Wining and Dining in the Meatpacking

For the past two years, I have seen the signs come up for the New York City Wine and Food Festival and then I've seen them come back down, without ever partaking in a glorious event. My friends at Citysearch changed all that this year after I won two tickets to the Meatpacking Uncorked event from a Twitter contest. Even though my mom and I already had our fair share of wine and food for an entire weekend, we were bound and determined to make the most out of this night.

We arrived at the Welcome Center under the Highline and picked up our event passport, along with some tasty Toblerone samples. Making our way to W. 14th Street, we stopped in stores like La Perla and Kimberly Taylor for wine and shopping (sort of like an encore of Fashion's Night Out). The weather was absolutely gorgeous and people were out in the thousands.

Our first food bite was at The Diner - a goat cheese quesadilla. It definitely tasted good, but that may have been because I was super hungry after an afternoon full of wine. The wait for this sample was a little ridiculous, though.

Next, we made it over to The Cooking Channel truck, which was sampling innovative ice cream flavors like Strawberry Balsamic and Chocolate Challah. Again, the lines were crazy (I would have been mad had I actually paid money for the event tickets), but the ice cream was delicious.

We stopped at the Delta/Coke display, where we got to take Polaroid-like shots with our free mini-bottles of coke. Last, we only got down to Ganesvoort Street before the event ended at 9, but we tried sliders from The Collective.

Overall, the event was a lot of fun, but the weather had a lot to do with how much I enjoyed the night. The food wasn't anything amazing, but it was fun to walk around and eat in the streets. The lines for everything were pretty long and the vendors did not always look at people's wristbands, so pretty much anyone could wait in line for some free grub. 

Next year, my goal will definitely be to try another NYC Wine and Food Festival event. I think I might pass on Meatpacking Uncorked, but maybe the Grand Tasting...One can dream.

Who Says You Can't Be Paid in Food?

Ah volunteering. The best way to get free stuff in my experience. And with all of these high end events happening in NYC practically every day, there's sure to be an event that piques your interest and offers substantial awesome value.

One such event that I salivate over every year, though the expense has been a persistent hurdle to my attendance, is the New York City Wine and Food Festival. Practically every star chef, baker, mixologist and sommelier will be cooking, chopping, pureeing and most importantly feeding the masses at many specialize seminars and demonstrations throughout the Columbus Day weekend festival.

Here's the good news for you if you didn't RSVP for some of these events back in April or can't really justify spending $400 on a one-hour event, you can volunteer. Fill out the form and if you're lucky enough to be contacted you may be doing some heavy lifting or gift-bag packing (if you're super lucky there might be an extra for you to take home!), but you'll get to hobnob with Food Network chefs, sample elegant and tasty culinary wonders and get a discount code to attend an event.

I wouldn't wait if I were you to fill out that form because I'm sure these spots will fill up fast. If you happen to snag one, come back and share the awesomeness in a comment :)