The Aftermath

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As promised, here’s the follow-up post to the previous Food & Wine Experience teaser post. Sadly, the weekend is now over, but we had a ton of fun. The drive up wasn’t too fun because after we passed approximately the half-way point between Milwaukee and Minneapolis it started snowing. Jessie was driving and (stubbornly) wouldn’t let me drive, but she did just fine and we made it to the hotel without getting lost in downtown Minneapolis, which is a feat in and of itself. We crashed at the hotel that night and woke up the next morning very excited for the show. The five of us that drove up (Obviously myself and Jessie, but also our cousin Jill and our friends Katie & Jeff) woke up and were on our way to the Minneapolis Convention Center. Thankfully, we only had to dredge through the snow for about a block and were then able to enter Minneapolis’s great downtown skyway system and could get the rest of the way without going back outside. We got there at about 9:45 and were only about 15 feet back in line.

At 11, they opened the doors and that’s when the real fun began. As everyone flooded in to the room we immediately started weaving our way through the convention center eating and drinking anything and everything that was offered to us. Except for a few things that I can honestly say were pretty nasty (some sort of 19-fruit juice with a plum base sicks out in my mind), everything was fantastic. Jeff and I, being fans of beer, were amazed at the amount of beer there was this year as opposed to previous years. In previous years there had only been maybe a half dozen breweries with booths, but this year there were 12 breweries almost all of them with their entire assortment of beverages for us to try. As always, the cheese booths were fantastic. Wisconsin cheese manufacturers always have a great representation there and it was as tasty as ever. Some of our favorite wines that we no longer have access to here in Milwaukee were also representing, so getting to taste them again was a nice treat. I really can’t even list everything that was great there, but in true Oscar style, I’d like to give a shout out to the various chocolate booths, the various imported Mexican beers, the loaf of sourdough bread that Au Bon Pain handed out, all of the cheese, and, of course, the wine.

Once all was said and done, Katie and I were able to make it there until 6:00, while Jessie, Jeff, and Jill weren’t far behind and lasted until 6:30. We all stumbled back to the hotel room and watched Forrest Gump and I think we all fell asleep pretty early. The drive back wasn’t anything special, although Jessie let me drive this time. We made good time and did just about nothing once we got home.

Now I have to wait another year until the next one!

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