Friday night was our first foray to the festival and like last year, it was packed. Our first hurdle was getting through the coat check process. Two women were manning the station and were so incredibly slow that it was hilarious. The line snaked across the hall and it seemed like 10 minutes went by between a woman taking our coats and coming back with our tickets. On Saturday there were additional faster-moving personnel (photo).
But we finally picked up our wine glasses and started working our way through the hall. We had an hour to spend before we would sit down for our reserved Tre Cugini Wine & Food Pairing.
It was time to sit for dinner and after a seating snafu with people who didn't read their ticket time/date quite right, we settled in for a lovely time. The owner introduced the wines and the executive chef, the food.
Our first course was ravioli filled with goat, ricotta, and parmesan cheeses, brushed with butter and sage, served over a light tomato sauce. It was exquisite, and remembering the tomato sauce still makes my mouth water. It was paired with a sparkling Villa Tavernago Ortrugo "Podere Visconti."
The main course was braised wild boar stew in red wine, thyme, and sage, served over polenta, and paired with Grifalco Aglianico del Vulture "Gricos." It was just ok as we preferred the wine and not the slightly gamey stew.
Our last course was dessert, a delicious napoleon puff pastry layered with whipped cream and fresh Michigan strawberries (we all laughed at the "fresh Michigan" strawberries at this time of year :-) ) It was lovely to behold and was paired with a dessert wine, Merk Verduzzo (2008 Venezia-Giulia, Friuli).
When we originally parked, we discovered we could park in the city reserved spots, and when I returned on Saturday, I did the same thing.
There was an entire Beer Loft to discover ~
What is PBR doing here?
Other miscellaneous food and beverage photos ~
Finally the miscellaneous vendors hawking their wares ~
I should have moved this blanked-faced model slightly to the left to fill the sleeve :-)
Cheers to this festival and to great eating and drinking in Grand Rapids!!
No comments:
Post a Comment