| EVENT REPORT 10.14.09 4:03 PM |
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More From the Wine & Food Festival: Cheerleaders at the Burger Bash, Absolut's Branded Lounge
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 | The New York City Wine & Food Festival's crowded Burger Bash
Photo: Marina Senra for BizBash |
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Here's one more look at the attractions at the New York City Wine & Food Festival this past weekend.
Packing in 120 events over its four-day run, the second annual festival attracted more than the 38,000 attendees. Among the events that took place between Thursday and Sunday, the gatherings hosted by Food Network talent—including Rachael Ray's Burger Bash and Giada Delaurentiis's Meatball Madness—sold out first, followed swiftly by culinary demonstrations and talks held at the TimesCenter. At one point, the organizers, led by festival founder Lee Brian Schrager and the production team from Karlitz & Company, opted to expand Saturday night's dessert party, Sweet, to accommodate the surge in demand. Originally planned for 1,050 guests at La.venue, the event annexed the adjacent Waterfront to make room for an extra 350.
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RELATED TOPICS
New York City Wine & Food Festival, Southern Wine & Spirits, Food Network, Food Bank of New York, Share Our Strength, Food & Wine Magazine, Travel & Leisure magazine |
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| EVENT REPORT 10.12.09 3:58 PM |
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Second Wine & Food Festival Fills New York With 120 Events
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 | The scene at the New York Wine & Food Festival
Photo: John Minchillo for Bizbash |
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Last October, the first New York City Wine & Food Festival made a big splash, attracting more than 38,000 attendees at 87 events and raising more than $1 million for the Food Bank for New York City and Share Our Strength. For the second round, which started Thursday and ran through Sunday night, organizers expanded the number of events to 120, but many of the evening programs like the Burger Bash sold out in June, faster than last year. The brainchild of Lee Brian Schrager, director of special events for Southern Wine & Spirits and founder of the South Beach Wine & Food Festival, the four-day series was produced by a team from Karlitz & Company, led by consulting executive producer Caryl Chinn and festival executive producer Kate Williams.
To capture a bigger audience this year, the planners focused on creating a wide array of choices, from affordable options like the $10 activity events for kids and $35 culinary demos with the likes of Martha Stewart and Rocco DiSpirito to pricier tickets for gatherings like the $150 Grand Tasting on Pier 54 and a $400 meal with Alain Ducasse as part of a dinner series from the James Beard Foundation. The team also wanted personalities from title sponsor Food Network front and center.
"The network has brought food into everyone's home, and even kids are watching it. My seven-year-old niece and nephew are watching the Food Network. We didn't have that when I was young—it was Julia Child and the Galloping Gourmet," Schrager said, explaining why stars like Paula Deen and Guy Fieri appeal to a more than just foodies. Chinn agreed: "New York's a challenging market—it's a very savvy market that's saturated with food events, so you don't want the same old same old. I think our niche is Food Network talent and some of these new and fun formats like an all-meatball tasting or an all-dessert tasting."
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RELATED TOPICS
New York City Wine & Food Festival, Southern Wine & Spirits, Food Network, Food Bank of New York, Share Our Strength, Food & Wine Magazine, Travel & Leisure magazine |
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| NEWS 10.07.09 3:44 PM |
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Wine & Food Festival's Second Outing to Include Zac Posen, Frank Bruni, and Big Events With Food Network Stars
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 | The packed Burger Bash event at last year's New York City Wine & Food Festival
Photo: Jessica Torossian for BizBash |
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The second New York City Wine & Food Festival opens tomorrow, and this year the massive outing dreamed up by Lee Brian Schrager is bigger and more diverse. Aside from the bevy of local chefs—Daniel Boulud, Andrew Carmellini, Scott Conant, Tom Colicchio, and David Chang among them—hosting dinners, panels, and demonstrations, the four-day food-focused series will also include a number of new events and the participation of fashion designer Zac Posen, former New York Times restaurant critic Frank Bruni, and former President Bill Clinton.
To accommodate more culinary talent from title sponsor the Food Network, the festival's producers added two big parties to the weekend program. On Thursday night, Tyler Florence joins the folks from Thrillist at the Standard hotel for a bacon and blues-themed shindig, Paula Deen will host a Southern-style food showcase Saturday evening at Hill Country, and Giada De Laurentiis will highlight her Italian roots with a Sunday night gathering dubbed Meatball Madness. Rachael Ray, who also hosts one of the festival's biggest attractions—the Friday-night Burger Bash at Brooklyn's Tobacco Warehouse—will introduce the first Weight Watchers-sponsored Fun and Fit in the City with Clinton and Dr. Mehmet Oz at the Harlem Children's Zone on Saturday morning.
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RELATED TOPICS
Southern Wine & Spirits, New York City Wine & Food Festival, Food Network, Food & Wine Magazine, Travel & Leisure magazine, Food Bank of New York, Share Our Strength, James Beard Foundation |
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| NEWS 04.28.09 8:00 AM |
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Lineup Announced for Second New York City Wine & Food Festival
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 | Sweet, part of last year's New York City Wine & Food Festival
Photo: Jessica Torossian for BizBash |
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Last year, Lee Brian Schrager, founder and director of the South Beach Wine & Food Festival, brought his popular foodie outing to New York for the first time. This year, Schrager plans to bring it back, and yesterday announced an event schedule and roster of activities that includes the return of big ticketed events, some new additions, and the presence of many celebrated chefs.
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RELATED TOPICS
New York City Wine & Food Festival, Southern Wine & Spirits, Food Network, Food & Wine Magazine, Travel & Leisure magazine, Food Bank of New York, Share Our Strength |
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| EVENT REPORT 10.13.08 1:53 PM |
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Wine & Food Fest Mixes Edible and Musical Offerings
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 | The New York City Wine & Food Festival's Meatpacking Uncorked
Photo: Jessica Torossian for BizBash |
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The first New York City Wine & Food Festival this weekend filled the meatpacking district—and some other areas—with celebrated chefs and foodies for a four-day celebration of all things culinary. Led by Lee Schrager, director of special events for Southern Wine & Spirits and founder of the South Beach Wine & Food Festival, this Northeast series was produced by Karlitz & Company and benefited the Food Bank for New York City and Share Our Strength.
Covering a variety of topics, the weekend-long fair included more than 70 individual seminars, panel discussions, food demonstrations, cooking classes, and large-scale tasting parties. And even with food squarely center stage, the biggest events of the festival—Burger Bash, Sweet, Chelsea Market After Dark, and Midnight Music and Munchies—also provided musical entertainment, from DJs and roaming performers in elaborate costumes to a coffee psychic and an appearance from Tom Colicchio singing and strumming a guitar.
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RELATED TOPICS
New York City Wine & Food Festival, Southern Wine & Spirits, Food Network, Food & Wine Magazine, Travel & Leisure magazine, Share Our Strength, Food Bank of New York, MGM Grand at Foxwoods, DailyCandy, Ferrero, Perrier, Absolut, Target |
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| MY FAVORITE VENDORS 10.02.08 12:55 PM |
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Food Bank Gets Ice Sculptures From Okamoto
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 | | Nicholas Ferrando |
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Arizona-native Nicholas Ferrando joined the Food Bank for New York City in February and now oversees more than 20 events annually, including the Can-Do awards dinner and the Lunchbox Auction. Ferrando also manages third-party partnership events, such as Taste of Tennis and the upcoming Wine & Food Festival in New York.
Ice Sculpture Design: “Okamoto Studio does not do your typical swan, duck, or punch bowl. They can freeze just about anything, be it oranges or a real fish, tennis balls and a racket, or Crocs—all things they designed for us this year. Shintaro Okamoto will come back with renderings very quickly, and he does exquisite work every time, which is why we have used him for the last four years and will continue to do so."
Photography: “Donjé is a longstanding partner of ours. I started working with the husband-and-wife team, Scott and Nichole Allinson, in February, and they have done everything for us, from photographing our events from both a product and sponsorship perspective to working in the field to doing people shots, like the one of our C.E.O. in the newsletter.”
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RELATED TOPICS
Food Bank of New York |
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| EVENT INTELLIGENCE 09.26.08 9:00 AM |
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10 More Green Events
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Although not all companies are jumping in with both feet, many are producing green events on a one-time basis, to tie into the launch of an eco-related product or service, to promote an earth-friendly theme, or as a way to test a larger-scale green initiative. Here are 10.
1. For a 450-guest holiday party last December, Annika Dukes, marketing manager for Berkeley, California-based architecture firm Noll & Tam, brought Johanna Walsh of Twirl Management on board to give the annual blowout a greener spin. Guests were encouraged to take local commuter train service to the stop nearest Noll & Tam’s office, where shuttles ferried them the remaining two miles to the party. For many menu items, Walsh tracked down local and organic sources. To cut down on waste, she ordered locally brewed beer in kegs rather than individual bottles, and purchased all nonalcoholic drinks in bulk. Biodegradable plates and flatware as well as reusable china and glass tableware were used, and leftover food was either composted or donated.
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RELATED TOPICS
Green Leaders, Going Green, Aveda, New York Fashion Week, Food Bank of New York, Meredith Publishing, Fidelity Investments |
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| ASK BIZBASH 05.12.08 11:05 AM |
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How Do You Ensure That Staffers Treat Guests Well?
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 | Waiters from Great Performances
Photo: Elizabeth Lippman |
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An event could have exquisite flowers, food prepared by a world-famous chef, and Oscar-presenter-worthy gift bags, but if a check-in person is less than friendly or the caterwaiters are standing around chatting, that’s what guests will remember. So how do you make sure service is up to par when there are so many people performing so many different tasks?
Gregory Boroff, senior vice president of external relations for the Food Bank for New York City, says a thorough interview process for volunteers is a big part of how the nonprofit keeps its quality of service (and proceeds from events) high. “We don’t send out mass emails asking who would like to volunteer for an event. Everyone is hand-picked. When people say they want to volunteer, we meet them first to see if it’s a good fit between the person and the organization,” he says. “We make sure they are friendly, that they understand what our organization is about and what we try to accomplish. Are they are there to help [us], or to further a personal agenda?” While many volunteers want to work the celebrity-studded Can-Do Awards dinner, Boroff says those jobs are often reserved for people who have proven themselves in other positions, like working in the office, or at another event.
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RELATED TOPICS
Food Bank of New York, Grammys, Luminato |
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| EVENT REPORT 11.20.07 4:05 PM |
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Dessert Party Kicks Off New Food Fest
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 | The Food Network placed mobiles over its cocktail areas.
Photo: BizBash |
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Fifteen hundred guests descended upon the Waterfront last Friday for a whole lot of sugary goodness. To mark the coming debut of the New York City Wine & Food Festival (to be held next fall), a massive dessert party dubbed "Sweet" lured members of the public who paid $200 a ticket to sample desserts from some of the city's top restaurants (Jean-Georges, Per Se, Bouchon Bakery, Le Bernardin, WD-50, and A Voce among them) and an array of wines from producers like Ste. Michelle, Mionetto, Francis Ford Coppola, and Lorraine Bracco.
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RELATED TOPICS
Food Network, Food & Wine Magazine, Ferrero Rocher, Target, Southern Wine & Spirits, Share Our Strength, Food Bank of New York |
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