You might have noticed that I do like a bit of a food festival, and if you read between the not too subtle lines, a little wine. So when you put these two things together, you create a magical weekend called LA Winefest. This event is situated down in The Row on the edge of the Arts District- it seems to be some repurposed mixed used ‘historical’ buildings (I have to use ” after living in London) and is already a good space but has a lot more potential.
Turns out it is also the site of Smorgasburg which I have been itching to head down to. Of course, Al & I had done what we always seem to do – gone for a big breakfast thinking there wasn’t going to be a lot of food. Incase you were wondering, we went to Millie’s in Silver Lake. I spied it about a month ago when I was breakfasting at Trois Familia and it looked like somewhere I needed to try.
I filled up on chilaquiles Benedict. Interesting combo. It’s an English muffin with pulled pork in a yummy ranchero sauce with a green chilli hollandaise. It was good, but as per usual, too much. In all honesty I think it didn’t need the muffins or the hollandaise but I guess that was the novelty factor – I could have just ordered chilaquiles anyway. I think it’s fair to say, I’m hooked on Mexican breakfasts – if you have any must try’s for me please let me know.
Al went for the Chicken Fried Steak (or chicken) which amused us greatly trying to work that one out. To this end we still don’t know what chicken fried steak is because he got the chicken. Is that chicken fried chicken steak chicken?
Anyway, back to La Winefest. It was a beautiful day and the event is not overly crowded which I am learning is something I like. You pick up your Tossware glass and then head in for tasting. I still need to work out how long you can reuse these glasses for – I’m keeping them till my next outdoor movie at least!
There is oddly quite a lot of breweries as well – which is a great way to get the non-wine (i.e. Untrustworthy) people down to the event with you.
The wine vendors were all fantastic as well. I don’t mean just with their yummy wine, but also chatting to you about what you like and making recommendations for you.
As you can see by the mega cheesy grin in this pic, the samples were plentiful. I also now have a map of wineries circled for a trip to Temecula Valley- which I wasn’t aware of as a region before Winefest, so I think this already counts as a win.
Ones that I liked from the event are
- Rebel Coast Winery
- Old World Vines
- Oak Ridge Winery
- Bekseju USA
And I know there were more, but it was all becoming a little blur by the end.
I did manage to pick up a stack of amazing flavored oils, while I was at the festival, from Sogno Toscano. They were delicious at the time and I have started using them at home and they are still ridiculously good. Each oil has so much flavor packed into it and the quality is phenomenal.
I also picked up some summer smoke flavored salt from Laguna Salt Company. I haven’t tested it yet, but they did all smell really good. Plus it seemed like the right choice at the time.
So would I do Winefest again? Absolutely. Next year, hopefully I’ll go down with a group of friends and have just as good a time as Al & I had this year.
Jilltopia 
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