I came, I saw, I feasted. I’m sure you’ve heard me talking about Feast Portland at some point or another over the past month, and this last weekend it finally arrived. I felt like one of the lucky chosen bloggers who received a blogger pass to attend many of the main Feast events. I’ve been to quite a few food events over the past year thanks to this little online space I’ve created, but I’ve learned that each event is slightly different and has it’s own vibe, so I wasn’t quite sure what to expect this time.
I got up bright and early Friday morning and headed up to the Urban Farmer for a media only breakfast. Every kind of tasty treat you could ask for was calling my name, and I had the most delicious eggs Benedict and cinnamon rolls around.
After my leisurely breakfast I checked in and officially got my blogger pass, then decided to tag along with a couple of my fellow blogger friends to check out the Yahoo Food Media lounge, since we had a little downtime before the Oregon Grand Bounty Tasting.
We arrived in between their breakfast and lunch setup, all provided by Imperial catering. I was still stuffed from breakfast, but I had to sample a few bites anyways. There were plenty of charging stations, overly-comfortable couches provided by Boys Fort, and a full bar (of course, right?) Out of all of the events I’ve been to, I have to say, Feast really did the best job making sure their media folks were comfy and happy!
After all our phones were charged we headed over to Pioneer Courthouse Square, where the main (and most affordable) event was held – The Oregon Grand Bounty Tasting. For $60 you could eat and sip as many tastings as you’d like from noon to five, which really is a terrific price considering! There were a bunch of local wineries and restaurants, seriously a little something for everyone here. There was also live cooking demonstrations that you could watch as well as some other fun surprises like USA Pears who did a little pop up restaurant which seated guests every 15 minutes and allowed people to sit around their bar and be served several courses to try.
And then of course there were photo booths for entertainment, this one thanks to Travel Oregon.
One of my most memorable bites definitely came from the collaboration of Salt and Straw with Cacao drinking chocolate. Cacao drinking chocolate was poured over a scoopful of Salt and Straw’s vanilla ice cream and topped with cookie crumbles and it was a match made in heaven.
After a couple of hours spent at the Grand Tasting, I headed over to the Red Star Tavern where I was invited to a media Washington Wines Tasting, where of course more delicious hors d’oeuvres were served. I seriously wasn’t even able to visit everyone, but I did sample a few wines from Woodward Canyon, Pacific Rim and Terra Blanca. I loved Woodward Canyon’s 2011 Estate Reserve Red Bordeaux Blend, and I had no idea that Pacific Rim made so many Rieslings – which have always been a favorite of mine. I sampled their sparkling Riesling and was pleasantly surprised how much I liked it. It was dry and really well balanced.
After I spent an hour meeting new Washington friends, I made my way back to the Yahoo Food media lounge where a happy hour was being served and even though I didn’t try everything, I had a plate full of some delicious morsels.
Many people continued their food celebrations on into the night with one of the many dinners around town or the USA Pears Night Market and all of the after parties, but I headed home around 4:30 to pick up the kiddos because Wayne was helping harvest grapes and hey, someone has to tuck them in, right? 🙂 Plus Saturday I was heading back up for more Feast celebrations and had decided to make a date night out of it with Wayne for our anniversary….and boy did I celebrate! Stay tuned for my Feast in photos: day two tomorrow!
~Melissa
*Full Disclosure: I was given a complimentary blogger pass to Feast Portland events in exchange for my event coverage. No other compensation was received and as always all opinions are my own.
