| EVENT REPORT 10.14.09 4:03 PM |
|
More From the Wine & Food Festival: Cheerleaders at the Burger Bash, Absolut's Branded Lounge
|
 | The New York City Wine & Food Festival's crowded Burger Bash
Photo: Marina Senra for BizBash |
|
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.
MORE >>
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 |
 |
| TED KRUCKEL 10.14.09 12:33 PM |
|
Food Network's Festival Stretches Its Scope (and My Belt)
|
 | Guy Fieri, up to his usual theatrical antics, at the New York City Wine & Food Festival
Photo: Courtesy of the New York City Wine & Food Festival |
|
If there is one thing that really struck me about the second annual Food Network New York City Wine & Food Festival, sponsored by Food & Wine and Travel & Leisure, it was the sheer size and diversity of it all.
Last week, I wrote about the plethora of food festivals happening this month in New York, most of which have no problem filling kitchens, dining rooms, stores, and other venues with paying, eager eaters. Yet at the same time, the industry’s oldest and most prestigious magazine, Gourmet, up and folded, and downtown, perennially top-rated Chanterelle closed its doors.
But at the New York City Wine & Food Festival this past weekend, it was as if those closings happened on an altogether different planet. The four-day affair kicked off with “Celebration,” a V.I.P. event on Thursday at the Food Network studio. There were so many celebrity chefs that festival founder Lee Schrager found himself in trouble when, during his speech, he began thanking present network personalities Alton Brown, Guy Fieri, and Sandra Lee, and suddenly a bunch of others started shouting out their own names. Lee wisely widened his thanks to “everyone at the Food Network, including the security guard, who five years later still doesn’t recognize me.”
MORE >>
RELATED TOPICS
New York City Wine & Food Festival |
|
| EVENT REPORT 10.12.09 3:58 PM |
|
Second Wine & Food Festival Fills New York With 120 Events
|
 | The scene at the New York Wine & Food Festival
Photo: John Minchillo for Bizbash |
|
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."
MORE >>
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 |
|
 |
|
| FROM THE EDITORS 10.12.09 1:10 PM |
|
At BizBash Hors d'Oeuvres House, Guests Sample Canapés, Cocktails
|
 | The BizBash Hors d'Oeuvres House at Skylight West
Photo: Marina Senra for BizBash |
|
On Thursday night, four local caterers showed off their latest appetizers at the BizBash Hors d'Oeuvres House, part of the New York City Wine & Food Festival. The two-hour cocktail party, held at Skylight West, drew about 400 people.
On the venue's sixth floor, Diane Gordon Catering (formerly Entertaining Ideas), Taste Caterers, Thomas Preti Caterers, and Sonnier & Castle served two hors d'oeuvres each at sleek white tasting stations. Attendees moved from station to station (and back again), devouring tray after tray of bite-sized food. Hors d'oeuvres included Taste's braised short rib soft tacos with Manchego and tomato relish and Sonnier & Castle's seared beef sirloin with Danish blue cheese, walnut, watercress, and apple. Other bites were influenced by the change of seasons, including Diane Gordon's autumn vegetable risotto canapes and Thomas Preti's chicken-apple sausage corn dogs with apple cider mustard.
MORE >>
RELATED TOPICS
New York City Wine & Food Festival, Southern Wine & Spirits |
|
| NEWS 10.07.09 3:44 PM |
|
Wine & Food Festival's Second Outing to Include Zac Posen, Frank Bruni, and Big Events With Food Network Stars
|
 | The packed Burger Bash event at last year's New York City Wine & Food Festival
Photo: Jessica Torossian for BizBash |
|
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.
MORE >>
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 |
|
| NEWS 04.28.09 8:00 AM |
|
Lineup Announced for Second New York City Wine & Food Festival
|
 | Sweet, part of last year's New York City Wine & Food Festival
Photo: Jessica Torossian for BizBash |
|
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.
MORE >>
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 |
|
|
|
|
| NEWS 02.27.09 11:37 AM |
|
In the News: Batali Offends South Beach, Media Weighs In on Northern Trust Scandal
|
Batali’s SoBe Snafu: Chef Mario Batali didn’t make any new friends at Miami’s annual South Beach Wine & Food Festival last week. During a $1,000-a-plate dinner, he reportedly swore quite a bit, shocking guests like King Juan Carlos and Queen Sofia of Spain. Festival founder Lee Schrager wouldn’t comment on whether Batali would be asked to return next year or to the festival’s New York counterpart in October. [NY Post]
Criticism of Northern Trust Mounts: The media seems about as pleased with Northern Trust Corp. throwing bailout money toward sponsorships as Congress is. In an op-ed yesterday, Maureen Dowd echoed the sentiments from President Obama’s Tuesday speech, saying now isn’t the time for companies to spend public investments on sponsorships or events. [NYT]
Marketing Needs to Survive in Hard Times: Not everyone is criticizing Northern Trust Corp. for its recent golf tournament. Golf Digest published a retaliatory op-ed Thursday, claiming that for businesses to survive the recession, they must continue with marketing plans. “They have to keep their name out there,” wrote Ron Sirak. “They have to maintain contacts with important clients. The trick is to do this marketing in a financially efficient way.” [Golf Digest]
—Alesandra Dubin & Michael O'Connell
RELATED TOPICS
P.G.A., Northern Trust, Mario Batali, Lee Schrager, South Beach Wine & Food Festival, New York City Wine & Food Festival |
|
| BEST OF 2008 11.24.08 8:00 AM |
|
Food Chain
|
 | Lee Brian Schrager
Photo: Seth Browarnik |
|
Lee Brian Schrager, director of special events and media relations at Southern Wine & Spirits, is the founder of the South Beach Wine & Food Festival, which in February drew more than 40,000 attendees and 100 chefs, and raised more than $1.7 million for the School of Hospitality and Tourism Management at Florida International University. This fall he launched the New York City Wine & Food Festival, which put 18,000 tickets on sale for more than 50 events at more than 10 different sites over Columbus Day weekend (October 9 to October 12), with proceeds going to the Food Bank for New York City and Share Our Strength.
What was the biggest challenge?
Just finding the locations probably took us one year—getting the right backdrop is very, very important, as it’s what makes South Beach. I see the meatpacking district as the nucleus of the [New York] festival. We wanted the festival to be grassroots, local, and to make the meatpacking district come alive that weekend. It’s important to know that we’re not bringing South Beach to New York; we’re not looking to replicate or duplicate what we do down there … and we’re not taking anything for granted. We’re building the events around the venues, not the other way around.
MORE >>
RELATED TOPICS
New York City Wine & Food Festival, Southern Wine & Spirits, South Beach Wine & Food Festival |
|
| TED KRUCKEL 10.15.08 1:22 PM |
|
At Wine & Food Festival, Little Things Can Ruin a Lot
|
 | The New York Wine & Food Festival's Target parkscape
Photo: Jessica Torossian for BizBash |
|
I hate conventional wisdom, especially when it’s spouted by someone you suspect hasn’t read a good book in a long, long while. Such was my mood as I departed the hospitality lounge of the Food Network Wine & Food Festival presented by Food & Wine and Travel & Leisure. (That’s FNW&FFPBF&W&T&L. Catchy, huh?) It was in the super-hip and centrally located but somehow lackluster Hotel Gansevoort. This was my second visit to the suite, and I was fed up with dum-dums.
On my first day, picking up a lecture ticket, the firmly seated volunteer in the suite told me that the room was not affiliated with the two magazines, despite the lobby sign saying the opposite, and looked incredulous when I asked her if I could leave a note for Food & Wine’s publisher, my friend Christina Grdovic Baltz. How could she, after all, occupied as she was with a plateful of mini-toasts smothered with cheese that she had helped herself to (super-sloppily, apparently, as the entire tablecloth was inches from a complete fall-down)?
The waiter was little help either, busy as he was hiding in the bathroom and not picking up the towels on the floor. A plate of Pepperidge Farm cookies, similarly manhandled, has sworn me off the brand for a long time. They were also serving a new offering from Coppola Vineyards bottled in what seemed to be a reusable carafe but that resembled a grocery store juice bottle, making it hard for me to consider it seriously.
MORE >>
RELATED TOPICS
New York City Wine & Food Festival, Food Network, Food & Wine Magazine, Travel & Leisure magazine, Target |
|
|
