Last weekend I had the pleasure of covering the Charleston Wine and Food Festival on behalf of Thirsty Girl and boy, did I have fun.
The weekend in itself was hectic, not only because of its’ brevity, but because of the bizarre occurrences that kept happening throughout.
On my way to the airport (on the lovely NJ Transit), I was scrolling through my Twitter when I came across a tweet from Sara Moulton, who was also heading down to Chuck. I replied gushing and hoping to see her, harmless right?
Standing in the security line at Newark Airport half asleep … I see her! Better yet, she’s on my flight! What do I do now, say “Hi!” or ignore her? I sound like a stalker. Seriously, it was a bit odd. After introducing myself, exchanging small talk about our matching “Chucks” (again, bizarre), she couldn’t have been a nicer or more sincere.
I spent the rest of Thursday transitioning into what I call “Southern mode” – walking slower(er), removing my puffy winter coat, shutting off my computer, and overall relaxing into a much less hectic lifestyle. It took me a bit of time to achieve this – my family would argue it didn’t happen at all.
Friday I brought my sister, to the “Sneak Preview” of the Tasting Tents, where we sipped (her more than me) and interviewed some of our favorite booths (me more than her). Truth be told, with all the “tasting pours” we fared much better with the male vendors.
Later that day my sister had the pleasure of doing the public Tasting Tents and met many of what she calls “Bravo-lebrities.” I think she actually told a former Top Chef, “I’m a Bravo whore.” Suffice to say she had been drinking, and this is my shy sister. She will also not share pictures of her and her Bravo family with me or this blog, saying “I don’t look good in them.”
Friday night was calm and relaxing and Saturday followed with another round at the Tasting Tents, a wine tasting, a beer dinner, and a little roof hopping for cocktails. Not to shabby.
The following morning we (the BC and I, I’m just going to refer to him as BC for “Boyfriend Chicken” from now on) headed to The Blind Tiger – a shabby looking bar, tired from the late-night fraternity function. We planned on not drinking a lot … until we realized the drinks (and all drinks at brunch) were $3.00 each. Three bucks! You have no idea how thrilling this is for a New Yorker. You might as well drink because it’s so cheap. So by 1:30 PM suffice to say, we were more lit than we had been all weekend. And we were at a Wine Festival, go figure.
From there we felt buzzed, and looked … well, buzzed … so any food option that serviced a church going crowd was out of the question. And any bars that had seen college crowds the night before made us feel old. So, we ended up at Moe’s, where BC knew the bartender … as if he needed another reason to believe that “all things come back to Baltimore.” After several more beers and passing around Girl Scout Cookies (that we had bought, while walking from one bar to the next) to the rest of the bar-rats on a Sunday afternoon, we headed home.
It was a fun day – a fun weekend. I’m extremely jealous of all those Charlestonians who get to live in warm(er) weather than I do … but I’m sure I’ll be back soon. Thank you to all the people that helped make this possible at the Charleston Wine and Food Festival and the people I met.
*Disclaimer: This post may make me and those with me, appear like lushes, which we weren’t and are not at any point in our lives. Facts may have been exaggerated for comedic purposes.
