New Times Pairings Annual Event

Great wine tasting festival. Others need to take pointers from New Times on how to throw a proper wine festival. This has been the best one I’ve been to in the Fort Lauderdale area. Food, wine, some beer, some liquor. Great area for this event.

New Times events are so much fun. It is a great place to network with other professionals. At events like this one I was able to connect with a Burlesque dancer, chefs and marketing professionals. I was approached for a Brand Ambassador position as well so you never know who you will meet!
This event was very entertaining. They had a man playing a saxophone that was hooked up to a mic so you could hear his music throughout the event which was very unique. The Burlesque dancer was dressed in a bright pink Burlesque type outfit that was intriguing that everyone was taking pictures with her. The food samples that the restaurants provided were very tasty. I have a few restaurants I would like to visit because of this event. I definitely recommend getting the VIP tickets to facilitate parking and you have entry an hour earlier. When you are in VIP there are also shorter lines. This is a must-​attend event if you live in the Broward area. The food and wine pairings were great. Unlimited samples from over 50 restaurants was the icing on the cake.

I have only been to one other Pairings event about 4 years ago as a guest of one of the liquor venders, so basically went in at General Admission. I never had the desire to go again because it was over crowded, disorganized and really did not have any consistency of wines and food pairings as I expected. Because of my involvement with Unilocal and the friends I have made, along with purchasing the VIP tickets to give us an extra hour head start, I decided to give Pairings another try. I have to admit, this year was a lot more organized, spread out among the different areas of the Broward Performing Arts center and most of all, the VIP lounge was a savior for later in the evening when the GA guests started to grow in great numbers, creating huge lines so it was hard later in the evening to sample the different foods and wines. Getting their early, as 6pm was the start, we easily got a parking space in the parking garage across the street and walked over fashionably early to meet up with other Unilocal friends waiting in the VIP line.
It was really nice to first be greeted by Sara M. as we walked in to the main lobby. She was closely guarding the wine openers and sampling plates. I love it when you can go to a big annual event like this and the first thing you see was a big Unilocal booth that no one can miss. Since the area was wide open, not crowded and only VIP’s starting the tastings, I made it a point to take it slow, and take all this in as long as I could before the GA people started pouring in.
When I walked up the stairs to the Lobby VIP area, I was so pleased to see one of my old friends who used to run a local wine bar in Ft. Lauderdale, distributing excellent Italian wines which, compared to the event 4 years ago, were something really thought out this time, thanks to Wine Watch and their sponsorship and coordination of the wines and campaigns that were selected. This first hour for sure was already starting out great. First the delicious Pink Champaign inspired by my great «Wine Goddess» friend, Michelle who very smartly has taught me that a night must start out with sparking wines, Rose’s and Champagnes. The two Italian wines I tried after, are a must to go back and purchase at Wine Watch, which is where you go to get any of the wines and champagnes you like throughout the night.
Time to get moving around to some of my favorite tastings before the lines began were as follows:
Fork and Balls: The Buffalo Chicken Balls, French Quarter: Shrimp Jambalaya, Colada: Ham Croquettes (went back a couple times for those, and to get some more for Savanna, ya know). Suvichi: surprised me with their Ceviche, and last but not least, The Rebel House: The Pork Belly Sausage. I did go downstairs again to really see what Morton’s was sampling because I felt I had to, and missed it on the way up. I as a little disappointed that they were serving Short Rib Sliders. They were really good but I did not feel that was a good representation of what Morton’s is, although I found another wine I loved that was paired with it: Balbo Malbec, which I surprisingly enjoyed.
As the General Admission started to grow, we all started to drink more than eat. The VIP Lounge upstairs started to attract all the VIP Unilocal people as we started to escape the madness. Thanks to Stache 1920 Drinking Den taking over the bar in the VIP Lounge, the event basically started turning into a fun little party upstairs and the bartenders from Stache joined right along with us. They were incredible and seemed to have a great time serving us.
In between it all, we really enjoyed the photo booth there, as we tried on different things to enhance our looks and remind each other of our condition. After all that is what a photo booth does, it reminds people of what condition they are in.
By the end of the night, we were pretty satisfied and a little toasted, but we made our own fun and got our share of some really great varieties of different dishes well prepared by the local restaurants. I wish the VIP was longer than an hour because I know I missed a lot of places, but probably best, and will definitely be back next year VIP admission to try NEW samplings.

I was really excited about being able to attend this event. Thank you Unilocal for making that possible. I have never been to an event like this and honestly didn’t know what to expect.
Parking was great, no hassle and i believe it was 11 $. Located right across the street. The line was reaaaaaally long. Good thing i checked out reviews from the year before and got here much earlier (even though we would still have to wait for it to open for GA)
Once inside i wasnt sure what to do, so i sat down for a good while just people watching (lol) After deciding where to go first, we definitely got into the groove of things. I didn’t realize there would be lines and lines for everything and my feet paid the price. However, it was worth it.
I did find myself feeling a bit overwhelmed at times at one of the indoor areas that had a club feel to it. It was really crowded, so much so that people were bumping into each other, a lot, causing spills, which made the floor slippery and then sticky.
I did like the other two indoor areas as it was more opened out and breathable with lots of ac. I tried so many different foods and made a list of the restaurants i want to visit in the future. All the staff was SUPER friendly and welcoming.
I was pleased to bump into a few Unilocaler favorites who were having a blast. I honestly felt much at ease after seeing them as well as seeing the Unilocal table for some weird reason. It’s like playing tag as a kid and finding the base (safe spot).
After checking in at Unilocal we got awesome swag and made our way to the seating area to listen to the live dj and music that was being played. We tried this yummy grapefruit vodka and a cranberry vodka which are now two of my favss!
I look forward to trying the restaurants i loved at this event and look forward to next year. Im definitely getting the vip though because it seems very worth it! Again thank you so much Unilocal

Having been to New Times events in Miami, I was expecting a similar experience. A few people mentioned that this event was great so I decided to try to win tickets. I was lucky enough to win some VIP passes. We got an hour early entry. We were handed a glass upon entering and went straight inside upstairs to the VIP Lounge. We did stop at the Unilocal booth first for some SWAG!
Upstairs there were a NUMBER of wines and a few tables of food. I loved how many options for wine they had! We tried the Buffalo Chicken meatball from Fork and Balls and I am still craving another!
We grabbed a cocktail inside from Stache, that was delicious!
We then continued through to maze of an event. There was room after room of food and wine and beer and cocktails and more food!
I tried a lot of food! I drank a lot of wine and beer! The beer vendors were pouring me full glasses! I was so happy!
The organization of this event was unlike any New Times event in Miami. I was VERY impressed! It was spread out. It got crowded once general admission opened, but I was still able to make it to every table and try everything that I wanted to. The people were nice, and only a few places ran out of product.
I am definitely buying tickets next year, because this isn’t an event you want to miss! It is so worth it! The location was beautiful as well! The mixture of indoor and outdoor was perfect! Plenty of bathrooms and lots of water provided as well!

First year attendee, but likely to return if we can get discounted tickets again next year. I don’t think I’d pay full price to go.
Great vibe for this event. Lots of food and beverage choices, although there seemed to be way too many taco and short rib variations served. My favorite bite by far was the crab dish put out by Sea Level restaurant from the Harbor Beach Marriott. The dessert crêpe was also wonderful. Favorite wine was a Sauvignon blanc from Slovenia.
I really would have liked to see more dessert booths. I guess they had 3 originally (for like 2000 people???), but the cupcake stand was out of food with almost 2 hours left in the event. Really poor planning. As a result, the lines for the crepes and gelato were ridiculously long.
I think some of the best restaurant must only be in VIP because we couldn’t find them. Maybe that’s where the desserts were too.

Pairings has to be one of the highlights year as a foodie. This is the second time I’ve gone to this event and I’m sure I will go each and every year.
Foodie world takes over the Broward center and there are three rooms filled with the best restaurants in the broward palm Beach area showcasing their culinary skills. Each table has a wine or beer or drink of some sort that pairs with it. There an additional VIP room which i stealthy snuck up in where stache had a full liquor bar and a few other restaurants were up there. It’s a great opportunity to try so much great restaurants.
When this annual event happens you’ll kick yourself if u don’t snag a ticket.

We had an awesome time, amazing food and wine the only downside was the long waiting lines but that was expected!!!

I love food and wine events and New Times Pairings was so much fun. It was held at the beautiful Broward Center for the Performing Arts. The food and wine offerings was spread out over four different rooms and the outside patio. Clyde and I checked out each room, and although I know we didn’t get to stop at every table, we certainly got our fill of food and drinks.
It was crowded and there were lines, but they moved pretty quickly. If the lines in one room were too long we went on to another room and returned later. For the most part this worked. When we got back to the first room it wasn’t nearly as crowded and we were able to get plenty to eat and drink. A few of the restaurants had packed up by the time we got back to them.
Most of the restaurants were generous with their servings. I’ve been to events where you get a spoonful of food hardly worth waiting in line for. Although some restaurants ran out of food early there were plenty that didn’t run out.
My favorite area was probably the main room. As soon as we walked in the first thing that greeted us was the Unilocal table. Seeing Unilocal represented always makes me smile. The air conditioning seemed to be working best in the main room. There was a long bar where they were serving a fabulous rum punch that was super delicious. The gelato served in the main room was the best I’ve ever tasted. We had our pictures taken in the photo booth which is always a lot of fun. There was a table with mini cupcakes, but they ran out early, which was disappointing.
I gave this event four stars instead of five because there were a few things that could be better. I’m a strong believer that there should be a limit to the number of tickets sold. I know these events are fundraisers, but it would be much more enjoyable if it was less crowded.
It was very hot and humid outside. One of the rooms, the one in the back, was very warm. I don’t know if the air conditioner wasn’t working or if it was just too crowded, but it was uncomfortable. I felt sorry for the people working there.
There was hardly any chairs. The main room had some seating but it was always full. There was some places to sit outside, but it was too hot to stay outside for very long without sweating. I didn’t see any high top tables or any places to put your glass or plate. It’s hard to eat with a drink in one hand and a plate of food in the other. I managed, but it wasn’t easy.
In spite of a few glitches I really did enjoy this event. There was plenty to eat and drink. The food was very tasty. I was happy to see that a lot of my Unilocaler friends were there. I’m looking forward to going again next year.

8^th Annual New Times Pairings 2015:
Thanks to one of my many phenomenal friends, I got to tag along in the VIP section of the Pairings event. If you park in the garages before 6 pm, the cost of parking is only $ 7 instead of $ 12. VIP attendees get to enter 1 hour before general admission, and boy is it worth it. I know how packed these things can get, how long lines can get and how quickly food and drinks can run out. So I gunned it to as many stations as possible before 7 o’clock. There were so many options. I really wasn’t expecting this much food. I was really happy at the wine pairing served right next to it’s food station, and the separate bars for people who preferred beer or other drinks.
There were so many things I tried, some of my favorites were El Jefe Luchador for their taco with crispy cheese (the cheese made that taco). Market 17’s braised grass-​fed beef cheek with toasted farro, roasted cherry tomatoes, grilled corn, shaved radish, micro mustard greens, and smoked bone broth — it was melt in your mouth, insanely good. WOK’s short rib was one of the best and messiest short ribs I’ve ever had. El Agave Azul finally gave me the chance to try Sopes and I was not disappointed, they were fantastic. And whoever had the tuna taco in the VIP lounge, that was magical. A few disappointments were the octopus dish, Café Maxx’s gumbo on cheddar cornbread, the eggplant dish, the beef sandwich that I think was from Adena Grill, and sadly I have to say Colada’s bacon wrapped maduro (it had a really unappetizing sauce on it).
As I expected, the place was quickly packed, people were running out of a lot of things and lines were getting really long. I’m with Savanna when I saw that I ate way more than any human should, and there is probably where my problem lies — I love to sample as much as possible. The event was spread out into so many different rooms which can be a good thing and a bad thing. VIP was a lot more packed than I expected, and I missed out on dessert since all the dessert tables ran out of food. At the end of night, I’ll just say that if I don’t have a free VIP pass next event, then I wouldn’t bother coming. If you can control yourself, and be happy paying a decent amount of money to get just enough of the options that you wanted, then you should be satisfied.

Had an awesome time!
Friendly and fun atmosphere. The music was great. The food and drinks were excellent. I will continue to attend every year.

This was my first year attending the Annual New Times Pairings event at Broward Center and I honestly have very mixed reviews for several reasons.
Let’s begin with the positives. To start, I loved the variety of restaurants participants and the tables of wine and beer vendors was very impressive. I liked that of all the restaurants participating, each one had a different food dish displayed. You didn’t see 20 different burgers or pasta dishes which was nice to have the variety. All the food I tried was actually very delicious considering the amount of people they had to serve that night and each wine we tasted was great also! A highlight of my favorite restaurants dishes were: the steak and mashed potato dish from Texas de Brasil; the shrimp dish from McCoy’s Oceanfront; the kimchee watermelon dish from WOK (it was so spicy but I couldn’t stop eating it!); and the gelato from Gelato Petrini was definitely worth the 10 minute wait in line! Yum yum yum! Their craft beer selection was pretty good. It appeared that the beer selection was from the sponsored companies but I was surprised that none of them were from any of the local breweries. I liked that they had other beverage options in the main room with the large bar even though I didn’t try them; I was DD! I made sure to grab a FREE Stella chalice at some point later in the evening. Unfortunately, they had run out of beer by that time but I wasn’t complaining with my free glass!
To start off my list of ‘disappointments’ from the event, I didn’t see most of the restaurants that were regularly advertised, such as: Fork & Balls, Market 17, Steak954, YOLO, S3 Restaurant, etc. I’m curious to know if they had these restaurants specifically in the VIP area which should have been specified. Additionally, my continued disappointment with the New Times events has to do with the amount of people that they seem to let in to each event. Every room we went in to was considerably over packed to the point where you couldn’t even move through the room. They didn’t have any staff members controlling the coming and going of people through the one set of doors and it seemed very disorganized. Lastly, (even though I know this has nothing to do with the even itself), the amount of rude people that would cut in line when we got to the front of where the food was being served for each restaurant was outrageous! This happened several times, from several different people and really made a negative impact on the entire experience. We were also surprised to see how many restaurant and beverage vendors closing down 30 – 45 minutes before the event was even supposed to be over, which I think leads back to the over abundance of attendees.
Overall, it was a nice night out with the girls. (The company is always 5 stars!) I loved seeing Sarah M. working it at the Unilocal table; we made sure to stop by to say hello! We also saw a few other of the local Unilocal Elite at the event but it would have been nice to meet up at a specific spot at some point with the group that was there. I would consider a return visit to the New Times Pairings again next year to give it a second chance but would be with very high expectations for improvement.

What a fun event! Even though I had worked all night and had 3 hours sleep, I’m so glad I dragged my butt out to this event. I showed up late as usual but, there was still plenty of food, beer and freebies. Scored a few Stella Chalices to add to my collection, some new Unilocal sunnies too! We were there till clean up pretty much and the party was still popping with the DJ right up till the tables were cleaned away. The staff at the event were so pleasant and constantly changing trash can liners and moving trash which was so helpful and each person could accrue quite a lot of trash. The vibe was fun, the tastes were delish, the company was great, the music was poppin’ and needless to say, I’ll be back next year.

This review is for the 8^th Annual New Times Pairings — 2015, and for my 7^th consecutive year attending (somehow I wasn’t «foodie» enough to know about the first year of this event lol).
As like previous years, I went ahead and purchased VIP tickets again. This honestly is so worth it as you’ll get in 1 hour early, ahead of the crowd, and if you do it right and breeze through like I do, you can sample almost everything before the masses get in. That said, if you can’t afford VIP and just do GA, you’ll still have a great experience, just make sure you arrive on time!
Sadly, I’m going to round down a star this year, as I feel like perhaps they oversold GA just a bit. If you didn’t walk in right at 7pm, you would have had a hard time getting any food. As mentioned before, I did VIP, but had a few friends that did GA and I attempted to walk around the rooms with them as they ate, but found it all just a bit too claustrophobic. Ended up hanging out in the VIP lounge just to escape the crowds.
Also, this year I stayed til the end, and yes I mean the VERY end when the staff got slightly rude and started kicking people out. Not necessarily knocking New Times for this, as I don’t know what company the «staff» work for, but geez these people were slightly nasty.
Also, anyone else feel like there were maybe slightly fewer restaurants this year? Maybe actually a good thing, and people had more space, and don’t get me wrong, I still ate way more than a human should…
Favorites this year?
**WOK! Can’t wait for this new restaurant to open. Seriously, that short rib was super messy, yet I recommended everyone to risk the mess, as it was my favorite thing all night.
**El Agave Azul. So excited they are opening a third location!
**Sette Bello. Every year this restaurant serves up delicious offerings, yet I never make it in to the actual restaurant. Promise, this will change soon!
**The Vegan Place. Not entirely sure of the real restaurant name, but damn, their homemade veggie burger was phenomenal!
**The Rebel House. Last but not least. Admittedly I skipped trying them on the first round as the sausage didn’t look that appetizing on the plate, but later realized who was actually serving this plate, so I gave it a shot. I think it was a pork belly sausage? Anyways BEST sausage of my life!

This was a great event. I enjoyed all of the food booths and especially the Unilocal booth. It was a great opportunity to see many of my Unilocal friends. Hiram clued me in that they were giving away gorgeous beer glasses. It makes me realize how nice the people of Unilocal are and how much I cherish the friendships I have made in Unilocal.We share a joy of food and camaraderie at these events. This event was fabulous. I had all I could eat and drink with wonderful people. It was a terrific time at the New Times Pairings Event. It was well organized with many different rooms which split up the crowd so that there weren’t long lines at any of the booths. I hope everyone had as good a time as I did. The staff was very generous with their help. The music was great, It was a wonderful time had by all.

This was my first time attending the New Times Pairings Annual Event which was hosted at the Broward Center of the Performing Arts, it was amazing!!! I was very lucky to get VIP tickets from Unilocal which allowed us to enter 1 hour before GA, and also gave us access to a VIP lounge, I took my dad with me and he also had a blast.
It was pouring rain when we first arrived, and the Will Call table was set up outside without any covering, the lady handing out the tickets was soaked as was her paper list with all the names, I hope next year they plan to have a tent set up to accommodate not just the guests but the staff. After checking in we walked into the first main building and were quite confused by the booths as they all offered sweets and desserts, they had a bar set up for specialty rum drinks, we then ventured upstairs where we found a few actual food booths with the wine parings, this is were the fun really started.
After trying some of the wonderful food sampling and meeting up with a few Unilocal friends we ventured out to the other buildings, each building set up had its own theme, the main building had saxophone and jazz music playing, the 2^nd building we visited a band and Latin music playing, it was a lot of fun. And the third building also had some great music playing. There was so much food everywhere! But I wish we would have known about the building set ups first because once we figured out there were other buildings hosting the other restaurants GA was already coming in and the areas started getting pretty crowded, however there was plenty of food to go around and we got to taste most of it.
Our Top 5 were:
— Huancaina @ the Crazy Potato
— Chima
— El Guanaco Taqueria
— Hardy Park Bistro
— Botran Aged Rum Cocktails
This event was a blast, well organized and so much to choose from, I can’t wait for next year!

Another year, another pairings. This was my third year attending, but my first year at the Broward Center of Performing Arts. I sprung for VIP tickets this year, mainly because I am getting old and I wanted to be home by 9 or so. It arrived and it was raining, but luckily the parking garage I had parked in had a breezeway over to the venue, it just resulted in me being in the event before I got a wristband, so I did have to head to the front to have them scan my ticket, but it still saved me some time in the rain (though it would be nice if they could check tickets coming in from the breezeway too).
A have to admit I was a little confused by the layout. I started out in the main building and found mostly desserts on the first floor, which didn’t immediately interest me, but I made note of what looked good and headed upstairs. This is where I found more food stations and started my wine tasting. I then wandered outside to the back courtyard to find a smaller somewhat secret building that housed some of the higher end restaurants. I loved the shishito peppers from Yolo and I made an exception to my normal «no baby cow» rule and tried the meatball from Fork and Balls. I was also very surprised how much I liked Tokyo Blue’s spicy tuna roll, I thought it was very good sushi.
Next I wandered back outside and sampled for Chima. They were certainly not being cheap with their portion sizes as I think I ended up with four ounces of sirloin on my plate. From there I went into another building and was completely overhwhelmed by food. LOVED Café Maxx, and Gran Forno, and Garlic Knot has some of the best New York style pizza I’ve had down here.
At this point I was pretty full, but I had to try Insane Cookies (the pumpkin!) and also ended up with a few treats from Hoffman’s Chocolates.
I know it sounds like I ate a lot, and I did, but at this point it was only about 8pm, and the general admission crowd had come in at 7, so the lines were starting to get very long and wine was running out. Now this may have been a design flaw more than anything else, as the layout can be confusing and maybe people just got in the first lines they saw rather than exploring, causing some stations to be inundated with samplers while the back rooms were probably emptier, but overall the event was great, and I’m glad I sprung for VIP. Next year however, I would like a map.

This was my first attendance for the Annual New Times Pairings event. Thanks for the generosity of Unilocal!and Blue, I was able to receive a pair of the VIP tickets, and fortunate enough to get in one hour before the event opened for the general public.
I’ve never attended an event like this, and always wonder what’s it like. And I realized how import it was for us to get in with the VIP pass. Because by the time they open the door, all the booths got really packed, and you’d lucky if you can even grab a napkin or fork.
Most of the foods were pretty good. I usually take notes while I am sampling the food and wines. But given the number of the booths I look forward to try, and both hand occupied by a glass of wine and a plate full of food, the task seemed unlikely. But a few dishes caught my attention. The pan seared scollops were very good, so was the chardonnay it was paired with. The Korean beef paired with Goose Island beer was excellent, and in my book the perfect pair. Also there were some other lobster and seafood dishes were pretty good. One particular red wine I really like was the 2010 Highflyer Red Blend Napa Valley. I need to look up where I can get a bottle of those.
Will we go again next year? Definitely! And I will not hesitate to get the VIP pass. For $ 20.00 more its totally worth it in my book!
PS: My wife asked me to do a review for the both of us, so I used a few pictures she took from her Unilocal!page.

This was a great event to be able to try local restaurants’ vast variety of food and drinks. There were many restaurants to choose from with very creative presentations of their small portion food items. There was a variety of seafood, pork belly, couscous, faro, pasta/​meatball, steak, cookies, chocolates, gelato, etc.
I entered at 7pm with my general admission ticket. Line moved quickly as they scanned your ticket and gave you a wrist band. Everyone received a wine glass, but only VIP received a tray with glass holder. Luckily, I brought a tray from home so it was easy to balance all my drink/​food selections. They should have given everyone a bag for all the goodies you collect along the way. Luckily, we found two Viking Cruise bags on the floor and used those to hold all the business cards, menus, wrapped samples, and pens.
The Huizenga Plaza was ridiculously crowded. The rest of the areas were laid out perfectly so there wasn’t a feeling of over crowdedness.
Some tables started to run out of food at 9pm when we left the event. There were many tables that would be closed before 10pm when the event ended.
I would definitely go to this event again. Last year it was held at the Broward Convention Center and food was gone by 8pm. This was much more organized this year. There was garage parking across the street from the Performing Art Center for a fee.

Ok — this event was so much more than we expected — and we had high hopes!
We smartly hired John’s Car Service LLC to take us to and from the Pairings event so we wouldn’t have to be concerned with parking and driving after enjoying the night of food and drinks. (
) John got us there before we were due and — even better — picked us up after we were ready to head home! It really made tonight fun — we talked about the event the whole ride home and just kicked back while he drove!
When we arrived at the event it started to rain and soon was pouring. We stood under a canapé in the VIP line and waited to be checked in, along with several Unilocalers that we knew! (Special shout out to Tamela and Allen — wonderful to finally meet in person; now let’s arrange a dinner date!)It was great to kick off the night in the company of people we knew!
After we got our bracelets, plates and goblets, we headed inside the building and immediately got some swag before stopping at the bar in the lobby. We got mojitos made with aged Botran rum that were just delicious. The lobby had desserts so we left and went to the 4^th floor VIP lounge and enjoyed entrees including lobster salad from MEAT Eatery and Taproom (2 inch pieces of lobster and bigger — WOW) and New River Grill & Pizza pork belly.
We enjoyed foods in the Abdo New River Room (S3’s pork belly was one of the best things I ate all night) and Huizenga Pavilion (Gran Forno’s bread was really out of this world — we actually preferred it to the desserts, seriously). We took pics at the Botran photo station — I wore a pink boa and hubby a captain’s hat from their prop table. We met great people — Sherry and Mary were a kick! We saw additional Unilocalers and their guests, and we signed up for an array of prizes — let’s hope we win something!
We did make it to the lobby’s dessert stations and got Hoffman’s chocolates (WOW!), Royal Treatz’ Guinness-​rich mini cupcakes, and Insane Cookies’ samples. The theater gave out packaged cookies and chocolate gelt that hawked upcoming plays. Everyone was so generous — food vendors, beverage vendors, New Times and Mardi Gras reps, and the musicians who gave their all to fill the building with truly great sounds.
I hugged Ashley at the Unilocal table and got us both iced coffees from the Kuerig booth while she gave away Unilocal swag to the crowd of people. There were so many people there but everyone was very nice — no pushing/​lots of courtesy. This is a great event and we will definitely return next year!