Austin Food & Wine Festival Releases Live Fire Lineup

By Megan Giller

This morning the Austin Food & Wine Festival released the full lineup for the “live fire” pit demonstrations and the lineup for the tasting pavilion. Last year Tim Love won festival-goers hearts with rowdy hands-on demonstrations, and this year sounds like it will be even better.

The lineup includes Tim Byres (Smoke) and Jason Dady (Jason Dady Restaurant Group) on Saturday and Bryce Gilmore (Barley Swine) and his dad Jack Gilmore (Jack Allen’s Kitchen) and Rene Ortiz (La Condesa, Sway) on Sunday.

Regarding the tasting pavilion, the press release states:

In addition to featuring rising star Texas talent and chefs from across the country, cooking demonstrations, the world’s largest hands-on grilling demos, live musical performances and more, the Austin FOOD & WINE Festival will feature larger exhibition tents with over 35 artisanal food purveyors, 45 wineries, and 10 spirits exhibitors. 

Think Tiny Pies, AustiNuts, Topo Chico, Pate Letelier, PhoNatic Vietnamese Cuisine, Farmouse Delivery and Delysia Chocolatier.

The big buzz last year was the price of the tickets versus the ROI (return on investment, to borrow a business phrase). This year the festival has tried to address that, with its “taste” tickets for $250 and “savor” for $850. Will the festival live up to the expectations, good or bad? We’ll find out April 26 – 28.