Absent any financial data about the revenue of this year's Music City Food + Wine Festival — which I suppose is none of my business anyway — I choose to judge the success of a food festival by the smiles I see on the faces of attendees and chefs working the events. (Although I'd wager that the increased participation by wine, beer and spirits sponsors manning their booths and generously handing out samples probably contributed a lot to both of those metrics.) Regardless of whether the attendees were locals or tourists, the excitement was palpable at both sessions of the tasting tents. I noticed patrons pick up their pace as they speed-walked to the entrance line like children turning the corner of the mall in the Christmas season and catching sight of the big red guy in Santa's Village for the first time.
Spectators at tasting events and seminars conducted by national celebrities like Kathie Lee Gifford, Rick Bayless, Martina McBride and Tyler Florence seemed genuinely engaged, and the line of book buyers waiting for Carla Hall to hug their necks was rewarded with her affection. The big "Friday Night Throwdown" between Pekka Rinne and Roman Josi of the Preds and Titans Kevin Byard and Logan Ryan ended pretty much the same way the Thursday Night Football game did — the home football team went down in defeat.
Was the Music City Food + Wine Festival a little boozy again this year? Sure. And as usual, the latter hour of Saturday's tasting tent session devolved into a dance party, but I don't think anyone in attendance really minded. (And the Uber/Lyft line was moving efficiently to get folks home. As long as they didn't need to travel on 440 or I-65.) Perhaps the biggest surprise to me personally was the fact that several of my favorite bites were vegetarian — or at least darn close to it — which was a shock to this avowed carnivore. Participating chefs made some really smart decisions about what sorts of tastings to offer in the face of the hot weather, with more cool dishes to be found than in past years. Of course, there were paper boats filled with pork belly dishes and short ribs, and nobody complained about that either. The longest lines of the weekend may have been for a taste of the queso and tacos stuffed into tortillas made on site by the team of the upcoming Ladybird Taco restaurant — which will replace Bob Bernstein's recently shuttered BOX Bongo + Bakery on 10th Avenue in Waverly Belmont sometime next year. That's definitely a development to keep an eye out for!
So here are some of my favorite bites from the tents at Music City Wine + Food this year, including some new participants to the festival:
Holler and Dash's contribution was a collaboration between their culinary director Brandon Frohne and his friend and Nectar Cantina chef Julio Hernandez. Their shrimp and grits with Korean-barbecue spices left just the correct amount of lip-numbing burn to remind you of it later.
Robert Longhurst, the creator of Red Eye Rye, showcased a few excellent brand extensions to his Standard Proof line of spirits, including this honeysuckle-infused rye whiskey.
A fun new find was the offering from Daniel and Kai Yarzagaray, proprietors of the relatively new Chivandas food truck. They specialize in Colombian empanadas, but their canapés de lentejas made with bollo limpio, refried lentils, lulo, mango, tomatillo, suero costeño and cilantro was a fine vegetarian introduction to their cuisine.
To celebrate the recent opening of their new location on Music Row, Thai Esane gave out a delicious rice-noodle stir fry with fresh bean sprouts.
The award for "prettiest dish" goes to the team from Deb Paquette's Etch and etc., and it was also a brilliant and delicious offering for a hot afternoon — compressed watermelon topped with togarashi dried shrimp, tofu sesame, honey whip, pickled melon rinds, micro shiso greens and finger lime pearls tasted even better than it looked.
Mike Morales of Sunda delivered this fantastic vegetarian version of poke topped with a fried lotus root.
Post a comment as anonymous
Report
Watch this discussion.
(0) comments
Welcome to the discussion.
Log In
Welcome to the discussion.
Keep it clean. Please avoid obscene, vulgar, lewd, racist or otherwise abusive language. Comments featuring hate speech or threatening or violent content will not be tolerated.
PLEASE TURN OFF YOUR CAPS LOCK.
Be truthful. Don't knowingly lie or mislead.
Be proactive. Use the “report” link on any comment that violates our comment policy.
Share with us. We'd love to hear your feedback.