SFist Goes to the Sonoma's VinOlivo Festival
SFist spent last weekend luxuriating in the unseasonably warm weather in Sonoma doing what one does in Sonoma-- drink lots of wine and eat super-yummy food. The occasion? Sonoma's VinOlivo Festival.
Last Saturday, the vintner's of Sonoma along with their restaurants put together a festival honoring the good life, Sonoma-style. For a mere $75, you could wander around sampling all the finest Sonoma has to offer. And Sonoma has a lot to offer.
More pictures of the festival and Sonoma after the jump
Olives, the namesake of the festival. There were more olives than you possibly new existed-- olives stuffed with feta cheese, olives stuffed with sun dried tomatoes, olives with artichoke hearts, and a whole bunch of olives we had no idea what to make of other than they were good. It turns out too that olives are the second biggest crop in Sonoma, right after wine, of course.
Wine-- the reason for it all. Did you know that the first vineyards were started in 1824? And that one of the people who put Sonoma on the map was Civil War Major General Joseph "Fighting Joe" Hooker who resigned to become a rancher in Sonoma? And that wasn’t his only claim to fame-- he also gave us the name "hooker" as it was his brilliant idea to hire a bunch of prostitutes to follow him and his troops around during the Civil War to keep morale high. Just think what we could do to recruitment levels if we started doing that again.
And what's a festival without a chocolate fondue fountain?
Our favorite dish at the festival, actually, was this-- grits and shrimp. It was spicy, it was different, and it was delicious. It also reminded us in a little way of the glories of Waffle House.
Mmm....Waffle House....
Some other food we had there included prosciutto and brie sandwiches, lamb burgers, all sorts of pasta (the pasta with chicken sausage was a definite thumbs up) and all sorts of other Italian style meals.
The crowd at VinOlivio. The picture doesn't quite do the event justice, as it was jam-packed. There was also music and an auction held.
…because nothing cleanses the palate of gourmet food and good wine like In N' Out Burger.
with help from Steve C.