February 23, 2007

ON THE ROAD: SOUTH BEACH


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If it's late February, it must be time to head for Miami Beach.

And so it is. And so I am.

I'm down here again covering the South Beach Wine & Food Festival.

Wait, that's wrong. Let's try again.

It's the FOOD NETWORK South Beach Wine & Food Festival.

That's important. Especially if you ask the Food Network folks.

This is the first year that FN has sponsored the SBWF, thereby making it the FNSBWF. (You can read an advancer I wrote by clicking here.)

Rolls off the tongue, eh?

I came to the festival for the first time last year. I met so many people and learned so much about food and what happens when you throw celebrity and decadence into the cocktail that I had to come back. Had to. There isn't another festival like this in the country.

They literally hold this thing on the sand of Miami Beach. Gigantic white tents extend for about four blocks on some of the choicest beachfront property. Food muckity-mucks and the hoi-polloi of Miami come out and eat and drink some of the best food in the world. It's tough to beat half-naked women dangling above a pyramid of expensive Champagne only 80 yards from the Gulf Stream. or rubbing elbows with food royalty. Or opportunities to make new friends..

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So for the next few days, I'll be shacking up at The Pelican, bobbing my head 24/7 like these guys and hanging with the likes of Rachael, Mario, Alton and Emeril. I'm in the Halfway To Hollywood room. How trendy is it? Well, I've never stayed at a place where each room has a suggested soundtrack.

You have no idea the perverse joy it brought me to pull up to the front of this place in the Titan. Out front on the porch is a tony little restaurant. There I was, galoot that I am, dragging baggage out of my pickup truck and through their $20 a plate candlelight dinners of Bucatini Amatriciana, whatever the hell that is. I had to wait at the hostess station with my rolling suitcase and shaving kit while she seated people in her size 4 Manolo Blahniks so I could get past and get my room.

"I've never checked into a restaurant before," I told the valet, Rich. He was not amused.

I've gotta get out more.

Now that I think about it, the whole suggested soundtrack thing is brilliant. So I'll be doing that from now on.

SUGGESTED SOUNDTRACK FOR THIS POST: "Ramshackle" by Beck.

Posted by Jeff at February 23, 2007 07:32 AM | TrackBack
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