One of my favorite culinary events of the year has long been the Atlanta Food & Wine Festival, returning to Atlanta's Midtown again June 1-4. Primarily situated around the Loews Hotel and Piedmont Park, AFWF offers opportunities to interact with Southern chefs, mixologists, craftspeople and purveyors that are pretty much unparalleled in other regional food festivals.
When people ask which of the many food festivals I like best, I usually comment that each of them hang their hats on different core competencies. Nobody does local chef dinners better than Charleston Food + Wine Festival, while Nashville's Music City Food + Wine Fest kicks everyone else’s when it comes to integrating music and food (and in providing the best dance party at the tasting tents), and the South Beach festival is where, well, where you’re most likely to see Guy Fieri with his shirt off.
In my opinion, Atlanta excels with both a tremendous variety of vendors in their well-organized tasting tents and because of their access to a bunch of meeting room at the Loews, the best selection of educational opportunities during the days of the festival before the tents open. Every year I meet the next generation of culinary rock stars and learn all sorts of new things from attending those classroom sessions.
As it does every year, Nashville is contributing talent and throwing down some serious knowledge at this year’s edition of the Atlanta festival. AFWF tickets are going quickly for many of the events, so if you’re planning to attend, I suggest you get cracking and buy some. If you need any extra motivation, here’s some of our hometown talent you can go to support.
The opening night event in Atlanta is a huge party at American Spirit Works called “Destination Delicious.” This multi-station tasting event is always a blast, and this year John Lasater of Hattie B’s will be slinging chicken, and Charlie Nelson of Nelson’s Green Brier Distillery will be pouring drinks. Another fun event will be a re-creation of diner culture organizers are calling “Destination Diner,” and one of the featured chefs will be Daniel Herget of Little Octopus.
While it’s not a completely culinary event, the Atlanta Food + Wine festival does hold a fascinating entrepreneurs conference before the official festival kicks off. “Craft Catalyst” invites food and drink businesses at early levels of development to learn, network and present to more experienced professionals. The Nashville connection is that James Peisker and Chris Carter of Porter Road Butcher will be feeding all these folks. Meat is brain food, y’know.
Other educational panels will be led by or involve some notable Nashville professionals. (Other than the Beer and BBQ seminar that I’m leading. That may be a little amateurish.) Sean Brock of Husk Nashville will team up with Drew Kulsveen of Willett, and Preston Van Winkle from that little whiskey company you might have heard of for “Master Class: Rare Breeds,” where the trio will present tastes of rare hams and their much sought-after whiskeys. It should be a really special event.
Kathleen Cotter will be sharing her cheese knowledge at a Cheese & Chocolate Happy Hour, which sounds like my idea of heaven, at least after my annual physical is over. Lisa White of Marsh House and Karl Worley from Biscuit Love will be teaming up for a presentation called “Biscuit Royalty.” I moderated Worley’s seminar last year, and I’d wager there might be a little drinking involved, too. Finally, Lasater will be part of a fun panel titled “Food Stories of the South” along with some other Southern chefs and writers, and that event is definitely highlighted on my itinerary.
Finally, don’t miss out on the tasting tents that cover acres of Piedmont Park with tents filled with food and drink. Lasater may just be the busiest man in Atlanta that week, because he will be joining the Nelsons and the Porter Road boys serving out tastes in the tents. Other Nashvillians participating in the tastings will be Tony Galzin of Nicky’s Coal Fired and Jason Zygmont from The Treehouse.
Despite the fact that the interstates of Atlanta keep blowing up or falling down, it’s really not a tough road trip from here. Check your calendar and make plans!
