Swan/Dolphin Food and Wine Classic segment

[OKW Lover]

Just listened to the Podcast segment on the Swan/Dolphin Food and Wine Classic. As Corey noted, Val & I did both nights and we sent some comments along to him for the segment, which he did a great job of fitting into the conversation. Obviously, its not possible to cover everything so I thought I'd post the full text of our comments for whatever its worth.

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Swan/Dolphin 2012 Food & Wine Classic​

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This was the second year that Val & I have done the Food & Wine Classic (hereinafter “FWC”) at the Swan/Dolphin. We made it a point to go last year based on the wonderful reviews we heard on the DIS Unplugged about the first year’s FWC. We were not disappointed then and decided to do it again this year.

We booked the special room and FWC package that was available at the Dolphin, which we reserved through Dreams Unlimited. That meant that the actual cost of the FWC was obscured since it was all in one price for us. It also meant we got wrist bands good for unlimited food and beverages. That means that we really can’t answer the inevitable question of “Was it worth the money?”.

We did the FWC both nights this year, as we did last year. We would probably rate this year’s slightly better than last year - mostly because the weather was great this year and we were not forced inside. The food and beverage offerings were great both years.

Some people may wonder if its worth doing both nights. In our opinion it is probably not worth it for the average guest. There wasn’t a big difference in the food offerings between the two nights and the beverages are the same both nights. You would probably have to be a real food/wine lover to want to go both nights. If you are just a casual guest you should pick one night and go with that.

So, “which night?” you ask?

“Just flip a coin” we would answer.

While it seemed to us that Saturday night was slightly less busy than Friday night the difference wasn’t that great. We enjoyed visiting with a bunch of friends on Friday night. Saturday there weren’t that many friends present but we also enjoyed meeting new people. The differences between the two nights are mainly in the food offerings since the beverage options don’t change. Even so, there are some food booths that had the same thing both nights. That brings us down to some pretty fine points in making a decision on what night to go. It would probably be best for most people to wait and see what is offered (the DIS will have the info as soon as its made public) and then decide which night to go.

Enough generalities though, lets get to the real question, “What was good?”.

“Just about everything!” is our response.

Perhaps the best items we enjoyed were from Shula’s (prime rib) and Garden Grove (crab cake). Their stands were right next to each other and both had long lines, making this section really crowded. Many people (including us) went back for seconds. Also really good was the burger from Fresh, which came on a cheddar Cheese Roll. These three places had the same thing both nights.

Il Mulino had different offerings on Friday and Saturday nights, both of which were excellent. We did find that the line for the “Free Form Lasagna” on Friday night moved slowly because of the extensive food prep needed, while their Saturday offering of Fried Calamari was served much faster. Both were very good.

Somehow we missed Cib’s Smoke House on Friday night so we can’t comment on the Beef Brisket there but we did enjoy the Smoked Pork Belly on Saturday. Not a top pick, but still very good.

Bluezoo had shrimp both nights but the presentation was different. On Friday they had what Corey terms shrimp shooters while on Saturday they had a large shrimp served on grits. Val is a grits person and pronounced them good.

We were disappointed in the offerings at the Fountain booth, which had falafel both nights. This restaurant is one of our favorite places to eat and were hoping they would have something like a burger or Philly cheesesteak, which they do so well. So, we just walked on by this booth.

Todd English presented oysters both nights, but the preparation was different. We tried both the raw oyster with egg and the fried oysters. Both were really good choices and we went back for seconds.

Val is a sushi fan and enjoyed the Dragon Roll that was served at Kimonos on Friday night.

By now you’re probably wondering “What about the ‘Wine‘ part of FWC? After all, you guys are notorious for your love of wines.”

We were overwhelmed is the short answer. There were some 30 different booths with wine offerings, each one of which had two selections. Its simply impossible for you to try that many wines and remain upright. But we gave it our best effort!

As a general observation, and this was also true last year, the wine pours are very small and are intended to be just a tasting portion. The problem is that people attending this event want a wine to go with their food and the small pour doesn’t match the size of the food portions. We found that at some wine booths we could politely request a bit more so that our food and wine came out even.

As far as the wines go, we gave highest marks to the Justin Cabernet and Justin Sauvignon Blanc (California) we tried at their booth and went back a couple of times. We also particularly enjoyed the Paso Robles (California) Estancia Cabernet and the Jam Jar Moscato from South Africa.

We tried many of the other offerings but as already noted, we just couldn’t track them all. We will say that we didn’t find any that were not good. It would have been nice to know what the wine normally retailed for. Val & I are basically cheap wine snobs. Our palate is not refined enough to appreciate the differences between a good wine and a great wine. Its entirely possible that the wines we loved were out of our price range.. Or not.

Overall - a really good take. Something we will repeat next year. [FONT=&quot][/FONT]

 

[JimmyV]

Great summary. Thanks.

 

[AndyPok1]

I'll fill in a few blanks since I had a bit of a different experience than everyone else.

I met up with everyone on Friday, and because I had other obligations (I play kickball, don't hate), I could only stay for an hour or two, so I just bought tickets. It was mentioned that they gave out different trays, but I had the same clear tray as everyone else I met.

I believe I got ~20 tickets. All of the drinks were 2 tickets. The food ranged from 2-4.

As a beer drinker more so than a wine drinker, it was interesting. There were two beer stands, one on the far end by the dolphin, and one on the far end of the 'T' near the playground. Each had 4 [different] beers at it. As everyone mentioned with the wine pours not being consistent, similar issues were had with the beer. The stand closer to the Dolphin gave you a decent 4 oz or so cup. However, the one near the swan was giving them out in tiny little cups reminiscent of a jello shot cup. I kept joking that I just paid $4 for a thimble of beer.

I had the crab cake, the shrimp shooter, and the beef brisket. I'm surprised the beef brisket kept getting brushed aside in everyone's comments, because I thought it was amazing. If I had a wristband, I would have gone back for more of the same.

One thing I will note is that at a good majority of the stands, they didn't know what to do with the tickets when I handed them off, especially at the drink stands. There were little clear containers at each booth, but the workers didn't appear to be trained. The champagne booth is really the only one that was actively asking for them. I would never advocate doing it, because this event is absolutely worth the $80 if you are into this sort of thing, but it would have been easy to only buy a handful of tickets and easily get your fill of drinks and certain food booths.