Pepsi, one of the festival's top tier sponsors, was present at Meatball Madness as well as a number of events throughout the weekend. At 82 Mercer, the soda brand created an eye-catching bar comprised of its new skinny cans.
#3 Festival (up from #6)
Presented by Bon Appétit, Chicago Gourmet is arguably the city’s most prestigious food and wine event, and it’s growing every year. The festival’s attendance increases consistently: 12,456 guests made it out this fall, as compared to around 10,000 last year, and 6,000 when the event began in 2008. There were more big-name chefs than ever this year—a total of 175 participated—and there was also more food. The 11 tasting pavilions included new ones like dessert and La Femme du Chef, and new highlights to the programming included “Chef Smackdowns” in fun categories such as meatballs and tacos. Plus, the festival’s popular opening-night fete, the Hamburger Hop, grew in 2013 with its own after-party and a record-breaking 1,100 guests in attendance. Next: September 26-28, 2014
#4 Festival (up from #7)
There was good news for Chicago’s signature food festival this year: the fest was profitable for the first time since 2007, generating $272,000. In an effort to revitalize the event, organizers brought in new attractions including food trucks. Concerts each night featured buzzy headliners like Robin Thicke, and the 35 restaurants represented on site included some newcomers. Attendance also increased with 1.5 million guests this year as opposed 1.2 million in 2012. Next: July 9-13, 2014
#4 Art & Architecture Event
Dubbed “Beauty and the Feast,” this year’s showcase of tabletop design included detailed vignettes from prominent architects, artists, and interior designers. The three-day event includes an opening cocktail party that draws 1,000 guests; there’s also a popular public viewing, a tasting event, and a glamorous closing-night gala. Proceeds from Dining by Design benefit the Design Industries Foundation Fighting AIDS. Next: November 2014
At the Grand Tasting, Del Monte's banana mascot posed for photos with guests. The fruit-theme activation included a chandelier made from bunches of bananas.
Evian returned to the tents at the Grand Tasting with a new photo activation. Attendees who posed at the booth received prints that imagined what their future children would looked like.
DO AC, a campaign promoting Atlantic City, New Jersey, sponsored a Twitter-operated vending machine at the Grand Tasting. Guests received a wine bottle koozie after entering the hashtag #LiveFromAC and a custom hashtag code.
Amstel Light promoted its new Amstel Radler—a mix of beer and sparkling lemon water—with a sunny booth at the grand tasting. The playful beach-theme setup between the first and second tasting tents offered samples and encouraged guests to volley beach balls.
A cake stand made of wood slabs and terra-cotta pots displayed tiers of heirloom tomatoes at the Pure Leaf Farm to Table Brunch presented by Whole Foods Market at Essensia at the Palms.
Sponsored by Pat La Frieda Meat Purveyors, this year's Burger Bash had flame-theme decor, including a chandelier in the center of the tent bedecked with lanterns.
Guests sampled more than 30 competing burgers at the Burger Bash from restaurants from Miami and beyond, including 5 Napkin Burger, BSpot, Good Stuff Eatery, Shake Shack, STK Miami, Tongue & Cheek, Landmarc, and more. Eaters taste-tested at tables covered in a flame grill pattern.
Buick, the main car sponsor of the festival, showcased its new Buick Encore model, offering attendees a chance to win a new ride after submitting their contact information via iPad. Entrants also received free spice blends, courtesy of local chef Douglas Rodriguez. A cow-print throw blanket provided on-theme decor at the Burger Bash.
Electrolux created a kitchen using the brand's appliances where chefs and student volunteers from Florida International University served dishes throughout the festival, including burgers, empanadas, and desserts.
Esurance's SavorBand kiosks let guests tap N.F.C.-enabled bracelets at the stations to receive recipes and other information from vendors throughout the festival.
Mix It Up With Morimoto & Friends was the Asian-fusion Saturday late-night karaoke bash following Burger Bash and Best of the Best. The host dazzled guests at Shelborne Wyndham Grand South Beach with his fresh raw bar and sushi bites, which were served atop an ice-encased bar filled with frozen fish and other ocean delicacies. Other standout food vendors included Khong River House, China Grill, Sugarcane Raw Bar Grill, and Makoto.
The event served cocktails mixed with sake and Bye Joe, a Chinese spirit and sponsor. Illuminated pool balls and other lighting cast red hues around the Shelborne pool area.
At Oyster Bash, held on the Hotel Victor South Beach rooftop, a bar serving Cloudy Bay wines was topped in a thick bed of green grass, with pedestals for displaying the bottles.
Sammy Hagar performed hard-rock hits including Van Halen favorites throughout the evening on a stage bedecked with surfboards. In the past, bands have played reggae (Ziggy Marley) and funk-disco (KC and the Sunshine Band), so the rock genre was a much-appreciated change of pace.
A main sponsor of the Rockin' Beach Party, Del Monte served fresh fruit from a pineapple-shaped station. The company also distributed 5,000 LED necklaces for guests to wear at the late-night event.
One of the festival's kick-off events, Moët Hennessy's the Q used a word cloud of its sponsors as a stage backdrop as chef Michael Symon and festival founder and director Lee Brian Schrager greeted the crowd.
Chandon set up an extensive photo vignette that included, among other props, a bicycle with a cooler full of bubbly as well as colorful flutes, beach balls, and inflatables.
A main sponsor of both the Q and Flaunt late-night, Hennessy had a glowing cabana at Delano with its Hennessy Black spirit. Black lights illuminated the white bar and decor, which provided an eye-catching, glowing effect for the bottle's white insignia.
Veuve Clicquot's setup at Flaunt featured a life-size birdcage topped with floral accents. Inside, a dancer clad in the signature Veuve yellow shade greeted guests.
A contortionist entertained guests at Flaunt with a routine at the Delano pool's edge. Later, the contortionist performed moves from inside an inflated, clear bubble that rolled up and down the length of the pool.
A sand castle topped by a whole hog—complete with an apple in its mouth—met guests as they entered Thrillist's Barbecue & the Blues at Eden Roc. "This year we really wanted to bring the humor and irreverence of Thrillist's editorial to life," Thrillist events producer Adrienne Wright said. "By having a model spraying guests with a barbecue-scented cologne—a product we wrote about on Thrillist—as well as creating a Thirst-Aid Station slinging [craft beer] the Heimlich Maneuver, guests could leave with a better sense of what Thrillist is all about. And also smelling like ribs."
Paula Deen made an unannounced appearance at the event, which was hosted by her son Bobby.
Thrillist handed out thoughtful on-brand gifts such as toothpicks, breath mints, and moist towelettes.
Groupon offered several images in its signature green hue that guests could silk-screen onto tote bags at several festival events. The station promoted the discount site's new search bar.
Mountain Dew promoted its new Kickstart beverage with a refrigerated sample station set up inside a truck. Neon lights in the brand's signature green hue provided an eye-catching border.
Succulents marked each place setting at the Vegetarian Dinner hosted by Alfred Portale and Alex Guarnaschelli at the Space Miami.
Sylvia Weinstock instructed students how to make their own elaborate cake decorations—albeit on a smaller scale with two cupcakes—in a class at the St. Regis Bal Harbour.
The black-tie Ocean Liner Dinner—at $1,500 a ticket, the priciest event at the festival—was designed to evoke a first-class ocean liner. Anthony Bourdain oversaw a multicourse menu prepared by chefs Daniel Boulud, Andrew Carmellini, David McMillan, Fred Morin, Francois Payard, and Eric Ripert.
A display of cookbooks from participating chefs sat underneath a life preserver adorned with a take on the venue, the Wolfsonian museum.
The interactive kitchen at Jungle Island included stadium seating and a special section for toque- and apron-wearing kids.
The healthy living event Fun and Fit as a Family invited kids to power a blender by pedaling a bicycle.
At a station for Goya, kids could stack oversize blocks into images such as a fork and a cartoon mascot for the brand. The foam flooring made it safe for little feet.
At the Celebrity Chef Golf Tournament hosted by José Andrés, golfers sampled food and beverages from restaurants including the Bazaar as they played a round at Turnberry Isle Miami.
A rustic setting hosted the Chicken Coupe hosted by Andrew Carmellini at the W South Beach ballroom. The down-home dish came paired with champagne.
Three of the festival's largest events were held on the top level of an open-air parking structure at Pier 92, adjacent to the West Side Highway, including the signature Burger Bash on Friday night. As part of its Community Created Art program, Burger Bash title sponsor Blue Moon had a professional artist on hand to help guests paint a pre-outlined mural of a giant beer bottle nestled among the New York City skyline.
Some sponsorships were baked right into the food: Inside the Betty Crocker tent at the Burger Bash, staffers served Blue Moon-flavored cupcakes.
Delta flight attendants pushed carts around the party, offering guests mini pretzels and other snacks. The staffers, real attendants for the airline, also passed out tickets that automatically entered guests to win two round-trip tickets to anywhere in the continental United States.
Throughout the weekend, Groupon hosted a tote-making station atop the Pier 92 parking structure. Guests were given an object to find on a giant photo mural, such as a cocktail or a car. Once they located the item, staffers handed them a token that could be redeemed for a screen-printed tote bag.
Hosted by Restaurant: Impossible star Robert Irvine, Thrillist's Barbecue & the Blues event took place on Friday at Good Units inside the Hudson Hotel. Guests could pick up containers with logos holding toothpicks and breath mints—must-haves for any food tasting event.
On the upstairs mezzanine at Thrillist's Barbecue & the Blues event, sponsor Samuel Adams had a portable cooler set up to serve draft beer.
Held on the terrace at the Hudson Hotel and hosted by Food Network's Sandwich King star Jeff Mauro, Saturday's Soup'er Sandwich tasting saw 15 local chefs offering their best sandwich-and-soup combos. Title sponsor Hidden Valley presented its own farm-theme display of sandwiches, each featuring one of four new Hidden Valley Sandwich Spreads.
Soup'er Sandwich sponsor Martin's Famous Potato Rolls handed out squeezable stress balls shaped like packages of the brand's bread rolls.
One of the new events the festival debuted this year was Jets & Chefs: the Ultimate Tailgate, which took place on Saturday afternoon at Pier 92. In addition to more than 20 game-day cuisine samplings, guests could partake in activities like ladder toss, a game set up in presenting sponsor Pepsi's activation area. The space was marked off by low walls made from empty Diet Pepsi cans.
As part of Glad's Save It Sunday campaign promotion—which encourages people to avoid food waste by properly storing produce—guests helped color in a giant mural of an apple.
Coors Light created a football-theme photo op display at the family-friendly tailgate-theme event.
Hosted by Bobby Flay and sponsored by Olmeca Altos Tequila, Saturday night's Tacos & Tequila event filled an indoor space on the second floor at Pier 92. As guests entered the room, they saw a giant tiered display of televisions playing news clips from supporting sponsor NY1.
The DJ booth at Tacos & Tequila was set in front of a giant screen that projected guests' Instagram photos and sponsor logos arranged inside a Mondrian-inspired configuration of squares.
Guests lined up at the event's MasterCard-sponsored bars to receive margaritas served in glowing glasses.
On Saturday night, chef Todd English hosted a late-night walk-around tasting at the Plaza Food Hall. Food Network Star winner Justin Warner was on hand to promote General Mills's "Hello, Cereal Lovers" campaign. In addition to pop-art installations made with Trix and waitresses wearing mod dresses covered in images of Cheerios, Warner served cereal-inspired cocktails to guests.
The inaugural La Sagra Sunday Slices event closed out the festival. The pizza-centric affair showcasing 15 of New York’s best-known pizzaioli (pizza chefs) was held on the roof of Pier 92. Presenting sponsor Ronzoni placed vases filled with pasta and hydrangeas on rustic wood tables throughout the event space.
On Sunday, the Travel Channel's Andrew Zimmern and Pat LaFrieda Meats hosted an Oktoberfest-theme affair at Long Island City beer hall, the Garden at Studio Square. Sponsor Samuel Adams handed out on-brand beer steins and felt hats to attendees.
Pier 94 was packed with brand activations, food sampling stands, and drink stations on Saturday and Sunday for the festival's Grand Tasting. Coffee brand Illy brought its Push Button House, an enormous shipping crate that opens up into a mobile café space at the push of a button. The "house" hosted book signings and chef tastings, and guests could tag selfies taken inside with #IllyCoffee and #NYCWFF for the chance to win prizes, like a coffee maker.
Tables in the Illy Push Button House displayed centerpieces of fresh red roses arranged among coffee beans.
To promote its new Guy Fieri-hosted show Guy's Grocery Games, the Food Network booked the Shopper Chopper, a nine-foot-tall drivable shopping cart. In addition to touring around Manhattan, the on-brand cart made a pit stop inside the Grand Tasting.
At the Celebrity Cruises booth, produced by Grand Central Marketing, attendees could pose for photos while sitting in an oversize deck chair.
MasterCard set up a candy-shop-theme counter, where attendees who signed up to receive more information on the brand's Priceless New York experiences could help themselves to a sweet.
The Do AC campaign brought its two-story pop-up experience, designed by BMF Media, to the Grand Tasting floor. Each cubicle emphasized a different interactive experience themed around Atlantic City's offerings, including a gambling table and free mini massages.
The Do AC activation also included a Twitter-activated vending machine. Eventgoers tweeted using a specific hashtag to receive a free T-shirt and a chance to win a free trip to Atlantic City.
At the Cooking Channel's booth, staffers served freshly made savory pizza-, miso-caramel-, and black-and-white-cookie-flavored popcorn. Guests could also pose in a nearby photo booth, using props displayed in vases filled with popcorn kernels.
Pier 94 also hosted a series of KitchenAid-sponsored culinary demonstrations by Food Network personalities throughout the weekend. The audience was able to easily see what the chefs were doing thanks to a reflective mirror placed above the cooking area.
The Cupcake Vineyards truck, which is currently making its way to more than 25 states across the country, made a stop at the Grand Tasting. Guests could climb into a cozy lounge in the back of the truck and sample different varietals.
At The New York Times booth, attendees used iPads to make Word Cloud portraits—staffers captured images of guests, which were then recreated by a computer program that searched for food-related words within the Times’s article database.
Inside the Grand Tasting, guests could relax at Delta's Sky Club lounge, choosing to sample sommelier-selected wines served in-flight or chow down on pulled pork sandwiches from barbecue restaurant Blue Smoke. Outside, Delta offered guests free pedicab rides to and from the far-flung piers and Columbus Circle.
Featuring a rustic farm aesthetic dotted with freshly picked floral arrangements, Buick's setup was dubbed the Honey Garden. Attendees could sign up via iPad to win a car, plus sample cocktails made with honey-flavored syrup.
Similar to the South Beach Wine & Food Festival, Esurance's SavorBand kiosks let guests tap N.F.C.-enabled bracelets to receive recipes and other information from vendors.
For the second year, the Travel Channel's Andrew Zimmern hosted an Oktoberfest-theme affair at Long Island City beer hall the Garden at Studio Square. Thanks to Samuel Adams, attendees sported traditional Bavarian hats in honor of the German festival.
Yoplait Greek invited festival guests to vote for their favorite yogurt in a taste-off at the Esurance Rooftop at Pier 92. The rooftop space was used for a number of events during the festival's run, including the Blue Moon Burger Bash, Ronzoni's La Sagra Slices, Tacos & Tequila: A Late Night Fiesta, and Meatopia X: The Carnivore’s Ball.
For Jets & Chefs: The Ultimate Tailgate, the cruise line served football-friendly Kobe beef hot dogs with pickled vegetables and push pops filled with chocolate mousse and crushed Oreos. Celebrity was also promoting its four-night NY Jets Cruise featuring current and former players onboard, which takes place March 26 to 30, 2015.
For the kid-friendly Jets & Chefs event, Ronzoni set up a station for younger football fans to create works of pasta art.
Thrillist's fifth annual Barbecue & the Blues was hosted by the cast of Food Network's The Kitchen (Katie Lee, Marcela Valladolid, Sunny Anderson, Geoffrey Zakarian, and Jeff Mauro). Guests were issued "passports" with perforated tickets, each adorned with tiny animal icons, that were used to redeem one dish from each station. The black token coin was used to vote for their favorite dishes, as part of the event's annual competition.
The media group offered branded stain-remover pens for the barbecue-sauce-loving crowd, along with mint and toothpick packs. Sweet Chick was ​voted "Best in BBQ" by The Kitchen cast​ and guests​.
At the Grand Tasting presented by ShopRite, the pasta brand showed off its brand-new trailer—a renovated shipping container with a high-tech kitchen. Barilla hopes to build more of these mobile units in order to do demonstrations across the country, as well as to offer help to charities like Meals on Wheels.
Throughout the two-day Grand Tasting event, Barilla chefs prepared 20- to 30-minute recipes to promote the brand's pasta, as well as a new pesto product, which will be available next year.
To support the premiere of Cutthroat Kitchen: Superstar Sabotage, Food Network created an interactive activation for the special series. Prior to the Grand Tasting event, a glass-paneled truck, which resembled a briefcase, drove around New York with Cutthroat Kitchen dollar bills blowing around inside. At the Grand Tasting, participants had a chance to go inside the truck for 30 seconds to grab the bills.
In the spirit of the show, each participant also had to spin the "sabotage" wheel, which would determine their sabotage for the 30 seconds (e.g. you can only use oven mitts, you have to wear an eye patch, or you may have your hands cuffed together). The bills collected could be exchanged for real dollar bills.
This year at the Grand Tasting, Delta highlighted its farm-to-tray-table approach and its relationship with nutritious culinary partner Luvo. The space at Pier 92 featured onboard wines and mini wraps and snacks by Luvo. In addition, Delta flight attendants were on site to greet guests and hand out branded wine lanyards. Attendees could also enter for a chance to win a pair of economy round-trip tickets.
With football season in full swing, Beanitos staff, dressed as referees, handed out tailgate-friendly samples and posed for photo ops at the Grand Tasting.
At the Grand Tasting, culinary demonstrations took place on the stage outfitted by KitchenAid appliances. The brand also used the event as an opportunity to get valuable feedback from the chefs who used the equipment throughout the festival.
