By now, you may have had your fill of FOMO from reading recaps of the Music City Food + Wine Festival. But wait! This one is different. Sure, you missed a lot of stuff at the festival, but the great part is that you can check out much of it any time you want. Because along with a number of restaurants serving special bites (and big-name chefs serving at Harvest Night), there were a number of retail products you can buy just any ol’ time.
Dan’s Gourmet Mac and Cheese (pictured) — which has grown quite a bit from humble beginnings at farmers markets — is available in the freezer section of local Kroger stores as well as all across the country and online. You can find Corner Market Catering foods at their West Nashville store or several other stores around the city. Also available all around town is Switters Iced Coffee. Though the Lemonade Iced Coffee I tasted at the festival is a bit hard to find. Sounds weird, doesn’t it? It’s crazy delicious, though. Trust.
For your sweet tooth, there’s no doubt you already know that you can get Christie Cookies and Goo Goo Clusters — both made right here in Nashville — just about any time you want them. Goo Goo was sampling every premium Goo Goo from the Summer Chef’s Series, which you might still be able to get at the Goo Goo Store. Olive and Sinclair was also at the festival with their chocolates as well as candies from their new brand, Seersucker Candy Company. Those Cherry Bombs (pickled cherry cordials) and Muzzle Loaders (salted bourbon caramel-filled chocolates) are fantastic.
The adult beverage selection at the festival was (as always) overwhelming. Because of the heat, I tried to take it easy, so I stuck with gin cocktails from Hendrick’s and Jack Rudy Cocktail Company on day one and then Sixty One from Dogfish Head Brewery and The Infinite Monkey Theorem Dry Hopped Pear Cider on day two. If you want to try the Dogfish Head, it's currently on tap at Cochon Butcher (and likely elsewhere around town). The pear cider is available at Midtown Wine and Spirits. Hendrick's and Jack Rudy artisanal tonics are available just about everywhere.
I asked beverage connoisseur Vivek Surti of VEA Supper Club what his favorites were and he mentioned Mouton Noir Love Drunk, Taittinger Comtes de Champagne (hey, big spender!), Whispering Angel rosé, Goose Island Sophie, Afrohead Rum, and the White Whiskey cocktail from Belle Meade Bourbon. I don’t even think that’s all he consumed. Phew. Check out his site for info on upcoming pop up supper club events (though I believe next week's dinner is already sold out).
Not everything on display at the festival was edible or drinkable. Nashville-based Y’allsome was the festival’s selected vendor for merchandise. The Tennessee flag-inspired banjo really caught my attention. Not for sale and not particularly related, but still worth noting is a hat I saw that read “Vinegar Is for Lovers” in the style of the familiar Virginia tourism motto. I love it.
I’m sorry to report that I was too busy eating drinking, and socializing to attend most of the demos and panels. However, I did catch Cochon Butcher Nashville chef Levon Wallace’s demo for cast-iron cooking. Wallace recently relocated to Nashville from Louisville, Ky., and noted that he learned that it’s just not done to serve yellow cornmeal bread to proper guests in Kentucky. It should be white cornmeal. I’ve never heard that before, but my mother (a Tennessee native, but from an area just a stone’s throw from the Kentucky border) would agree. Has anyone ever heard that? Me, I love all cornbread.
