SAVOR!!!

SAVOR the Central Coast was held last weekend and boy, was it a fabulous day! All the food & wine a Tasting Room Girl could eat & drink - who could ask for anything more?

The day was as gorgeous as gorgeous could be. And lucky me - I was able to go with my dear friend Lisa, who, as you will see, ended up being the most perfect/gorgeous model/sidekick for me for the day :) We arrived, grabbed ourselves a glass of vino and took the first photo of the day together (while we were still sober in the first 5 minutes of arriving.......)

My friend Tina was part of Sunset's "One Block Diet" Contest - meaning that you get your food locally from around "your block." The contest was for folks to gather their neighbors to create the "One Block Diet" Community and then hold a fabulous feast, showing off what they created. Tina, her husband Thomas and her friends made it to the top ten - yay! Her group was named "Bees' Knees" - here's a photo of their board with a bee actually sitting on their logo - too funny - 

Here are Tina & Thomas in front of the board of photos that showed the different aspects of what they did to create the feast:

Teams Bees' Knees didn't win the contest (darn it!) but they deserve a big CONGRATULATIONS for making it to the top ten! It was a lot of work for them - great job, guys!

After the contest winners were announced, Lisa and I started to wander around, specifically looking for our buddies at the 15C booth. (Bubbles? Bubbles? Does anyone have bubbles available? Shoot!) Here's Lisa with my dear Adrienne as well as Doug, Alli's hubby:

So now I was on the hunt to try to find bubbles, but became distracted by all the fabulous food. Wait - who is that? Could it be? Yes! It was Shaun, the head chef from Luna Red. And who was he with? It was Maegen from the Neon Carrot! These are my buddies that I met at the Pinot & Paella Festival - and can you believe it, I was supposed to go to each restaurant and do full blogs on them - though it hasn't happened yet. Oy vey, how time flies......

We continued our search for bubbles, only to run into Bob, Jackie's husband (Jackie works with me at Halter Ranch & is a fellow lover of Herman Story wines.) Bob lost Jackie and was trying to figure out how to find her.... But then he gave up, found some dessert and did "cheers " for the photo. We love you Bob! (Thankfully Jackie & Bob were reunited - but only after about an hour of searching - oy vey....)

Lisa and I were starting to get tired - it was hot....all the food...wine...it was too much...poor us :) But we found our way over to the Vons Beer Garden - hooray! I took a photo of the scene:

And of course Lisa jumped in before I know it for the photo op - she is a total opportunist :) The rest of the day became not, "Where's Waldo?" but, "Where's Lisa???"

So I have to admit, the BEST food of the day was the prosciutto pizza from Vons with fresh arugula & salt sprinkled over the top. Really. Truly. It was the BEST food of the day. And I'm not alone - many of my fellow industry folks said the same thing. After the event, the Vons pizza is all we talked about. Does that mean that the food at SAVOR really sucked, or is VONS frozen Pizza really that fabulous? Thoughts??

OMG! There they are! My best buddies Stephen Patrick & Todd Lemay - yay!! They said, "We just arrived, this is the first place we've gone to and of course, here you are - you're everywhere!!!" I said, "No - you guys could just sense I was here and like a tractor beam, I pulled you in." :) I wish I could have hung out with them more, but they were on the hunt to find good vino (can I blame them?) But I was able to capture this fabulous shot of the three of us before they ran off:

So off Lisa and I go to see what other food & vino we could find. In a buffet line I suddenly hear, "Hey, Sarah!" It's Donna & Tad from The Taste of San Luis! Wow, guys - must we keep meeting in buffet lines like this? Too funny! It was so great to see them again.

Ok. I have to admit - Though I was searching for bubbles, I couldn't find any, and I didn't love a lot of the vino....But thankfully, Clayhouse Wines was there with their Adobe Pink - yay! That's one of my FAVORITE roses ever and will be featured on an upcoming blog. Anyway, my friend, Laura was probably getting tired of me going to her booth over and over again for more of the Pink, but she sure didn't show it. Good Girl!

Now Clayhouse created a stick-on tattoo for their line of Adobe Wines saying "Red, White & Pink!" Here's Lisa rocking her new tattoo - she's looking pretty hot :)

Off to the old historic barn for another, "Where's Lisa?" photo opportunity:

And the barn itself - all I can say is, "wow."

Back on the road again, still looking of bubbles, when I ran into Lindsey & Sarah - my crew from Halter! Don't the two of them look fabulous? I love Sarah's hat - and Lindsey looks so GQ....

Wait...wait...what is that? Could it be? Are those bubbles? YES! they are bubbles!!! Hooray! Domaine Le Mieux was pouring Vin de Pomme - bubbles made from apples! They even opened a bottle just for me - What a fabulous way to end the day :)

"La la la, la la la la la la la la, la la la la la - I just can't get you outta my head, no your love is all I think about" - that was the music playing at the 15C booth after party - hooray! I didn't know after parties happened @ SAVOR, but of course Alli would make that happen :) My favorite bubbles included - yay!

Here's my dear friend Michelle from 15C with Christian from Artisan Restaurant & Ben from Bladerunner Salon:

Ben delighted us with a dance of him dancing on a pole to the music for a good ten minutes. I have video of it all and trust me, it is HILARIOUS!!!!

It was getting a late in the day - too much food, wine & fun - Lisa passed out with her jug wine:

The fact that she passed out is quite ironic as she took one for the team, and stopped drinking hours earlier as she was the designated driver. Thanks, Lisa! I owe you big time! And BTW - you're a fabulous actress :)

I'm so glad that I was able to attend SAVOR this year - it was too much fun! A big thanks to Sunset Magazine for putting it on - we'll be looking forward to next year's event.

After everything, I attended yet another "After party" for the SAVOR event and had lemon drop after lemon drop after lemon drop....I'd blog about the party, but I don't remember it - hahahahahahahahahaha!! But here's a photo of Lisa - I think it says it all!!!!

Isn't she fabulous? Lisa - can you come with me to every blog worthy event? Please???

Long live SAVOR!