On Friday, we grazed around the beautiful Peace Center Amphitheater on the Reedy River in downtown Greenville for the Verizon Wireless Taste of the South. Josh Leo and Adam Craig Band cranked out country tunes as we sampled small plates from Greenville's best restaurants: Larkin's on the River, Devereaux's, The Green Room, The Lazy Goat, Rick Erwin's West End Grille, Soby's, Stella's Southern Bistro, and Bacon Bros. Public House. (I left out a few, but you get the point. The best of the best were there. It was freaking amazing.) Top that with beverages provided by Firefly Sweet Tea Vodka, Stella Artois, Thomas Creek Brewery (a local fave), Sierra Nevada, Williamsburg Winery, Trump Winery, and Boxwood Winery and Barboursville Vineyards.
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| Kat Kinsman was at Euphoria from CNN's Eatocracy blog! |
Let me give you an idea of the very cool food we put in our face. Fried chicken and spicy waffle with maple syrup from Larkin's on the River, Braised Duck Pot Pie with Jalapeno Cornmeal Crust from Stella's, Korean Pork Tacos from the Rick Erwin's group of restaurants, Braised Beef Short Ribs with Poblano Slaw and Cherry Coke Glaze from Soby's and Smoked Manchester Farms Quail with Pimento Cheese Grits and Bacon Jam from Bacon Bros Public House.
Take a look at my Euphoria 2013 post for more Euphoria pics.
Let's talk about Saturday. (Stay with me. Gonna be a long post!) I was crazy excited about that Charles Krug Wines and Justin Wines were going to be at the Bon Secours St. Francis Health System Tasting Showcase. If you've seen me excited about something, you know why the guys at Justin Wines considered giving me a job when I walked up to their booth. I'm a total fan girl. If you've had their Cabernet, then you understand why I was so stoked. R Stuart and Co. was also there with their Big Fire Pinot Gris, one of my favorite whites.
Beer companies were sampling too. I'm not normally a beer girl, but I was happy to try them all. Greenville's own Thomas Creek Brewery was there with their River Falls Ale (my favorite of all beers) and I loved the Blueberry beer from Atlanta's Sweetwater Brewery. Poppington's Popcorn was also there handing out samples of their Buffalo Popcorn. YUM!
Saturday, to me, is mostly about the booze, quite frankly, but Tupelo Honey Greenville was there serving up an absolutely amazing dish of Southern Chicken Saltimbocca with Country Ham in a Mushroom Marsala Sauce. It was one of my favorite dishes of the weekend. I've got to get my hands on that Tupelo Honey Cookbook. Look for that to be on my Christmas List! And if I'm lucky, maybe they'll give me one to give away on the blog. Stay posted.
Other tasty highpoints were the fare at the Fine Wine Auction and Reserve Tasting at Soby's on Saturday afternoon and then the macarones from Buttercream Bakehouse. And we did linger over the breads at the La Farm Bakery booth for quite a while...
After a change of clothes and a switchout of girlfriends, I headed back down the mountain to check out the Euphoria Food Truck Driven Associates Traffic Jam at The Old Cigar Warehouse on Saturday night. Columbia's 2 Fat 2 Fly was there with their stuffed chicken wings, The Chocolate Moose was handing out cupcakes, and ASADA Food Truck was fixing up California-Mexican goodness. (I can't get enough of their tacos.) Also there: Henry's Smokehouse, Kona Ice, Thoroughfare Food Truck and Fudrucker's The Fudd Truck. This was the first year for the Traffic Jam event.
The Euphoria girls sure know how to throw a party. It was a hoedown style event complete with strings of lights, cornhole games, a live band and even a hammock. The lines for some of the food trucks were problematic (more booze than food = drunk people) and one of the more popular trucks ran out of food before the event was over, but doesn't that just mean it was SUPER successful?
Sunday. That's me with the new chef of Hotel Domestique's Restaurant 17, Adam Cooke. (He's a cutie, right?) I was excited to hear from him that the Hincapie venture should be open by November. I hope they show some GCG love and allow us a preview!
I ran around chasing chefs most of the morning... until I spotted cake. This girl loves her cake. Especially Brick Street Sweet Potato Cake. Yes, I ate that first. With a Mimosa while I tapped my foot to the tunes of South Carolina Jazz Orchestra. But the best dish of the day goes to Performance Foodservice for the Smoked Salmon Strudel with Red Onion Relish.
It was truly an amazing weekend. I want to thank Sparkle Boss Taryn Scher (the PR genius behind Euphoria) for being so kind and for the Euphoria staff for doing an absolutely amazing job. Again. You guys are the bomb.
Oh! And one last story. So right before we left, I grabbed Taryn for a hug and a thank you. I asked for a picture. I just wanted to snap a selfie shot. (I think she is amazingly cool.) She was worried about us looking funny that up close. We were cute actually! Until I got home and realized in my picture edits that I had food all in my teeth! How long had that been there?! Isn't that the way of the world? You think you're all snazzy and then you realize you had food in your teeth the whole time!
Until my next embarrassing moment.
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