National Harbor Wine and Food Festival

Back when there was snow on the ground, my friend Ann asked if we were interested in going to the food and wine festival at National Harbor on May 2 & 3 with she and her husband Jon. Ummmmm.... of course! So we quickly bought tickets for this 2 day event. 

Then we got to thinking that it might be expensive to get babysitters for both days, and drive back and forth to/from the festival. So my brilliant husband suggested that we ask his parents (and sister & niece) to come for the weekend to babysit, and shuffle kids around to sport events too. They were happy to do so!

We headed out the door at 9am on Saturday- even though the festival didn't start until 1pm! Turns out Ann and John were over committed with kid events on Saturday, so they wouldn't be joining us until Sunday. We checked in early the Gaylord Hotel, and were psyched to have this view of the stunning atrium from the balcony of our room- 

We grabbed some lunch and headed to the festival. The weather was just perfect...

When we entered the festival, we noticed LOTS of alcohol, but not a ton in the way of wine. Well, at least good wine. We were pleased to find Stag's Leap Wine Cellars from Napa, but the lines were long and the sun was hot.

So I suggested we walk over to the the chef demo tent and catch a quick cooking lesson. Boy was that the best idea EVER!

This tent (the only shade at the festival) seated about 50. While you watched some of DC's finest chefs cook, servers poured you wine. Over and over. No lines! Then, when the chef was done with his demo, the staff bought out small plates for us all to sample.  It was seriously too good to be true!

It was hosted by Nycci Nellis, host of the radio show & blog "Foodie and The Beast" 

 
The first chef we watched was Victor Albisu-

 We have since been to one of his restaurants- Taco Bamba

Next up was Mike Isabella, who has been on Top Chef twice-

We have since been to one of his DC restaurants, G (that's it, just simply named G)

Then there was Scott Drewno-

Each cooking demo was about 45 minutes. It was the perfect way to spend our day together-

After all the cooking demos, we went out into the festival for some more wine- and a hat for Brian, since he forgot one-

And we picked up a case of wine to take home too!

Saturday night we had dinner at the Walrus Oyster & Ale House,  then decided to head over to the dueling piano bar, Bobby McKeys, where we realized we are just too old for the nightlife, and headed back to that posh room over at the Gaylord! Smart move.

Sunday morning Brian surprised me with room service for breakfast. We sat on our balcony with the amazing view and enjoyed mimosas and eggs Benedict in our pajamas, worth every penny.

We headed back to the festival Sunday and met up with Ann & Jon, who loved the idea of spending the day in the cooking tent. We got there early and secured our seats. Apparently word was out about what a sweet spot this was, and if you got up to go to the bathroom, others tried to pounce in like piranhas all biting for your seat. But we were a strong foursome and stayed all day!

 First up- the assistant winemaker, Elizabeth DeLouise-Gant,  from Stag's Leap Wine Cellars. We love their wine and visited this Napa winery on our honeymoon in 2003! Here is a little tidbit of info- there are two Stags Leap vineyards in Napa. Crazy right? One is spelt Stag's Leap, the other Stags' Leap.

 First demo was Danny Lee-

 Next- Brian Voltaggio, a former Top Chef finalist-

And finally, Rahman "Rock" Harper, who was hilarious and in 2007 won Hell's Kitchen-  

 All in all, I couldn't have imagined a better way to spend two days with Brian. Food, wine, no kids- what's not to love? And now we have a list of DC restaurants that we want to try, as we'd love to try to eat at the restaurants of the chef's we saw cook and sampled their food this weekend...