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Community Corner

Sold Out Crowd at Wine & Food Weekend

Westchester Magazine holds the inaugural event at the Ritz-Carlton in White Plains.

South Beach in Miami has a food and wine festival. Aspen and Boston have one, too. And now, Westchester Magazine plans to institute an annual Food & Wine Weekend, the first of which took place at the Ritz-Carlton Westchester in White Plains this past weekend.  

The elaborate gathering filled up the hotel's ballroom along with several anterooms and featured sample dishes from 50 restaurants (25 on Saturday, 25 on Sunday), cooking demonstrations from top local chefs and pourings of fine wines, spirits and Pleasantville-based Captain Lawrence beer. Wine experts held seminars at 42 The Restaurant, which features panoramic views of White Plains and beyond.  

The event featured a gala dinner on Saturday night featuring dishes from renowned chefs paired with the perfect wine accompaniment. Proceeds from the $250 tickets benefited  and The Food Bank for Westchester.  

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"This is a perfect fit for White Plains because we are a rapidly developing city that is becoming a restaurant hub," said White Plains Mayor Tom Roach. "You can't go out to dinner on the Internet, and as more people are living in downtown White Plains, more restaurants are opening up."  

He was impressed with the classy spread, which tempted festival-goers at every step. Upon entering, guests grabbed wine glasses, which they washed out with pitchers of water available at the tasting stations.

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All the wine served was available for purchase through Grapes The Wine Company, located in North White Plains. Other local businesses serving samples included 42 The Restaurant , the Ritz-Carlton, Mulino's of Westchester and BLT Steak. On Saturday, Chef Anthony Goncalves turned heads when he activated a dry ice machine to make spoonfuls of dry bloody marys, which included calcified ingredients of everything found in the drink.

Sushi Mike of Dobbs Ferry and Mulino's of Westchester added pyrotechnics to some of their dishes. Mike burned the tops of his French Dynamite Roll like a creme brulee and Mulin's used 151 proof rum to light up the inside of a parmesan cheese wheel to create a marinara and penne dish.  

On Saturday, around 750 people attended the sold-out event, jamming into a side room set up like a TV studio to feature Peter Kelly of Xavier's fame, Phil McGrath of the Iron Horse grill in Pleasantville and Alex Grunert of Blue Hill at Stone Barns in Pocantico Hills. At Kelly's presentation, a greeter walked the floor pouring Prosecco into the seated guests' glasses.

Ralph Martinelli, publisher of Westchester Magazine, said that even though he has sponsored many events, this was one of the most elaborate.  

"This was months in the planning and we used videos, blogging, tweeting to reach out to people to help spread the word," said Kris Ruby, a columnist at the magazine who helped promote the weekend. "You need traditional PR and advertising along with the social media to drive traffic."  

For Grapes The Wine Company, which moved to North Broadway from Rye recently, the event was a major success.

"It was very good exposure for us," said Rona Vesce, who handled the orders for wines and spirits poured on the tasting floor. "A lot of our customers are here, as well. Someone from Rye came up to us and said 'we miss you guys.' "

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