Fork, Cork & Style Louisville

If you feel like heading out of town on Sunday, I’ve got a great event for you. Fork, Cork, & Style is happening at Churchill Downs in Louisville this Sunday, September 12.

Churchill Downs Entertainment Group is hosting Fork, Cork & Style this Sunday from 1-9 pm at the racetrack. The festival is bringing in celebrity chefs and party specialists, and Bringing to life its theme of “Fork, Cork & Style” the festival will present signature foods from around the country, celebrity chef cooking demonstrations, a wine tasting featuring 150 elite brands and innovative ways to dress up your next tailgating party.

There will be cooking demonstrations by Emeril Lagasse, “Top Chef” finalists (Brian Malarkey, Eli Kirshtein, & Betty Fraser) and local Louisville chefs.  There is a grand wine tasting with over 150 brands (via Southern Wine & Spirits) from 2-5 pm and 6-9 pm. Restaurants from Louisville and across the nation will also be serving tasty bites. According to the web site, notable restaurants participating include:

Chicago area’s Albano’s Pizzeria, #8 on Travel Channel’s “101 Tastiest Places to Chow Down” for their football-sized pizza puff ; Buffalo’s Anchor Bar, home of the original Buffalo Chicken Wings and #17 on the “101 Best Places to Chow Down” list; Memphis hot spot Central BBQ, rated #1 BBQ joint in Tennessee, which will prepare delicious ribs and pulled pork; West Virginia’s Hillbilly Hot Dogs, which placed #15 on the Travel Channel’s “101 Best Places to Chow Down” list and is best known for their 15-inch Home Wrecker hot dog topped with a pile of tasty condiments; Chicago’s world Famous Billy Goat Tavern and Grill, which brings their highly publicized cheeseburger adored by the cast of Saturday Night Live who performed the sketch “Cheezborger, Cheezborger”; Tony Luke’s in South Philly, home of the ultimate cheesesteak featured on Travel Channel’s “Man v. Food”.

So there you go. Come for the wine and food and enjoy some live music while you’re there. Between Beer Fest on Friday, a wedding on Saturday, and this event on Sunday … well, this weekend is most definitely the Last Bash of Summer for Kevin & myself. We’re staying the night in Louisville, an option I highly recommend.

Tickets are $29 for all music performances, cooking demos and one portion of food from the restaurant of your choice. For $64, you can get all of the above plus access to the Grand Wine Tasting inside Millionaires Row 4. For $200, you can do all of the above and meet Emeril while you’re at it.

Can’t make it to Louisville? Drive three more hours and you can attend the next Fork, Cork, & Style, held in Chicago on Oct 2.

Full Disclosure: While I was interested in this event anyway, Kevin & I were given free tickets to attend the event, although I have no idea if we have access to the Grand Tasting.

Event Tidbits

Just a few tidbits about this weekend’s events and upcoming festivities:

• In addition to Farmers’ Fair and Brew-Ha-Ha, you can stay in the suburbs and eat and drink this weekend as well. The 25th Annual Taste of Blue Ash is happening tonight through Sunday. I’m highly amused – both Night Ranger (Sister Christian) and the Guess Who will be there on Saturday night. In addition to the food and 80s rock, there’s a last minute add-on to the vendor list: The Ohio Valley Wine Garden. This pavilion will feature wines from Burnet Ridge, Harmony Hill, and Henke! Prices are $1 to sample and $5 per glass.
• Restaurant Week is coming up, so mark your calendars. As opposed to the recently held Downtown Restaurant Week, this is the Greater Cincinnati Independents Restaurant Week. Go support the little guy! Restaurant Week is September 13-19, 2010. More information, including participating restaurants, can be found on their web site.
• Smack dab in the middle of Restaurant Week is Beer Fest. Let’s just consider this a run-up to Oktoberfest, shall we? The Hoperatives have more information, but basically, Beer Fest has moved to Fountain Square. Kevin and I volunteered to help pour in a booth, so we’ll see if that pans out. Dates for Beer Fest are Friday, September 10 through Sunday, September 12.
• Finally, remember that Disney post I wrote? Well, we did end up registering for Party of the Senses. If you are inspired to go to Disney during the Wine & Food Festival, registration is open for the culinary and beverage seminars. They seem to be running between $8 and $12 this year. We registered for an Argentinian wine tasting, a Spanish wine tasting, and Scotch tasting. You can register for the seminars at http://www.disneyurl.com/foodandwinedemos. Spots fill up fast. Last year we didn’t know you could register online ahead of time and many of the seminars we wanted were already sold out.

Eat, Drink, Laugh Local: Farmers’ Fair and Brew Ha Ha

This Saturday is a big day for eating, drinking, and laughing local.

Last year was the first year for the Covington Farmers’ Fair. It was so successful, they’ve brought it back for a second year, and it’s bigger than ever.Headlining the event is Ed Begley, Jr. I know, I was surprised too. I thought he was some guy from a hospital/soap that my parents watched back in the ’80s. Apparently, he’s been working ever since and currently has a show on the Planet Green channel called “Living with Ed”.  It’s a reality show about trying to live “green” in Hollywood.

Photo from FarmersFair.org

The Farmers’ Fair is a daylong street fair and farmers market celebrating the local food culture. “Farmers’ Fair is a unique opportunity for those of us who have lost touch with our farming and food-producing roots to see the entire process from seed to plate” said Valerie Taylor, co-chair of the event. Paticipating vendors include Bees and Sweets, Carriage House Farm, Dad’s Favorite Cheeses, Dojo Gelato, Kenny’s Farmhouse Cheese, Napoleon Ridge Farm, The Sensitive Epicure Gluten Free Bakery, and many more.  Chefs from Local 127, Lavomatic, Chalk, and more will also be participating.  Finally, Berlin Reed from Oregon will be there. He’s the Ethical Butcher, and people, he’s going to be talking/cooking about “The Bacon Gospel.” Mmmm … bacon.

Don’t forget that eating local is also about drinking local. The two local wineries participating will be Elk Creek Winery and Stonebrook. You can find Kevin and myself pouring for Stonebrook in the morning to mid-afternoon. After that, blog readers just like yourself will be pouring. (Thanks gang!) Not enough for you? Josh Durr, cocktail master extraordinaire from Tonic on 4th, will also be there.

The fair features a farmers market, cooking demonstrations, chefs pairing with local farmers (food samples!), educational booths, and a live performance by the Comet Bluegrass Allstars. There’s even a children’s area with face painting, seed planting (and other educational things), and most importantly, a petting farm. I’m so finding myself a pony to pet.

Much to my surprise, this event doesn’t take place on Mainstrasse. Instead, it’s in the Greenup Street area (um, Roebling Entertainment District), located at the foot of the Suspension Bridge. The bridge, by the way, is currently open to foot traffic. Admission is free and the event will be held rain or shine, 10am to 10pm. Proceeds from the Farmers’ Fair benefit Central Ohio River Valley Food Guide (CORV), Slow Food Cincinnati, Ohio Valley Foodshed Project and the Future Farmers of America Northern Kentucky Chapter: Boone, Campbell & Kenton.

Once you’ve spent your day at the Farmers’ Fair, follow us and head on over to Brew-Ha-Ha at Sawyer Point. This is more of a beer thing, so I’m not going to spend too much time on it. But Kevin and I have gone every year and we never fail to have a good time, sampling beer, socializing with friends, and listening to the occasional comic. There’s a wide range of beer for sampling, so hopefully this year I can get Kevin to write up a post.

Brew Ha Ha 2009, from Bob Schwartz (http://5chw4r7z.blogspot.com)

Brew-Ha-Ha is both Friday and Saturday evenings. On Saturday, join the fun from 4pm – midnight with 50 comedians on 3 stages and a selection of 80 beers from which to choose. Wristbands are $5 and beer tickets are $1 each. One beer ticket equals 1 beer sample, and 4 beer tickets equals a full serving. Beer ticket sales stop at 10:30p.m. and beer dispensing stops promptly at 11:00p.m.

It’s easy to either walk to Brew-Ha-Ha or, as we’re going to do, leave our car in Covington and take the Southbank Shuttle to the event.

Wine and Beer Event – brought to you by Wine-Girl and Hoperatives

We’re having all sorts of events in July. The first one I want to tell you about is a wine and beer event at the Dilly Cafè. That’s right – it’s beer and wine lovers. You simply cannot go wrong.

We here at Wine-Girl are collaborating with our good friends the Hoperatives to bring you a beer-wine-cheese tasting at Dilly Cafè on Tuesday, July 27th at 6:30 pm. The tasting will be led by the Goose Girl herself, Lindsey Shafer of Goose Island Brewery. The cost is only $20.00 and the number of participants is limited to 30. There will be a waiting list if necessary. Call Dilly to make your reservations (513.561.5233).  We were planning today and already people were calling – so give a call to Dilly ASAP.

Working with Chuck and Chef Eric at Dilly and Lindsay from Goose Island, we’ve managed to put together a tentative list of pairings, although keep in mind that it is subject to a little bit of change.

1. Welcome drink: Sparkling wine
2. Cheese: Chevre  Beer: Goose Island 312 Wine Type: Sancerre
3. Cheese: Triple Creme Brie Beer: Goose Island Sofie Wine Type: Champagne
4. Cheese: Feta Beer: Goose Island Demolition Wine Type: Alsatian Reisling
5. Cheese: Washed Rind  Beer: Goose Island Matilda Wine Type: Grenache Rosè
6. Chocolate: Bitter, dark (80-85% cacao)  Beer: Goose Island Pere Jacques Wine: Southern Bell Shiraz

Just to recap:

Tuesday, July 27th
6:30 pm
Dilly Cafè, 6818 Wooster Pike, Mariemont, OH 45227
only $20.00
RSVP (please!) ASAP at 513.561.5233

Tink’s Reborn as La Poste

I love it when people I adore get it in their heads to open a new wine shop or restaurant. My friends Bryant Phillips and his wife Kelly Lough, along with Chef Dave Taylor, and previous wine rep/wine store owner and occasional wine blogger Jens Rosencrantz are sharing ownership of what used to be Tink’s in Clifton. It’s been renamed as La Poste, as the location used to be a post office.

You’ll recognize Bryant’s name from some of our more recent Wine Shop Wednesday posts, as both he and Chef Dave have been out at the Wise Owl Wine Bar in West Chester.

I got a call from Bryant this afternoon and here’s what I know so far. La Poste is looking to be a little of everything good, it sounds like. That includes having a “massive and all-encompassing wine list” that includes plenty of by the glass selections as well as by the bottle.

It sounds like primarily American cuisine. Bryant got excited as he described how they want to have a bit of the ambience of the a champagne lunch at the Waldorf in the ’60s, but don’t worry – they’re going to have primarily bistro fare and maybe a tasting menu so that Chef Dave can show off his stuff.

Tink’s is in a lovely location in Clifton on Telford and Ludlow. It’s a neighborhood restaurant and the owners want to cultivate that neighborhood feeling, hoping they have regulars. Happily, Bryant also told me he’d save a regular seat at the bar for me.

La Poste is set to open in Fall 2010.