The fall season signals the impending arrival of downtown San Diego’s most delicious event of the year.
The 2023 iteration of the San Diego Bay Wine & Food Festival takes place November 6-12. The centerpiece of this upscale, seven-day Nosh-A-Thon is the Saturday, November 11 Grand Tasting on Embarcadero Marina Park North. (Tickets sell out.)
Saturday’s iconic big party usually draws 6,000 hungry attendees. It’s a Foodie Nirvana that reaps national acclaim. The two-decades-and-running event was voted number-one Best Wine Festival in the latest polling done by the USA Today 10Best Readers’ Choice Awards.
Co-founder Michelle Metter has been setting the table since Day One.
“This is the 20th year of existence for the festival,” she says. ‘It’s our 19th event (due to COVID). “Next year we’ll do a big 20-year celebration.”
As new food events crowd the local calendar and music festivals dip in and out of the picture, Metter points with pride to her event’s longevity and ability to pivot.
“One thing we’ve done is take on a more neighborhood approach,” she says. “We love the guest chefs that come in from out of the market. But our focus is to put a national spotlight on celebrities from here. The chefs. The farmers. The fishermen. There’s no cast system that says just because you’re on Food Network you get a higher billing than the chef that’s doing the work here in our hometown.”
Metter says the San Diego Bay Wine & Food Festival takes a “Vocal for Local” approach.
“For us, it’s about giving voice to where our food comes from and putting a spotlight on the individuals that are part of our local food ecosystem,” she says.
Case in point: This year’s festival will feature sections focused on two San Diego neighborhoods, The Convoy District and Little Italy. Those sections will include about 10 restaurants from each distinctly different neighborhood.
The festival will also see a massive representation from the world of wine. Metter expects that more than 200 wineries will be pouring in excess of 800 different bottles.
“Wine enthusiasts will get to experience an astonishing number of producers using new varietals with a range of stylistic comparisons,” she says.
One unique aspect of a November event, says Metter, is the availability of winemakers to be right here in Embarcadero Park booths.
“Seasonally, winemakers aren’t in the middle of a crush, as opposed to other times of year,” she says. “So actual winemakers come to our event. You can interface with them. That doesn’t happen during the summer months.”
An interesting facet of the evolution of the SDBW&FF is the final day of the five-day festival. Starting in 2022 and continuing this year, the Sunday sub-event is called the Grand Fiesta. It’s becoming more of a second day of the Grand Tasting, albeit with major differences.
Years ago, Metter’s team partnered with the Baja Board of Tourism and created a Mexico-themed pavilion within the Saturday Grand Tasting. It showcased gastronomy from all over Baja.
Roughly 15 years ago, Sunday popularized the Taco TKO event. Chefs competed to win popular votes from attendees for their version of the street food staple. Taco TKO has been held in a variety of locations over the years–from Embarcadero Park to Quartyard to Liberty Station.
On November 12, The Grand Fiesta will be held at Liberty Station and include the Taco TKO contest–and a lot more, including a focus on Latin chefs, restaurants, winemakers, musicians and artists.
Last year, close to a thousand people attended The Grand Fiesta. Metter says there’s room to grow the event up to 5,000.
“Saturday is a lot of fine-dining and the experience has a certain elevation to it,” Metter says. “Not that Sunday doesn’t, but Sunday is more about the rich celebration of the art of food. It’s about a familial connection with food that’s indicative of Latin culture.”
For the festival’s full itinerary and to get ticket information go to: SDBW&FF.
