Food and wine are meant to be paired, and that’s exactly what Chicago Food and Wine Festival aimed to do in Lincoln Park over the weekend. Naturally, booze makes you hungry, which ironically is how I left the fest on Saturday. With less than 20 food vendors each day, the wine and spirits outweighed the eats. The upscale dining festival is new to Chicago this year but has had successful runs in other cities, such as Los Angeles, which also hosted its own festival last Friday through Sunday.
For $175 a day, fest-goers could sample 90 food and booze vendors and sit in on several workshops with all-star chefs. It goes without saying the price point might not appeal to the average young person in the same way a three-day music festival would, but I was interested in investigating first-hand how such a festival could be sold to younger folks on a budget. I was granted media access Saturday and Sunday of the event, but I went in with the mindset of someone who paid her way. Do I feel like it was worth it? We’ll get to that. First, a food-focused abbreviation of what I tasted over the two days:
Saturday:
Floriole Cafe & Bakery goat cheese, blueberry and peach bar
Beautiful but I could take it or leave it.
La Sirena Clandestina kale salad
Amazing. My favorite thing I ate on Saturday.
Labriola Ristorante & Cafe pasta in ragu sauce with shaved truffles
Tasty but a dish can’t hinge on one expensive ingredient.
Earls Kitchen and Bar chili-rubbed albacore tuna with cilantro aioli, avocado and slaw on a tortilla chip
Woah. I don’t think I can wait until the October opening of this new Lincoln Park joint for another one of those. (The Silly Wabbit vodka cocktail with carrot and lemon juices, ginger simple syrup and cardamom bitters was the best thing I sipped all weekend.)
The Florentine sweet corn on the cob with lemon aioli, perigord truffles, crispy pancetta and pecorino cheese
Worth waiting in line for.
MK Restaurant zucchini salad with chili pepper, lemon, mint and breadcrumbs
Unimpressive and not memorable.
Element Collective burrata with grilled peaches and vinaigrette
I wanted to love it, but the samples were too warm, making the texture unappetizing.
Sunday:
Joe Fish lobster roll
Mediocre and way too much bread.
Boltwood veggie paratha
Love! It spoke right to my veggie heart.
Little Goat Diner PB & J sundae
Hands down the best thing I tried on Sunday. Salted peanut gelato paired perfectly with the grape sauce.
The Purple Pig shrimp and feta on a homemade cracker
While shrimpies always appeal to me, this sample wasn’t memorable.
Lula Cafe butter pecan ice cream sandwich
I was happy to make this disappear before the heat melted it.
Wishbone crawfish etouffe
Delicious is an understatement. Wish I went back for seconds.
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Tete Charcuterie gazpacho with spiced mortadella
OK, I asked for one without the meat, but it was still the best gazpacho of the weekend (a dish well-represented by other restaurants).
Bottom line: You should never walk away from a food festival hungry, but that’s exactly what happened on Saturday. Sunday was a different story, but for $175 a day, both food and beverage options should be evenly represented. Where there is good food, there is inevitably good wine, but Chicago is a melting pot of all-star chefs and innovative restaurants. Disappointingly, Chicago Food and Wine Festival only included a handful of what this city has to offer. I did appreciate the plethora of meat-free options on offer, and rarely did I come across a dish that couldn’t be made vegetarian. In fairness, the festival wasn’t a total flop its first year. Would I have been disappointed had I spent the money? Yes, but there’s room to grow next year with more Chicago chef representation.
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