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Health & Fitness

Atlanta Food & Wine Festival Through the Lens of a Local Photographer

The first ever Atlanta Food & Wine Festival took place in Midtown Atlanta. To sum it up, it was a great Southern food festival that celebrated the favors of this region.

To say that this past weekend was amazing would be an understatement. It was a big food weekend in Atlanta, the first ever Atlanta Food & Wine Festival took place in Midtown Atlanta, and I was ecstatic to be a part of it. This is the first event of its kind in the South and boy did they do a great job with it. To sum it up, it was a great Southern food festival that celebrated the favors of this region.

The learning sessions were a great part of this event, I had the opportunity to attend Say Cheese Y’all, Natural Plate Partners, a Grilling Demo and Blogger Insight. My favorite part of the Say Cheese Y'all session was that we had tasting trays while we followed along during the session. These were all Southern cheeses from two businesses: Blackberry Farm in the Smokey Mountains of Tennessee and Looking Glass Creamery in Fairview, North Carolina.

The tasting tents at the Atlanta Food & Wine Festival were the highlight of the event for me. They offered up a fanstatic peek at Southern flavors. There's almost nothing that I find more fun than wandering from table to table looking at and tasting dishes from some of the best restaurants and foodcrafters from the region. After picking up a souvenir wine glass at the entrance, I wandered into the first of three tents and plotted out my plan of attack. The tents were packed and I knew that I needed to figure out a plan in order to navigate through the crowds, while also stuffing my face full of yummy food and taking pictures at the same time.

Rolling Bones Premium Pit BBQ had the best food display. I loved the thought that went into placing ingredients and garnishes to decorate the cutting boards where the BBQ sandwiches were placed. I was so happy to see one of my new favorite Atlanta restaurants at the tasting tents, JCT Kitchen & Bar. They prepared a fried chicken topped with spicy mayo on top of a bed of baked beans.

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Spice Route Supper Club served up Kerala fried chicken over low country waffles and a spice maple syrup topped with a fried curry leaf. This was the one dish that I heard people rave about over and over again. I can't wait for Spice Route Supper Club's next dinner event and the opening of their new restaurant!

If there's a big food festival or street cart gathering in Atlanta. You can expect to find King of Pops there. And with good reason too. Their popsicles never disappoint, and the flavors that they developed in partnership with Patrón Tequila for the Atlanta Food & Wine Festival weren't an exception. In fact, these may have been some of King of Pop's best flavors. Out of the three that I tried: cucumber jalapeño margarita, peach basil margarita and green apple lemonade, the cucumber jalapeño was my favorite. It had a refreshing veggie flavor, a little sweet with a slight spicy kick at the end.

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Kudos to Dominique Love, Elizabeth Feichter and the rest of the team on an amazing job on the first ever Atlanta Food & Wine Festival. I'm already looking forward to next year!

To read more about the Atlanta Food & Wine Festival and to see more photos of the learning sessions, street cart pavillion and tasting tents, please visit my blog: Dash of East.

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