The day has come! Tickets for the Austin FOOD & WINE Festival go on sale today, November 8, at 10 a.m. CST. The Festival, which takes place April 26-28, 2013 at Auditorium Shores and Republic Square Park, will feature a myriad of food and wine events, including hands-on seminars, food, wine, and cocktail tastings, book signings, live music performances, and much more.

The first Austin FOOD & WINE Festival was held in April 2012 – taking the place of the long-standing Texas Hill Country Wine and Food Festival. Tickets are $850 for a Savor pass and $250 for a Taste pass.

The Savor pass includes priority access to demos, tastings, hands-on events, Grand Tastings, VIP lounges, and the Taste of Texas and Rock Your Taco evening events. Unlike last year, Taste pass holders may also purchase individual tickets for Friday night’s Taste of Texas event ($150) and/or Saturday night’s Rock Your Taco event ($200).

Christina Tosi

A lineup of renowned chefs, talented sommeliers, cocktail experts, and food celebrities will headline the festival, including Marcus Sammuelson, Susan Feniger, Christina Tosi, Tim Love, Paul Qui, Andrew Zimmern, Marc Murphy, and numerous others.

Marcus Sammuelson. Photo taken by Paul Brissman.

The Taste of Texas Kickoff Event at Republic Square Park will feature live music performances by Delta Spirit and Whiskey Shivers and tastings from well-known chefs, including: Tim Byres, chef/co-owner of SMOKE; Jason Dady, chef/owner of Jason Dady Restaurant Group; Ned Elliot, executive chef/owner of Foreign & Domestic; Jodi Elliot, pastry chef/owner of Foreign & Domestic; Aaron Franklin, pitmaster of Franklin Barbecue; Terrence Gallivan and Seth Siegel-Gardner, executive chefs/owners of The Pass & Provisions; Sarah Grueneberg, executive chef of Spiaggia; James Holmes, executive chef of Lucy’s Fried Chicken and Olivia; Paul Qui, founder of East Side King; John Russ, executive chef of Lüke; Chris Shepherd, executive chef of Underbelly; Philip Speer, pastry chef of Uchi and Uchiko; Blaine Staniford, executive chef of GRACE; Danny Trace, executive chef of Brennan’s; Tre Wilcox, executive chef of Marquee Grill; Andrew Wiseheart, executive chef of Contigo; and Jamie Zelko, executive chef/owner of Zelko Bistro.

Terrence Gallivan & Seth Siegel-Gardner

At the Rock Your Taco event, a number chefs will compete against each other in creating the “ultimate” taco. Tyson Cole, executive chef of Uchi and winner of last year’s Rock Your Taco competition, will compete against a mix of local and national chefs, including David Bull, executive chef/owner of Congress, Second Bar + Kitchen, and Bar Congress; Jon Shook and Vinny Dotolo, chef/owners of Animal and Son of a Gun; Susan Feniger, executive chef of Border Grill; Bryce Gilmore, chef/owner of Barley Swine; Tim Love, owner of Love Shack, Lonesome Dove, and Woodshed Smokehouse; Tony Mantuano, chef/partner of Spiaggia; Marc Murphy, executive chef of Landmarc and Ditch Plains; Rene Ortiz, executive chef of La Condesa and Sway; Marcus Samuelsson, chef/owner of Red Rooster Harlem; Laura Sawicki, pastry chef of La Condesa and Sway; Christina Tosi, pastry chef of Momofuku Milk Bar; Jonathan Waxman, chef/owner of Barbuto; and Andrew Zimmern, host of Travel Channel’s Bizarre Foods. There will also be a live music performance by Allen Stone at the event.

Paul Qui

The Rock Your Taco winner will be selected by three judges: Christina Grdovic, publisher of FOOD & WINE, Adam Richman, host of Man vs. Food, and a special guest judge. This year’s lineup also features a mix of sommeliers and mixologists, including Tony Abou-Ganim, Devon Broglie, Craig Collins, Anthony Giglio, Ray Isle, Russ Kane, Cathy Mantuano, Bill Norris, Mark Oldman, June Rodil, Jason Stevens, and Nate Wales.

For more information on the fesival or to purchase tickets, please visit the Austin FOOD & WINE Festival website. Follow the Austin FOOD & WINE Festival Twitter and/or Facebook for schedules, details, and news as the festival approaches.

Tagged: 2013 Austin Food & Wine Festival, Andrew Zimmern, Auditorium Shores, austin, Austin Food & Wine Festival, Blaine Staniford, Chris Shepherd, Christina Tosi, Foreign & Domestic, Jamie Zelko, Jason Dady, Jason Dady Restaurant Group, John Russ, Jon Shook, Layne Lynch, Marc Murphy, Marcus Samuelsson, Ned Elliott, Paul Qui, Republic Square Park, smoke, Susan Feniger, Tim Byres, Tim Love, Tre Wilcox, Tyson Cole, Vinny Dotolo

Editor’s Note: Daniel Vaughn, writing under the name BBQ Snob, runs the Full Custom Gospel BBQ blog and will also be writing about barbecue for Texas Monthly. This is his first column.

Texas barbecue is having a moment. It seems like every time I turned around this summer, another national media outlet was stumbling over itself to name its own best BBQ joint in the state. Most of the adulation, of course, was pointed at Franklin Barbecue, the small Austin joint that has skyrocketed over the past two years from a humble little trailer on the side of I-35 to an eternally overcrowded restaurant that Bon Appétit declared, in July, to be the best BBQ joint in America. The incessant buzz (and incredibly long lines) even prompted a “Hitler reaction” parody, a sure sign that the joint’s success has penetrated to the far corners of the popular imagination. But it hasn’t been all Franklin. USA Today bucked the trend by naming the Salt Lick the best of the Central Texas bunch, and CNN sang the praises of City Meat Market in Giddings.

You will, by now, have noticed a common denominator. As is usual when the BBQ buzz machine starts running, most of the attention this summer has been on Austin and Central Texas. In the statewide discussion about smoked meats, there is one city whose offerings are routinely dismissed or derided, a city that, to judge from the attention it gets, you wouldn’t even know had any smoked meat within its limits. That city would be Dallas.

That the BBQ of Big D has enjoyed little renown for some time is mostly warranted. Until recently, Dallas was afflicted with a smoked meat malaise that allowed subpar barbecue to be praised based on days long passed. As recently as five years ago, the city’s food critics were giving top BBQ nods to the likes of Sonny Bryan’s and Dickey’s—joints that were rightly praised in their decades ago heyday, but which currently don’t even try to compete with the big boys in the state.

I am happy to report that change is afoot. In the past two years, almost while no one was looking, a full-fledged barbecue renaissance has taken root in neighborhoods all over Dallas. For the first time since Sonny Bryan was still manning his pits those many decades ago, Big D is making a bid to be taken seriously as a BBQ town. I’ve zeroed in on five restaurants as the torch bearers of this movement, which above all, is marked by a deeply traditional approach. Certain common themes bind these five joints together—they all use wood, not gas, and they all have prominent, thoughtful pitmasters. Their attention to detail and quality has bred a new population of connoisseurs, who, in turn, are raising expectations beyond good sauce and free soft serve. (more…)

Tagged: barbecue, BBQ Snob, dallas, Lockhart Smokehouse, Mama Faye's, Meshack's Bar-B-Que, Pecan Lodge, smoke