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Pared-down Tampa Bay Wine & Food Festival goes "green"
Photo by JEFF HOUCK
Organizers are opting for sustainability instead of lavish parties in the festival's third year.
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Published: May 14, 2009
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TAMPA, FL - Restaurants are going under. Wine and spirits makers are watching profits drip away.
It's not a great time to keep a glamorous beach-front food festival afloat.
Organizers of this weekend's Tampa Bay Wine & Food Festival say they planned the third year of the event behind the Don CeSar Resort on St. Pete Beach with pinched wallets and bottom lines in mind.
Hosted by Southern Wine & Spirits of Central Florida, the festival is billed as "the most exotic wine and food event of the year."
But the chef's golf tournament, lavish black tie gala, champagne Bubble Bash and "titanium chef" challenge of previous years are all gone. What once was a four-day extravaganza has been pared to two afternoons of tasting and sipping.
"I don't know how socially responsible it is to try to keep 18 or 19 events going at a time when people are trying to decide how to make the mortgage payment," festival director Tonya Valdez of Southern Wine said.
"Because we service the businesses who are participating, we hear every day how hard it is," Valdez said. "People like to think wine and spirits are recession-proof, but we're taking the hit because our customers are taking one, too."
At a time when extravagance seems gauche, the event instead will aim for a message with meaning – specifically, promoting the idea of environmentally friendly food.
The grand tasting tent, where 400 wine labels and three dozen restaurant and food providers will showcase their flavors, will act as the festival's centerpiece, complete with a Garden of Eden featuring a tastefully adorned Adam and Eve.
Seminars in an adjacent section of the tasting tent will feature such local chefs such as Chad Johnson from SideBern's in Tampa, who will be discussing how selection of smaller fish can prevent overfishing of larger species which take longer to reproduce. Biodynamic, organic and sustainable winemaking – and the difference it makes in the flavor of wine - will be explained by experts from Mendocino Winery and Ste. Michelle Wine Estates.
Tampa restaurants participating include 717 South and Chez Bryce. O Bistro, Parkshore Grill and Table Restaurant from St. Petersburg and Bellini's in Gulfport also will serve samples.
"People who have come to the grand tasting in previous years will not be able to tell a difference this year," Valdez said. "It will be just as lavish."
New this year: A retail area where patrons can purchase the wines and spirits they sample at the festival. Also, visitors will get a "Palate Passport" that gives discounts on dinners at participating restaurants.
The idea, Valdez said, was to help the festival's restaurants and beverage providers recoup some of the costs for serving hundreds of samples to patrons on their own dime.
Wrangling participants wasn't easy this year, Valdez said. Restaurants have been cutting staff and budgets, making it difficult to have enough people to serve at the festival. Cash donations from sponsors dropped 40 percent this year, with some offering in-kind support instead.
"Honey, I've been making phone calls I never had to make in the past," Valdez joked. "I'm the wine politician."
The festival starts Friday with a grand tasting for trade and media from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday's tasting from noon to 4 p.m. is open to the general public.
General admission tickets are $77, with VIP tickets costing $102. Those who go online to sign up for the festival's newsletter at the Web site www.unleashyourpalate.com will receive a $25 discount on a VIP ticket.
The festival's proceeds will be donated to the Abilities Foundation and the Moffitt Cancer Center Foundation. Charitable donations in previous years averaged $100,000.
Reporter Jeff Houck can be reached at (813) 259-7324.
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