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

After months and months of planning and preparation, The Austin FOOD & WINE Festival made its debut at Auditorium Shores last April. For three long days, attendees swarmed festival grounds – eager to eat, drink, and mingle with a mix of local and national celebrity chefs.

Overall, the first Austin FOOD & WINE Festival garnered relatively favorable reviews, but there were a few criticisms that simply couldn’t be overlooked. Long lines, limited food tastings, ubiquitous dust, and high ticket prices with mediocre perks were some of the main gripes of festival attendees.

As I said in my own review, “If you’re going to make your guests dish out the big bucks, you better deliver… The Austin FOOD & WINE Festival’s libations and eatings were glorious, but if they are going to make the festival worth the ticket prices next year, they better bring all the charms, bells, and whistles and nothing less.”

Earlier this week, C3 Presents‘ Charlie Jones and chef Tim Love reached out to TEXAS MONTHLY to address the criticisms of the 2012 Austin FOOD & WINE Festival and reveal some of the integral changes being made to the 2013 Austin FOOD & WINE Festival, which goes on sale November 8 at 10 a.m. (you heard it here first).

How will ticket prices be structured? Last year there was griping that there were only two price levels, and for the lowest one, $250, you really didn’t get any guarantees of admission. Specifically, will you have individual-session tickets so people can pick and choose?

In addition to offering Taste ($250) and Savor ($850) passes, guests that have purchased the Taste pass will have the option of adding a la carte evening events, including Friday night’s The Taste of Texas event for $150, or Saturday night’s Rock Your Taco competition for $200. The Taste of Texas and Rock Your Taco events will be held on Friday and Saturday nights, respectively, at Republic Square Park.

Will the two venues be Auditorium Shores and Republic Square Park again? Which events at each?

The culinary demos, grand tasting tents, hands-on demos, book signings, and wine tastings will be held at Auditorium Shores, while The Taste of Texas and Rock Your Taco competition will both be held at Republic Square Park.

Tim Love and Charlie Jones at the 2012 Austin FOOD & WINE Festival. Photo taken by Cambria Harkey.

How are you addressing the long lines? Some people stood in line nearly an hour to get into choice celebrity demos.

In an effort to streamline seating, attendees will line up in two separate lines: one designated for Savor pass holders, and the other for Taste pass holders. Fifteen minutes prior to the start of each seminar/demo/event, the Savor line will be allowed in to choose seating. Once that line has dissipated, attendees in the Taste line will be allowed entry. Once the two lines have diminished, seating will be offered on a first-come, first-served basis, with standing room available on the perimeter of tents. We are also expanding the size of the demo tents to accommodate more seating.

Specifically, the lines to get into the big food tents were ridiculous. Will there be more than three food tents?

We are working with wine, spirits, and food vendors to increase the number of offerings during the Grand Tastings. The footprint of the Grand Tasting tent will increase, resulting in an increased amount of restaurants, purveyors, and overall food options. All participants are asked to serve tasting-size portions.

Will there be more shade in general?

Our goal is to improve the overall experience for all attendees and participants. We’ll offer additional seating throughout the grounds at Auditorium Shores, including picnic table-type seats for attendees to enjoy food and beverages, with additional Adirondack-style seating scattered around the park. Again, all tents will be larger and will accommodate more people.

Has the dust issue been addressed?

C3 Presents and the Austin FOOD & WINE team are committed to improving the overall experience for the 2013 Festival. We, too, were disappointed in the 2012 condition of Auditorium Shores. Unfortunately, park maintenance is not under the control of the Festival team, and we tried to make the best of the conditions.

We are grateful to the Austin City Council for approving restoration plans in April 2012 for Auditorium Shores, and look forward to working with them to make the 2013 edition of Austin FOOD & WINE Festival the lush, green epicurean experience we all envision. Thanks to recent efforts by the Parks Department, Auditorium Shores is in great shape with lots of grass.

What about the layout of the festival grounds? There was a lot of grumbling from people trudging back and forth between events at opposite ends of the space.

We learned a lot during our first year of the Festival, and are committed to improving the overall experience for all attendees and participants. Based on event experience and feedback, we will make adjustments to the overall layout and flow of the Austin FOOD & WINE Festival grounds, similar to the changes we have made every year at Austin City Limits (ACL).

How did attendance break down last year between Austin and out-of-town guests?

Approximately forty-nine percent of 2012 Austin FOOD & WINE Festival attendees were from Austin and the greater metro area, while thirty-six percent of attendees were Texas residents, and fifteen percent of attendees came in from out-of-state. These figures are actually very similar to the stats for the Austin City Limits (ACL) Festival, so we feel like we’re on track to establish this as a nationally recognized event. It has always been our goal to create a cultural event that lasts a long time and we will continue to evolve programming and overall guest experience.

How did Austin stack up, attendance-wise, against other FOOD & WINE-sponsored festivals?

(Christina Grdovic, publisher of FOOD & WINE magazine, addressed this question) We were very pleased with the attendance at the first annual Austin FOOD & WINE Festival. Like all the festivals FOOD & WINE is involved with, many events were sold out and there was a huge demand for the wine and food talent. What was so striking about the audience at the Austin FOOD & WINE Festival was how engaged they were. The audience was very knowledgeable and excited about meeting the chefs, mingling with the wine experts, listening to the music, and generally being at the festival.

One thing that surprised me about the chef lineup was that they all seemed to be genuinely passionate about the Austin culinary scene. Do you seek out chefs who are familiar with the city before you invite them? In other words, how do you recruit for the Austin FOOD & WINE Festival lineup?

We chose talent based on several different factors, including passion for the Austin and Texas culinary scenes and diversity of styles. Of course, we like to recruit people that have an interest in what’s going on in Austin, and we’ve been overwhelmed with how enthusiastic chefs, wine, and spirits professionals from around the country are about the vibrant culinary scene in Texas.

Tyson Cole, Tim Love, and Charlie Jones at the 2012 Austin FOOD & WINE Festival. Photo taken by Cambria Harkey.

Are there any chefs that you want to bring back in 2013?

More than half of the 2013 talent line-up is new, featuring a mix of familiar faces and some of Texas’ brightest culinary stars. And the returning talent on the lineup had such a great time in Austin, they wanted to come back again. We received enthusiastic feedback from attendees about the culinary and beverage line-up in 2012, and are super excited for many of the participants to come back next year.

Based on the feedback you’ve received, what do you feel were the most successful events at the 2012 festival? Are there ones you feel could have used some improvement?

We received a lot of positive feedback from attendees and participants about the first-year festival, and intend to continue working on all aspects of programming to make sure that Austin FOOD & WINE Festival continues to evolve year after year. The hands-on demos and Rock Your Taco were fan favorites, and we heard countless anecdotes that people loved the interaction and accessibility to the chefs.

Throughout your planning and organizing, how do you make sure the Austin FOOD & WINE Festival remains Austin-centric? In other words, how do you keep Austin culinary traditions like food trailers, local farm cuisine, snout-to-tail consumption, etc. alive while inviting outside chefs and culinary talents from New York.

In our opinion, the recipe for success at any festival is a mix of local, regional, and national chef, sommelier, and mixologist talent. Our goal in creating the Austin FOOD & WINE program is to create an event that would offer Austinites the chance to experience food and meet chefs and culinary personalities they might not otherwise be able to experience, while attracting tourists that want to come to Austin to experience the city’s unique culture, music, and cuisine.

And in the spirit of Austin’s dynamic culinary scene, we will once again have several local food trailers on-site at Auditorium Shores offering food throughout the weekend. In addition to featuring rising stars as well as established talent from Austin, we are pleased to showcase more chefs and beverage professionals from around Texas, including Dallas, Fort Worth, Houston, and San Antonio.

I think one thing that surprised me was the small amount of food served during the festival. Will there be more food samples to hand out at the 2013 festival, or is the festival designed to focus more on the discussion and celebration of Austin food? Also, there wasn’t as much wine and spirits emphasis as I thought there would be. Are you planning on including more wine and spirits events/talent this year?

The 2013 Festival will feature Interactive Chef stations on-site at Auditorium Shores: participating chefs will cook throughout the day, interact with attendees, and offer samples of their dishes. Additional wine and spirits vendors will be set up and pouring in The Tasting Room throughout the Festival, and the footprint of the Grand Tasting tent will increase, resulting in an increased amount of restaurants, purveyors, and overall food options. When the schedule is released in January, it will include a second Texas wine panel, as well as interactive winemaker discussions.

Tim Love at the 2012 Austin FOOD & WINE Festival grilling demo. Photo taken by Cambria Harkey.

Do you plan on including more participatory events at this year’s festival, like the grilling demo from 2012, or will the festival entail more watch-and-learn events?

We will activate the grounds of Auditorium Shores with Interactive Chef stations, where featured chefs will cook throughout the day, sharing cooking tips and other culinary insights, while dishing up samples.

One suggestion I heard from a friend was that the festival should add more live music to jazz things up a bit. Are you considering doing more live music events during the festival?

Friday night’s The Taste of Texas and Saturday night’s Rock Your Taco competition will feature live musical performances. Additionally, the C3 Presents team plans to book a diverse selection of live music throughout the Festival weekend. The Austin FOOD & WINE Festival is dedicated to celebrating great food, wine, and spirits. As we grow, we’ll make changes from year to year and add music where appropriate.

Do you see the potential for the Austin FOOD & WINE Festival to become as successful as, let’s say, the FOOD & WINE Classic in Aspen? Or are those just two completely different entities?

Austin FOOD & WINE and the FOOD & WINE Classic in Aspen are two completely different entities, and all culinary festivals are unique and different in their own way. However, our goal with [the] Austin FOOD & WINE Festival is to create an experience-based event that can become one of the premiere culinary festivals in the country.

This is a C3 Presents question. How do you handle planning for a food and wine event like this when you’re accustomed to highly successful music events? What are some of the differences and similarities between organizing these two types of very different festivals?

C3 Presents focuses on experience-based events, whether it’s the ACL Festival or the White House Easter Egg Roll, and we approach planning festivals the same way. Our goal is to show attendees a good time while providing a unique experience. Cuisine motivates a lot of people in our office and Austin’s vibrant dining scene inspires us to be a part of it. For all of our festivals, we want to curate an interesting and diverse roster of talent that showcases the incredible level of talent in Austin and across Texas, as well as featuring the brightest folks in the industry.

Last but not least, what should festival attendees expect to see in 2013? Feel free to splurge as many any yet-to-be-revealed details about the chef lineup, plans, and changes as you want.

The Austin FOOD & WINE team takes attendee feedback to heart and is committed to improving the overall experience for all participants and Festival guests. The 2013 Festival will feature Interactive Chef stations on-site at Auditorium Shores: participating chefs will cook throughout the day, interact with attendees, and offer samples of their dishes.

Additional wine and spirits vendors will be set up in The Tasting Room pouring drinks throughout the weekend. The footprint of the Grand Tasting tent will increase, resulting in an increased amount of restaurants, purveyors, and overall food options. The footprints of demo and seminar tents will also be bigger, accommodating more attendees.

We will release the schedule of programming in January, which has been designed to maximize attendees’ opportunities to experience a variety of cooking demos, wine tastings, book signings, Grand Tastings, and more. The program will also include more interactive, hands-on demos.

Additionally, several wine, spirits, and food vendors will be activated throughout the grounds at Auditorium Shores, enabling attendees to interact with chefs and culinary professionals in between seminars and demos, throughout the day. And based on the current lush and green condition of Auditorium Shores, we think it’s a great venue to showcase all that Austin has to offer.

Tagged: 2013 Austin Food & Wine Festival, austin, Austin Food & Wine Festival, C3 Presents, Charlie Jones, Layne Lynch, Tim Love

Tim Love

Pack your bags, Top Chef fans; your favorite culinary reality show is setting sail in April 2013….on a cruise. With Gail Simmons and Tom Colicchio as the celebrity hosts, Top Chef: The Cruise stops in Key West and Cozumel and gives attendees “the chance to spend quality time with the show’s judges and chefs, [thus] making [it] a one-of-a-kind culinary vacation experience.”

The food-centric cruise features Quickfire challenges, cooking demos, menus inspired by Top Chef episodes, and Q&A sessions. Former Top Chef and Top Chef Masters contestants including Jennifer Carroll, Tiffany Derry, Chris Hanmer, Michael Isabella, Spike Mendelsohn, Hosea Rosenberg, Angelo Sosa, Casey Thompson, Hubert Keller, and Fort Worth’s Tim Love will attend. Love was a contestant on the first season of Top Chef Masters and ended up finishing in third place. TEXAS MONTHLY’s Pat Sharpe featured Love’s Woodshed Smokehouse as “Pat’s Pick” this past March. Top Chef: The Cruise runs from April 11-15,  and room prices range from $699 (four people in a stateroom) to $5,999 for a penthouse suite.

Tagged: Layne Lynch, pat sharpe, Pat's Pick, Tim Love, Top Chef Masters, Top Chef: The Cruise, Woodshed Smokehouse

Moments after Tim Love’s late-afternoon announcement on Jan. 31 that he would open his long-awaited Fort Worth restaurant, Woodshed, that evening–a day earlier than anticipated–the indoor-outdoor smokehouse with a worldly menu of wood-fired foods was instantly swamped with hungry, thirsty patrons. Situated on the banks of the Trinity River, close to TCU and the Cultural District, Woodshed is Love’s fourth Cowtown restaurant. Stacks of pecan, hickory, mesquite, and oak keep the smokers, stoves, and heaters going and the air fragrant, and plenty of adult beverages keep the crowds lively. We asked him to fill us in on some of the fine points.

Q: Have you figured out what to call this style of cuisine yet?

A: No, I still don’t know! Y’all are supposed to do that, coin a phrase. It’s not barbecue like we think of barbecue. Some people have suggested global barbecue, but it’s more than that. I like to call it my backporch food, because it’s stuff I’ve been doing at home for family and friends for a long time.

Q: How did you start cooking with so many different kinds of wood?

A: I’ve done it since we opened Lonesome Dove, but I really started doing it when I began cooking on the road so much, probably five or six years ago. I knew I was formulating something, the next restaurant, but I wasn’t sure what for a while. I just knew I loved cooking without electricity.

Q: What’s been the biggest challenge in producing this menu?

A: Getting the ingredients I want. We have bought out North America’s supply of baby artichokes in the past week! We went through 22 cases in our first four days. And our green bean dish has miso flakes, and I realized we were going to have make our own because there’s not enough to buy here.

Q: What in the meat world has been the most fun to do?

A: Perfecting the beef shin has been a real process. We’ve probably done 250 versions over the past six or seven months, trying to get it just right. We’ve smoked it and braised it and have done I don’t know how many variations. The guys at [the meat processing supplier] thought I was just crazy. But working with the whole animal is really fun. You learn so much every time out.

Q: What do you think has been the biggest surprise for guests at Woodshed?

A: I’m selling the hell out of the bulgogi with kimchi; people are really warming up to it, probably because it’s inexpensive. Some people tell me they don’t know what it is but they love it.

Q: How are those big-ticket items doing? Are people understanding that the $90 bistecca florentina with crispy potatoes is for the whole table?

A: It’s starting to catch on. It’s up to the servers to sell it, explain it. People are coming in and sticking their toe in, ordering smaller, inexpensive things, then they’re coming back and going for the bigger stuff. It’s getting better by the day.

Q: How is that Skinny Chicken Sandwich (grilled camp bread with seasoned, fried chicken skin, fresh mayo, watercress and shaved red onion) selling?

A: Girls order it because they think it’s a skinless chicken breast and then they say,’Ohmigod, I ate chicken skin?’ But the guys dig it! It’s so good.

Q: Are people liking the wines on tap and the craft beer, or are they still sticking to their Miller Lite?

A: Since we opened [six days ago], we’ve gone through 18 kegs of craft beer, plus five kegs of wine. It’s really exciting. The distributors are thrilled.

Q: What are you going to eat tonight?

A: It’s pig night. I’ll have cracklings on homemade tortillas.

Q: What’s exciting you most about the Austin Food & Wine Festival this year [Tim is one of the principals involved in working with Food & Wine magazine and others to bring this new regional festival to Texas; dates are April 27-29]?

A: It’s probably the coolest event I’ve ever done, and I do a lot. I’ll be teaching a hands-on class for 200 people. It’s how to grill a steak and teaches you everything from lighting the perfect fire to creating the perfect bite of steak. There’s cold white wine to drink during class–I always grill with a glass of cold white in my hand–and guests will get to take home about $200 worth of goodies from my new kitchenware line from Sur La Table. It’s so exciting to be involved with this.

Find the Woodshed at 3201 Riverfront Dr., Fort Worth, TX 76107, 817-877-4545.      Posted by June Naylor.

Tagged: Austin Food and Wine Festival, Tim Love, Woodshed

We’ve been waiting. We’ve been watching. We’ve been reading the tweets. We’ve been following the FB posts. Finally, a few much-buzzed-about restaurants will be opening their doors this week. (One even decided to open tonight—a day early. Surprise!) We confess that we can’t keep up with every new restaurant in Texas (can you imagine?), but if you love to eat out and follow food, you need to know about these notable openings. Bon appétit.

Tagged: Hard Eight Pit Bar-B-Q, Tim Love, Tyson Cole, Uchi Houston

After 26 years of showcasing the Texas Hill Country as one of the most desirable destinations in the Lone Star state, the Texas famed Texas Hill Country Wine and Food Festival will don a new name, a new home, and new leadership for the next festival in the spring of 2012. The new Austin Food & Wine Festival will now be a part of the nationwide culinary series by acclaimed Food & Wine magazine and will be produced by C3 Presents (of Austin City Limits Music Festival fame) along with Texas culinary juggernauts Tyson Cole (Uchi/Uchiko, Austin), Tim Love (Lonesome Dove Bistro, Fort Worth), and Jesse Herman (La Condesa, Austin).

Recent James Beard award winner Tyson Cole, chef/owner of Uchi and Uchiko has spearheaded the renewed festival concept for the past year. “I’m proud to the lead the way in bringing Austin’s culinary landscape into the national spotlight with the creation of the Austin Food & Wine Festival,” says Cole. “It’s the next step in a city coming into it’s own in the food world, and I’m excited to use this as a vehicle to feature a wide array of talent our city has to offer.”

Most “foodie-philes” are aware of the celebrity-studded Food & Wine Classic in Aspen, which draws the likes of high profile chefs as James Beard award-winning José Andrés, Tom Colicchio, Mario Batali, John Besh, and Thomas Keller. This new event will build on the national brand that Food & Wine magazine has bestowed on Aspen but with a decidedly Tex-ified style.

“We really wanted to be a part of creating something that is representative of the changing food scene in Austin as well as the rest of Texas,” says La Condesa owner Jesse Herman who will work with C3 Presents, Cole and Love to leverage local and national contacts to create a well rounded showcase of Texas food and wine culture. “We really want to create a food and wine festival that is on par with the greatness of the ACL Festival and South by Southwest.”

The architects behind the original Texas Hill Country Wine and Food Festival will now restructure the organization to become a 501c3 nonprofit extension of the Austin Food & Wine Festival that will be the festival’s charitable arm and will receive annual support as a beneficiary to the festival’s success.

“This is a huge endorsement of the many years of work and commitment that has gone into the previous festival and we’re excited to support the new Austin Food & Wine Festival, which will bring Austin’s food and wine community in the national and international spotlight,” says Cathy Cochran-Lewis, President of the Texas Hill Country Wine and Food Festival whose leadership in 2011 brought the festival its most profitable year to date, a coup which will give the new nonprofit arm a firm foundation with which to promote the food and wine culture in Central Texas. “This opportunity aligns with the Texas Hill Country Wine and Food Festival’s original mission to create a platform and awareness of the outstanding chefs, restaurants, artisan producers, wines and spirits that makeup our unique culinary culture.”

The changeover not only marks a significant boon for the city of Austin as a premier culinary and viticultural destination, but for all of Texas. And with an ever increasing number of James Beard Award nominees, Food & Wine magazine Best New Chefs, and chef contestants on national food competition television shows, the event will garner national recognition for the Capital City not only as the Live Music Capital of the World, but as a culinary force to be reckoned with.

The official announcement of the new Austin Food & Wine Festival was made today by Austin Mayor Lee Leffingwell at an event held at Jesse Herman’s Malverde bar. The 2012 Austin Food & Wine Festival is scheduled for March 30 – April 1. Stay tuned for details as the event planning unfolds!

- Jessica Dupuy

Tagged: Austin Food and Wine Festival, C3 Presents, Cathy Cochran-Lewis, Jesse Herman, Jessica Dupuy, Texas Hill Country Food and Wine Festival, Tim Love, Tyson Cole