Tag Archives: Graze

Wine-ding Up or: WSNC, I Salute! Thee

03 Friday Jun 2016

Posted by in Beer, Food, Wine

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Salutations™!!

One of my favorite events in downtown WSNC is the Salute! Wine Festival and that’s tomorrow, June 4, from noon-6pm (rain or shine), and The BCPF and I will be there!!! The biggest reason it’s my favorite isn’t the wine (that’s probably second or third or something, perhaps ninth?), but it’s the fact that I get to hover around on Fourth Street in the downtown of my hometown and the city that I love. It is my preferred festival for several reasons: There’s plenty of shade. It doesn’t smell like horse poop. It appeals to a more distinguished crowd. The buildings laid out on the street creates a natural breezeway which means it’s cooler and those buildings hold restaurants and other businesses that make the experience better.

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Possibly one of the best parts of the festival is the Food & Wine University which will feature Chef Stephanie Tyson of Sweet Potatoes paired with Hanover Park Vineyards, Chef Richard Miller of Graze paired with Raylen Vineyards, my buddy and pal, Chef Travis Myers of Willow’s Bistro paired with what I was told was JOLO but the press release says Jones von Drehl Vineyards, former The Less Desirables guest, Chef Kristina Fuller of Crafted: Art of the Taco/Street Food is paired with Raffaldini and another former The Less Desirables guest, Chef Tirra Cowan from Black Mountain Chocolate paired with Lake James Cellars. It’s good stuff, every year, and I’m glad to get to see some of it.

There will be over 30 wineries/meaderies/brewers to choose from on this day. Tickets are $25 in advance (which means you better buy today!) or $30 the day of the event. I promise you won’t have a bad time here. The Downtown Winston-Salem Partnership and their fearless leader, Jason Thiel (with Mary Charlotte and Mackenzie) know how to throw a party and this is going to be awesome!!! You can buy your tix, find more info and all that jazz by visiting the Salute! website. Find me and stop me and say hello! Really. Do that.

Until tomorrow (when I’ll be wining it up), same blog channel…
Scorp out!

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“Let us celebrate the occasion with wine and sweet words.” – Plautus

Put Out the Fire or: A Bellyful of Yum

07 Thursday May 2015

Posted by in Food

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Salutations™!!

Today I attended the media presentation of the Got To Be NC’s Competition Dining events at the Benton Convention Center, in Winston-Salem. I was there to accompany Nikki Miller-Ka, food blogger extraordinaire, and to represent Tart & Tangy Triad, which I am the executive producer with Ms. Nikki and The BCPF as my co-hosts. I do also plan to cover it for The Man Who Ate the Town: a Food Blog.

I’ll just briefly touch on what the event is. It runs from May 26- July 7. It’s basically a tournament bracket for local chefs. They are put in a bracket where they cook competition diningagainst each other one-on-one and then the winners go on to the next round. There are 16 chefs “performing” in this year’s comp and 5 of them are from Winston-Salem, which is hosting the Triad’s version of this event – last year it was in Greensboro. They’ve also dropped the “Fire” from the old name: Fire in the Triad.

Chef John Bobby of Noble’s Grille, Chef Mark Grohman of Meridian, Chef Richard Miller of Graze, Chef Travis Myers of River Birch Lodge and Chef Kevin Reddick of Screaming Radish Food Truck are the Winston-Salem contestants. Chef Dion Sprinkle of Chef Dion Sprinkle (yes, you read that correctly) in Lexington, Chef Michael Roberson of Iron Hen Cafe in Greensboro, Chef Trey Prescott of J. Pepper’s Southern Grille in Kernersville, Chef Alex Price of Greensboro Country Club, Chef Dave Nicoletta of Giannos in High Point, Chef Matthew Montandon of The Pheonix in Brevard (that’s a good bit away from home), Chef Michael Harkenreader of Undercurrent Restaurant in Greensboro, Chef Christian Froelich, formerly of Graze/WS Prime, now of Hearth Restaurant at Sanders Ridge in Boonville, Chef Andrew Nicolas Davila of Belle at the Jones House in Cary (also a good bit from home), Chef Anders Benton of Gia in Greensboro and Tim Barbrey of Perky’s Bistro in Jamestown round out the rest of the field.

While I’m wishing good things for all the chefs, of course I’m pulling for my hometown boys. I know Chef Reddick, Chef Grohman and Chef Myers pretty well and I want to know Chefs Bobby and Miller better. I live here I want to experience their creations. Really, even the chefs not from Winston, I want to try their food, too.  You know what, maybe you’ll want to try their food, as well. And you can. You, Dear Reader, can be one of the few that actually gets to vote to perpetuate the competition. You’ll need reservations and the tickets for the event is $69.71 each. That price is indicative of the $55 ticket price, NC sales tax and a service charge. There will be a cash bar that offers NC wines, NC beers and mixed drinks. You can find more info, get bios on the chefs and make your prepaid reservations on the Competition Dining website. I highly recommend checking out at least one of the competitions. Unfortunately, they all fall on nights that I have podcasts to record, but if I could, I’d certainly be there.

Keep track on Twitter by using and searching the hashtag “#CompetitionDiningNC” and you’ll know what’s going on. They’re on Blogger, Instagram, as well.

Until tomorrow, same blog channel…
Scorp out!

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“My competitive advantage is that every day I do the impossible.” – Chef Kevin Reddick