Introducing The Atlanta Food & Wine Festival

The tenth annual South Beach Wine & Food Festival is fast approaching, but there's a new food event on the horizon: the first annual Atlanta Food & Wine Festival. It kicks off in five months (May 19-22) — the brainchild of charming Southern entrepreneurs, Dominique Love and Elizabeth Feichter, two women passionate about fried chicken, pot likker and the best food in the South. Love and Feichter expect 10,000 people to attend the festival in May.

In this interview, the co-founders explain their inspiration (Aspen), what went into creating the festival, its headlining chefs, and the ultimate Atlanta Food & Wine Festival experience (the $2,500 Connoisseur Ticket). Read on for the inside scoop on the festival's don't-miss events, their picks for three must-visit restaurants while you're in Atlanta, and where to go for the city's best fried chicken.

A big food festival in the South? It's about time, no?
DL: That's what we're saying.

Both Food & Wine and Travel + Leisure are presenting sponsors, but this festival is your baby, right?
EF: It is our baby!  We created the Grow for Good campaign for Food & Wine to celebrate the 25^th anniversary of the Classic in Aspen. As part of our work, we attended the Classic for a few years to run the campaign and left each year in love with the experience.
DL: After each visit to the Classic, we would ask ourselves, "Why don't we have something like this in Atlanta? Why can't we create the Aspen experience in Atlanta? Why don't we create a celebration of Southern food and the South? Finally, our friend Chef Shaun Doty said, "Stop talking about it and just do something." And so was born the Atlanta Food & Wine Festival.
EF: That was eight months ago. 

Dominique, you're from Colorado? And Elizabeth where are you from?
DL: My family is from the South — from Mississippi. When we were little we moved to Colorado but spent many summers in Mississippi and I went to college in Alabama. I moved to Atlanta in 1995.   
EF: And I've been in the south the whole time, North Carolina. I moved to Atlanta 15 years ago, and my husband likes to tease me, he says my accent changes depending on what road we're on.
DL: Some of my more Southern friends think that I'm only half Southern because I grew up in the West. But, the Southern traditions are never too far away. Growing up, when we had to bring in a dish for a class party, I always brought in sweet potato pies. And we were the only kids in the neighborhood who had to call our parents, 'Sir, and 'Ma'am.'

Time for some tough questions about food and Atlanta. Who makes the best fried chicken?
EF: Well, Linton Hopkins just got voted best fried chicken by CNN. But I'll tell you who really has the best fried chicken, Marie Nygren at Serenbe. It's just bursting with juice. There's a magic that happens between the crispiness on the outside and the juicy meat inside. That is good fried chicken.

What's your favorite Southern dish?
EF: Mac 'n cheese. Wait, can I do this by season?  Because in the summer there's nothing better than sliced tomato and corn.
DL: I love 'pot likker.' That sounds so naughty. It's made from the braising water from the greens and it's delicious. But right now I'm truly obsessed with bacon caramel corn. I've been buying Holeman & Finch's bacon caramel corn trying to recreate it. I haven't been successful, but I'm thinking the success depends on when you put the bacon grease into the caramel.
EF: What I want to learn is how to make bacon-infused rye whiskey.

Which three Atlanta restaurants must a first-time visitor to Atlanta visit?
EF: Miller Union is one. They're doing amazing things with vegetables and fresh farm ingredients. 
DL: I'd say Miller Union and Empire State South have great Southern comforts. Abattoir is a good representation of whole animal cuisine. But 'Southern' is also about new flavors and Atlanta's Buford Highway has a lot of great international — Latin and Asian — to explore.
EF: I'm a big craft beer fan; The Brick Store is great for that. The owner is helping us with finding the best craft brews to feature at the Festival. Many people don't know but craft beer is one of the fastest growing alcoholic beverage segments in the South because it's only been in the past five years that many Southern states have allowed distribution and sale of these beers. There are some amazing things being done with fresh ingredients from the farms going straight to these beers.

Are any new restaurants opening soon that we should look out for?
DL: Well, there's Empire State South and H. Harper Station, which both opened in the past few months.  
EF: And Ford Fry is opening a new place in Decatur with Chef Drew Belline.

What guiding principles from Aspen are you trying to apply in Atlanta?
DL: Intimacy.
EF: Exclusivity. We're offering curated experiences involving a cross-section of Southern chefs, mixologists, sommeliers and brew masters that can't be accessed elsewhere.
DL: A very high contact experience. We want people to get really up close and personal with the chefs. We want people to hear their stories and their real passion behind the Southern culinary traditions. They've stayed true to the South.

Where exactly is the festival taking place?
EF:  It's taking place in midtown Atlanta. And that was something else, they welcomed us with open arms. When we began the search, it was about finding a luxury hotel partner — Loews Hotel in Midtown — and finding one within walking distance. The tasting tents are a couple of blocks west in a green space. There will be culinary trails, where you'll taste dishes from Texas up to D.C. There's an educational component behind it.
DL: Right, because this isn't just a tasting experience, it's an educational experience. It's not another "taste of." It's not another restaurant tour. It took our team about three months to develop a list of topics and work with our Founders Council to create seminars, demonstrations, tasting experiences and events to support our Southern focus. The end result is that we're offering more than 200 ways for consumers to sip, savor and learn about Southern food and beverage traditions.
EF: Right. It's about unique experiences. We're pairing great chefs from across the region and they're designing amazing menus with delicious wine pairings like Hugh Acheson, Frank Stitt and Karen and Ben Barker are teaming up to offer a dinner at Empire State South that you're not going to be able to have there the next week.

How many chefs are participating in the event?
EF: A lot! Our Founders Council consists of 60 culinary leaders, mostly chefs, and some mixologists. Then we'll have a number of chefs in the tasting tents — Kevin Gillespie is curating the whole pig tent and there will be 24 chefs rotating through this space throughout the weekend.

You named Kevin Gillespie, tell us about the other participating chefs.
EF: From a headliner perspective, our requirement is that you have to have Southern ties and to be committed to continuing Southern food traditions. John Besh is a son of New Orleans. There are the Lee Bros. from Charleston, who built a business after missing their hometown food when they went to college. Nathan Lippy still savors the memories of cooking with his grandmother in Mississippi and now infuses traditional recipes with new flavors and fun. Our Founders Council members are the superstars of our region and almost all have either a James Beard nomination, award, were recognized as a Food & Wine Best New Chef, or have received some other national accolade.

How do you coordinate 200 events, demos and discussions over just three days?
DL: Carefully!

And how as a festivalgoer do you pick which events to go to?
EF: Well, the classes make up a lot of that content. If you have six to eight hours of classes a day, that's a part of the reason why it looks so massive. We first started with learning. What do we really want to know? We wanted to make sure that everything we offered was accessible. That you could still go home and access what you learned there.
DL: 'We're going to learn you some!'
EF: You can quote her on that as long as you put her name on it.
DL: But seriously, the learning factor was important, but we also looked at the entertainment factor. We want Festivalgoers to attend the seminars, demonstration and panels and then experience what they learned in a little more depth with great tasting experiences in our tasting tents, and then dinner and special events in the evenings. Linton Hopkins is going to be doing a whole animal demonstration during the day and then in the evening he is teaming up with Michael Paley and Andrea Reusing to create a dinner to pay homage to their favorite producers.

If forced to choose, what would be the three events to look out for?
EF: We've created an experience where there are so many choices you're not really going to miss out on anything. You can keep yourself busy during the day with the learning experiences and the tasting tents, and then hit the restaurants and special parties at night. I'm looking forward to Pig Out Texas Style with Tim Love and Ford Fry, and to the Chef's House Party at Kevin Rathbun's home in Atlanta where Kevin, his brother Kent and Stephan Pyles will be entertaining 100 people. 
D: I think a not-to-miss event is our Farmer Hall of Fame Dinner, which will pay tribute to leading growers across our region. My other favorite is the Ultimate Southern Tailgate, because if you're from the South then you were born with tailgating in your blood.
EF: And tailgating is not just about BBQ, it's about cocktails.
DL: It's serious business. We start planning our tailgating a year in advance.

What goes into actually creating an event from scratch?
EF: Hours of labor in a room.
DL: Creativity.
EF: And having the right people in the room who can come up with interesting and entertaining ideas. If it's not going to be interesting to the consumer it's not going to be successful.
DL: It's also about having the right space, and not having to be shoulder to shoulder. The best events are exclusive and well-planned. 

What's the measure of a successful event?
EF: That people want to come back for year two. This is the South. We're about having great hospitality. You walk away and you know you were a part of something different and special and you sign up immediately for next year.
DL: I will be happy when I hear people walking out saying, "This was unexpected. I really learned something."

How many people are you expecting?
EF: The Festival will draw up to 10,000 people throughout the weekend, but our daily capacity for ticketed activities will be around 3,000 people. Tickets range in price from $75 entry into a tasting tent session up to a $2,500 Connoisseur Pass.
DL: You know I lied when I noted my must-go events, because my most favorite experience for the weekend is the Connoisseur Experience. The first time I went to Aspen I was at an event that carried on after hours, and I found myself chatting with Tom Colicchio and Marcus Samuelsson, and then Mario Batali tapped me on the shoulder and gave me a truffled grilled cheese sandwich he had just made. I thought I had died and gone to heaven. 
We wanted festivalgoers to have that same experience with our Southern superstars, so we created the Connoisseur Ticket for the serious food and beverage lover that will include access to a 12,000-square foot Connoisseur Lounge with two Viking kitchens, a wine lounge, a cocktail lounge, and a guilty pleasures salon.  Connoisseurs can belly up to the Viking kitchen counter while John Currence is making breakfast. Or cozy up with an award-winning sommelier as he or she pours the best of the latest harvest. Or sip a bacon-infused Rye whiskey cocktail with a mixologist in the cocktail lounge. Then they can head to the guilty pleasures salon — a calorie-free zone — to eat chocolate-covered bacon to your heart's content.

How are you trying to make the festival accessible?
EF: Having a variety of ticket levels and the opportunity to purchase event tickets only makes the Festival accessible to more people. We've also created a ticket called the Foodster Pass, which is for 21 to 29-year olds. We see this group as emerging food and beverage lovers who may not be interested in some of the wine tastings, but would love to attend a beer event. We also see this group as socially-conscious, so we've created a special volunteer event at a local farm for Foodsters to attend and then afterwards they will do a big barbecue. Nathan Lippy, Food, Drink & Rock 'n Roll, is our Foodster headliner, and he'll be hosting a Break the Rules event at the W Midtown for the Foodsters as well.

Final thoughts?
DL: One thing we haven't gotten to is the charitable element. We're investing some of the profits into a couple of nonprofit organizations like the Atlanta History Center, Les Dames d'Escoffier, the Oxford American and Wholesome Wave Foundation.
EF: Yes, for us giving back to the community is a cornerstone of the Festival.