“Working In The City” is The San Diego Sun’s feature Q&A series with downtown San Diego business operators. It’s a way to get to know the city by meeting the people who work here. This is the 29th in an ongoing series.
Company Name: San Diego Food + Wine Festival
The boss: Co-founder Michelle Metter, who’s lived in San Diego since 1996.
What we do: We’re the founders and producers of the 21st annual San Diego Food + Wine Festival, one of the largest food-and-wine experiences in the country. This year’s event is November 2-9, with the Grand Tasting and Grand Fiesta taking place on the last two days.
Where we do it: A series of events are held all over the city of San Diego, with the Grand Tasting filling up Embarcadero Marina Park North and the Grand Fiesta taking place in Liberty Station.
Accolades: The SDFWF was named “Best Wine Festival” from 2022-24 in the USA TODAY 10Best Readers’ Choice travel award contest. It was also picked as the 2024 “Festival of the Year” by FestForums, a national conference series that rates events like Coachella, SXSW, Burning Man, Lollapalooza and more. The festival has received kudos from the Travel Channel, Wine Enthusiast and Forbes. The San Diego Sun named the SDFWF “San Diego’s Best Annual Event.”
Start-up story: The majority of my career is in event production. I’d been producing an Action Sports trade show and consumer events. Then I worked in the recreational scuba diving industry. That’s where I met Ken Loyst, my co-founder. He was an avid collector of fine wines. I was an avid enthusiast of drinking his wine. We got to talking about our passion for hospitality, and food and beverage. We looked at doing something that would have a real impact. He had been attending food and wine festivals across the United States. We said, “let’s do that here.”
Company motto: “Create with joy.” Joy is at the center of everything we do as a team, for vendors and for our guests.
Best aspects of working downtown: San Diego Food + Wine encompasses more than downtown. That said, the Grand Weekend is focused in our downtown area next to the bay. I think people understand how being a maritime city influences where and how we eat. The fact that the event location literally kisses the water, you get a real sense of how the sea influences how we are as a community. It’s a unique experience. It’s part of the DNA of what we do.
Cross-border experience: Our festival also pays tribute to our friends across the Mexico border, in a way no other experience does. We have an entire day devoted to a celebration of Latin and Latinx culture, cuisine, art and music in a beautiful, elevated way.
Worst aspects of working downtown: Traffic.
Parking: We’ve worked that out. We have designated lots. We work with the convention center, and we have shuttles.
Notable news: Southwest Airlines just signed a two-year partnership agreement with us to be a presenting sponsor of the Grand Tasting. And now, our VIP Experience is the Southwest Airlines VIP Lounge. With the new Terminal 1 opening at San Diego International Airport it’s really further cementing the fact that San Diego is a premiere destination for leisure travel and culinary tourism.
Local + international: We have local partners like Brandt Beef, El Faro Seafood, Maple Leaf Farms and other great producers that join us. Paso Robles Wine Country is back with their big activation, along with lots of new content areas. There’s also this overlay of winemakers and growers that come from all parts of the globe. We have a deep series of education and Master Classes with Food and Wine from Europe, Côtes du Rhône from France and Wines of Georgia (the Eastern European country).
Funniest downtown memory: The brands create incredible experiences. One year, Monkey Shoulder wanted to do something wild and crazy that would be a surprise. They created a row of portable toilets. It was a facade that looked just like real ones. One of the doors was orange and it had the monkey shoulder logo on it. We were not allowed to talk about it in advance. They wanted people to discover it. Behind the door was a big speakeasy. There was a DJ and a celebrity mixologist.
Scariest downtown memory: Rain one year. I was worried people wouldn’t come. But out of 300 brands only one didn’t show up. Then gates opened up and lines of attendees came in like they always do. Some people had an umbrella in one hand and a wine glass in the other. At one point, the rain stopped, the sun came out and there was a loud, collective noise of 6,000 people screaming in joy.
If the business starred in a movie, it would be called: I’ve often said there should be a reality show based on the drama of what we do. There are so many highs and lows of live event production. Certain things you can predict, but so much is unpredictable. So many personalities. We are problem solvers. Therapists. Doctors. We do it all. You have to be unflappable.
Best insider tip for running a downtown SD business: Get out in the community. Spend time with people. Get to know their backstory. Find out what they need for their businesses to work and thrive. Help be a solution. Lead with your heart.
Ticket information: San Diego Food + Wine Festival. Tickets are on sale now. Many events, including the Grand Tasting, sell out. SDSun
