolate, and cupcakes. French Broad Chocolate Lounge, Battery Park Book Exchange & Champagne Bar, Santé Wine Bar, and others will share refreshments that will dance on tongues and delight palates.
No. 2
Top of the Glass
This year the vino will climb higher in the glasses at the Grand Tasting. There will be more than 300 bottles to sample from local, national, and international vineyards, but you can get a full pour of the ones you love for $5.
No. 3
Celebrity Sighting
In your collection of cookbooks, you’re bound to have at least one written by Nathalie Dupree, the author of 11 Southern culinary titles and frequent guest on The Food Network. Here’s your chance to meet her, and add a signed copy of her latest tome, Southern Biscuits, coauthored with Cynthia Graubart, to your culinary library.
No. 4
Food Seen
No matter where you are in the WNC Expo Center, you won’t miss the Chefs Challenge finale. The action in the kitchen will be broadcast on screens throughout the venue, so you can follow the chopping, sautéing, searing, and baking frenzy.
No. 5
Feed a Need
As you nibble and sip your way from booth to booth, you’ll know that the feast will carry on after the last bottle is emptied and morsel devoured. A portion of tickets sales will feed the culinary endeavors of F.E.A.S.T., a program of Slow Food Asheville. The project helps children and their families eat fresh, easy, affordable, sustainable, tasty meals through hands-on-cooking classes hosted in schools and public housing communities.
www.slowfoodasheville.org.
Sweet
Grove Arcade, 1 Page Ave., Asheville
Friday, August 12, 7:30-9:30 p.m.; $35
$75 combination ticket for Sweet & VIP Grand Tasting
$65 combination ticket for Sweet & Grand Tasting
general admission
Asheville Wine & Food Festival
WNC Expo Center, 1301 Fanning Bridge Rd., Fletcher
Saturday, August 13, 1-5 p.m. general admission,
VIP ticket holders admitted at noon
$65 VIP access, $40 general admission
www.ashevillewineandfood.com