Key West Food & Wine Festival: Duval Uncorked

Saturday’s big event was Duval Uncorked, a street fair of wine and food stretching down Duval Street from Caroline Street to the Atlantic.  I checked in and started visiting the first few locations, but could not figure out how to write about this event.  What would my angle be? 

Then I started talking to John and Pam (a foodie tour guide from Portland, Maine (MaineFoodieTours.com)) about the festival, foodie tours and just how many restaurants there are in Portland.  And thus I found my angle:  to do what I seem to do best – just talk to people, hear their stories, opinions, insights, and write about them!  Thanks, John and Pam!

Forty-four scheduled stops were listed in the guide to this event.  Wine tables were set up in art galleries, home furnishings stores, clothing stores, restaurants, and in whatever type of business that was interested in hosting a stop on the tour.  Now, I am just not capable of tasting 44 different wine and spirits and still managing to continue walking.  A Herculean task to have visited them all, I say!  However, I had fun speaking to the people I did meet.

When I got to South Pointe Gallery, home to some gorgeous vintage posters, there was a line running right out the door.  Inside I spoke with Ken Lewis, regional manager for Terlato Wines and tasted their Terlato Family Vineyards Pinot Grigio, a more rounded tasting varietal than I expected to find.  This roundness, Ken informed me, was the result of the wine resting on the lees (this is where the dead yeast cells are left in the vat and they continue to add flavors to the wine).

A few stops later I found myself at Sweet Tea's facing a very mean bartender, Tom Luna.  Actually, he is a very funny bartender.  There I saw another very long line waiting for a taste of Sweet Tea's very popular lobster mac ‘n cheese.

While I chatted with Tom, he introduced me to Jim Brush, the president of Key West Key Lime Pie Co. just next door.  Jim mentioned having been on The Early Show to talk about Key Lime pies, and we reminisced about New York.  He said he’d heard that Duval Uncorked was sold out at 800 tickets (I didn’t verify this)!  No wonder he had already run out of the key lime cannoli they were offering!

I then meandered up to Flamingo Crossing, an ice cream shop, where I tasted a Malbec/Riesling sorbet which I was told is made fresh on-site daily.  Very nice!

Across the street, I chatted with Michael, one of the bartenders at the pool bar at Orchard Key Inn.  When I lived here this place was not pretty, but Michael said that a few years back they gutted it down to the concrete and now it is really lovely.

With my energies waning, I headed off in search of dinner at the bar at Antonia’s (manned by TK, a well-known Key West bartender), and I wondered how the people who completed the entire circuit were faring!

Sidewalk service at Nine One Five

Key West Food & Wine Festival: Grand Tasting

The construction of the Key West Aquarium began in 1933 as a WPA project.  Due to the scarcity of fresh water, the concrete was mixed the more abundant salt water from the Key West harbor just feet away.  It opened in 1935 as the first open-air aquarium with hopes that it would serve as a research facility for the study of local sea life, however when Flagler’s railroad was destroyed by a hurricane later that year thereby curtailing land access to Key West, those hopes fell apart.  The building was leased to the armed forces during WWII and was gutted to be used as a firing range.  Though in 1946 it was restored and reopened for its original purpose.

On Friday evening this was where the Turtles & Sharks & Mermaids Oh My! Grand Tasting was held.  What a fun location for an event!  The aquarium’s walls are full of built-in tanks containing specimens from local waters, while the center of the elongated structure holds shallow pools filled with stingrays and nurse sharks, with fiberglass replicas of large sharks hanging overhead.  Perched along the outside rims of the central pools were the wine tasting stations, and the guests sampled their offerings while moseying between the tables and the wall tanks.

Chef Paul Menta created his Extreme Stone Crab sourced from only locally available ingredients:  a stone crab claw piercing a slice of fried green plantain through a spread of jack fruit custard and the claw meat was half-coated with black sapote (a soft fruit originally native to eastern Mexico) reduction with a pinch of sea salt – an edible sculpture.

The Fin Caribbean Small
Plates restaurant offered
a shrimp ceviche made
with Key West Pinks set
over a mojito-flavored gel
and topped with cilantro
micro greens – a beautifully
designed morsel.

And since this is a wine and food festival, I did get to try two wines:

The first was Rutz Cellars’ 2006 Maison Grand Cru Russian River Valley Pinot Noir which was aged in the winery’s custom dug wine caves.  I liked the balanced and medium body and good acidity of this wine – though I’ll wait until I finish my WSET wine classes before I start analyzing the specifics of any wine.

The other wine was Clif Family Winery Gary's ImProv Zinfandel 2007.  Yes, Clif, the same people who make the nutritional snack bar.  Now, Zins have been a long-time favorite of mine and this full-flavored California wine did not disappoint.

On the outside deck next to the pens containing large ocean predators, members of Fancy Pants Entertainment, costumed in burlesque-inspired finery (including K.P. as a very tall merman), sang, danced, and there was even a sailor boy striptease.

I hadn’t been to the aquarium for years and this event was a great reason for a return trip.

3rd Annual Key West Food & Wine Festival: Kick Off Party

What would you do?  It’s late January, the holidays are long over, and you’re definitely feeling the winter blahs – what do you do?  Well, you can do what I did and head south for the 3^rd Annual Key West Food & Wine Festival – a four-day gastronomic celebration in continental America’s “Southernmost City.”

Thursday evening, on white sand under the palm trees, the festival kicked off with a beach party!  The boisterous crowd, which seemed as happy to be in the sub-tropical warmth as I was, sampled wines from a variety of local distributors, food from the host restaurant, the Southernmost Beach Café, and listened to the music of DJ Jimmy Jamz.

Cassie from Anaheim

Nancy from Jacksonville

I spent time chatting with old acquaintances from my time as a Key Wester, and meeting new folk from across the country like Cassie from Anaheim and Nancy from Jacksonville, a woman who can trace her family history back to the founding of Florida. 

The party continued while the famous Key West sunset (have you ever seen the green flash?) occurred off the other end of Duval Street and the lights on the palm tree trunks came to life.

Chef Alice Weingarten

The next event of the evening was a choice of three Neighborhood Strolls through historic Key West areas with scheduled stops at well-known and up-and-coming restaurants to sip wine and share a bit of their unique culinary offerings.  Of the three:  Key West Bight, Mallory Square, and Petronia Street, I chose the Petronia stroll as it visited Bahama Village, my old neighborhood.  Unfortunately, due to the overwhelming demand for the strolls and a previous engagement on my part, I was unable to join in the event.  But I am sure, from the festive atmosphere I witnessed as my fellow party-goers boarded the Old Town Trolleys to their destinations, that they had a grand time.

Rediscovering Paradise

Key West is known by many names:  Cayo Hueso, the Conch Republic, the Southernmost City, but most of the time it's just called Paradise.  I began my journey to rediscover Paradise by leaving a chilly, rain-soaked Boston and landing in Key West where I was greeted with sunshine and warm temps.  A good start!  Now the reason I needed to RE-discover Paradise is that I lived there for almost five years and left to work in Las Vegas and on a ship which took me around the world.  During my years away I often recalled very fond memories of this island city and had frequently wondered if moving back was to be part of my path.  So, how better to give these thoughts some room to grow than to spend a week celebrating my birthday in the city at the end of US Route 1?

Soon after arriving I was bicycling around the island on a beat-up loaner – a woman’s bike with ape-hanger handle bars.  I was a bit wobbly at first, but I didn't care because I was on a bicycle again.  Bicycling is a great way to see the island in detail, and in congested Old Town it is much easier to park a bicycle than a car.  Because I was visiting in May, the island was awash with blooming trees and shrubs.  My favorites:  the umbrella-shaped canopies of the Royal Poinciana alight with blood orange colored blossoms, night air filled with the irresistible scent of Frangipani, and Bougainvillea which blooms everywhere in a painter's palette of color.  The light here is sharper and more intense as compared to the more gentle Northern light.  Colors are so enhanced that the sight of vivid blossoms surrounded by varied shades of green and backed by a deeply-hued blue sky is almost mesmerizing.

As I have always advised visitors:  to visit an island like Key West and not go out on the water is almost a crime.  Following my own advice I booked a snorkeling trip on the Blu Q, my favorite catamaran.  The sky that day was almost cloudless and the water was a dreamy 86 degrees!  At one point I was kneeling on a submerged sandbar with the water only chest-high while enjoying the warmth and sipping sangria.  That’s hard to beat!

As odd as it may sound, my favorite place on the island is the Key West Cemetery.  Almost all of the graves are above ground due to the island’s low-lying topography and high water table.  I used to bicycle along the peaceful lanes between the graves at every opportunity, though now I am told that public access is limited.  One evening I gazed through the fence down the length of the cemetery at the orange-hued, newly-risen full moon and this spectacle was being rivaled by an approaching lightning storm which revealed towering thunder clouds with each dramatic flash.

Speaking of moonlight, I’ve always loved how the tin roofs of the old wooden homes glowingly reflect the lunar light.  It adds a touch of mystery and magic to a nighttime ride or stroll.

And I can't forget about the restaurants!  Key West is well-known for its food, music, and bars ranging from the honky-tonk to the sophisticated.  Some of my favorites are:  Nine One Five where I dined on a series of small plates including devils on horseback, tuna tartare, a cone of fries with aioli, and a great glass of syrah; Square One with Patrick (aka Patticakes) holding court behind the bar where I feasted on duck pad thai while sipping one of the best martinis around; Sunday brunch at Croissants de France sitting under the twisting branches of a 150 year old Spanish Lime tree; Banana Cafe where I got a welcome back hug from Danny, a delightful French woman, and enjoyed my favorite dish of smoked salmon with cream cheese and capers on toasted French bread (in lieu of the normal bagel); and of course I can’t forget Camille's, owned by Michael and Denise, mostly because I used to work there part-time, where lunch consisted of crab cakes benedict and a delicious con leche (Key West shorthand for a café con leche).

At the end of the week I left Key West with a suntan, a relaxed look on my face, and sore muscles (darn that bicycle!), but still didn’t know if moving back was in the cards.  But, heck, it sure is tempting!