La Dolce Vita, Trying to Avoid Too Much Food and Wine

Grid View

• Chef Josh Watkins of The Carillon
• Ben Edgerton and Chef Andrew Wisehart of Contigo
• Chef Sonya Cote of East Side Showroom
• Chef Shawn Cirkiel of parkside
• Pastry Chef Steven Cak of parkside

Last night Eater was able to attend the annual La Dolce Vita Food and Wine Festival, hosted by The Austin Museum of Art at Laguna Gloria.

The evening was a constant effort to not eat too much... and to not match all the eating with drinking. About 50 restaurants and vendors from around Austin were there, providing delicious nibbles and overly tempting beverages.

The standout of the night was the premier of Swift's Attic, with Mat Clouser, Zack Northcutt, and CK Chin there to show off their talent. And, Eater must agree with the Statesman's Comrade Matthew Odam that their belly-foie gras banh mi was the best taste of the night.

It was great to catch up with Shawn Cirkiel of parkside, battling it through a long week of events and to try pastry chef Steven Cak's treat frozen in liquid nitrogen. David and Joe of Tipsy Texan were there making dangerous cocktails (more on that later). Ben Edgerton and Andrew Wisehart of Contigo were as cheery as ever, sampling their delicious house-made pate. Josh Watkins of The Carillon was nice enough to pose for some great photos - I think about half the ones I took were of him.

The event seemed smaller than last year and more tame, which Eater thinks is a good thing. No overly drunk guests making the walk hard to navigate and no obvious debauchery on the part of the chefs. There was some obvious PDA going on at the photo booth, though.

There was a lot of walking around... peeking at the samples, holding off over-indulgence, then deciding to anyway. And, what goes great with food? Wine of course. And cocktails. And Scotch. One suggestion - don't alternate drinking wine with scotch and bourbon. You'll feel it in the morning. Eater is just glad the camera made it home safely.