food event

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3 Day Catskill Weekend Itinerary and Catskills Cuisine Recap

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In case you didn’t know, I’m on a mission to attend every food festival and food event I possibly can. When I had heard about the Catskills Cuisine I had to reach out and see how I can get involved.

This led me to an incredible, and much needed and relaxing weekend in the Catskills.

With great food, adventures, hotel, making new friends, and shopping/dinning, here’s how I spent a quick weekend away in the Catskills Mountains.

Friday - Travel Day

Drove to the Catskills. I’m based in Orange County, NY and the drive took me about an hour and a half. Coming from NYC this could take about 2-1/2 hours depending on traffic.


Always such a peaceful drive overlooking the mountain views and winding roads.

Checked-In to our Hotel: Callicoon Hills

I wrote all about Callicoon Hills in this blog post, but this hotel and resort is so much fun. Loved all the amenities and how central it is to everything in the Catskills area.

Go check out that blog post for a full breakdown of the hotel.

Dinner & Drinks: Catskills Provisions Distillery

Went into downtown Callicoon area to grab drinks and dinner at Catskills Provisions Distillery.

They have a FREE tasting room where you can try their spirits. Fun fact, did you know their Pollinator Spirits are artisanal crafted with honey from their bees.

For dinner ordered their Rita Mae cocktail, made with their pollinator vodka, house made citrus mix, and agave, and for dinner had their double cheeseburger.

EntertainmenT/Movie Night: Callicoon Theaters

Headed to see a 7:30pm showing of the movie, The Fall Guy. It actually was pretty good and would be a really great date night movie.

My absolute favorite part was the theater and it’s rich history.

The Callicoon Theater was built in 1948 and is the oldest continually operated cinema in Sullivan County. With 350 seats, the historic art deco movie theater recalls a bygone era of the Western Catskills, while they have upgraded digital projection equipment and dolby surround system providing you with a modern cinematic experience.

They have a mix of new releases, cinema classics, film festivals, and live music events.

Currently, Matinees are $9, Adults are $11, and Children are $8.

The artifacts from the theater over the years give it that hint of a cinema museum on your visit. It was a really cool experience.

Things to Note in “Downtown” Callicoon… Cell Service

I did want to note that I had NO cell signal in this downtown Callicoon area. While trying to head back to the hotel, I had so much trouble trying to pull up Google Maps to find my way back in the evening. This happened to me twice during the trip in this downtown area.

A dorky as it is, I’d suggest printing a Google Map of directions to get back to your hotel from downtown Callicoon.

Saturday

Morning Routine & Things: Callicoon Hills

  • Woke up and did a workout in their fitness center

  • Free hot coffee in lobby

  • Showered/Dressed

  • Brunch at their on-site restaurant, Conover Club

Headed to Event: Catskills Cuisine/Bethel WOods Center for the Arts

This was a culinary event between Sullivan Catskills and sponsored by Labelle Farms and presented by Resort World Catskills and Bethel Woods Center for the Arts.

This 2nd Annual culinary event was packed with A-list Food Network Celebrity Chefs. Including Anne Burrell, Melba Wilson, Scott Conant, Michael Symon, Andrew Zimmern, Marcus Samuelsson, and Geoffrey Zakarian.

It included everything from cooking demos, vendors and shopping, food samplings, book signings, alpacas, and live music.

Dinner Back at Hotel/Conover Club

Was pretty tired after a long day at the festival so headed back to the hotel’s bar and restaurant, the Conover Club. Ordered a drink and for dinner their Pesto Chicken with house made fettuccine and nut-free pesto. Highly recommend, that meal was amazing and their drinks are strong.

Then capped the night off with the hotel’s nightly s’mores offerings. It was such a night little dessert treat to end the night.

SUNDAY

Morning Routine & Things: Callicoon Hills

  • Woke up and did a workout in their fitness center

  • Free hot coffee in lobby

  • Hotel tour of the property

  • Showered/Dressed

  • Headed back to Bethel Woods and Day 2 of the Catskills Cuisine

Headed to Event: Catskills Cuisine - Day 2 - Mother’s Day Brunch

As part of Catskills Cuisine Weekend was a Mother’s Day Brunch at Bethel Woods, hosted by Food Network’s Anne Burrell and Melba Wilson.

Tickets had included a brunch beverage of either a Mimosa, Bellini, or Bloody Mary and brunch buffet filled with so many choices from scones, donuts, pastries, to lobster mac and cheese, brussel sprouts, eggs benedict, chicken and waffles, a carving station, deviled eggs, dessert, and so much more.

What was great was that Melba and Anne really walked around greeted and talked to everyone in the room, it felt so personal which I loved.

I came solo, as my own Mother’s Day treat, and was great to chat and meet other creators in the area as well over a great meal.

Woodstock Museum// Bethel Woods Center for the Arts

Bethel Woods is the home to the famous 3-day Woodstock 1969 Music Festival. My aunt attended Woodstock and had to quickly see the museum and take some photos for her.

The museum is full of artifacts from planning documents, concert photos, lineup/flyers, historical timelines, to many music clips from the festival. It even has a theater where every 20 minutes you can see and hear footage of the festival as if you were actually there. And of course, they have a gift shop at the end.

Exploring Around Towns & Heading Back Home

Before heading back home I had to stop at a few nearby shops. Here’s a few I visited.

Stop 1: The Callicoon Pantry - Callicoon, NY - A low-waste grocery and refillery. They offer minimal packaging and affordable pricing.

Stop 2: Sullivan Sundries - Jeffersonville, NY - A specialty grocery store and indoor market hall with vendors including Bloom Coffee, R52 Homes (a vintage/modern home variety store.), Slug Wines, a Cheesemonger, International snacks, and so much more.

Stop 3: La Salumina - Hurelyville, NY - A classic Italian salumeria, meaning they produce all their salumi (charcuterie) in their onsite USDA facility.

They have a selection of antipasti, locally sourced and imported cheeses, and offer Italian speciality food products.

On the weekends they make panini and sourdough (Fri & Sat). And on Sundays have fresh focaccia. I got some and it was sooo good. They support small farms working sustainability and striving to farm in a regenerative manner. It’s a really cool shop, taste of Tuscany in the Sullivan Catskills, and the owners are so nice.

Overall, the past three days were so much fun. Callicoon Hills hotel was so relaxing and yet so fun and accommodating, I even got the chance to see the Northern Lights one night. Catskills Cuisine was perfect for this foodie. Exploring new food, dining, and shopping in the area always feeds my adventurous explorer side.

If you’re heading to the Catskills let me know some of the stops and places you check out. I’d love to know for my next visit!

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Specialty Food Association - Summer Fancy Food Show 2023 - Breakfast Trends, Cocktail Culture, and Storytelling Focused Favorites

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Overwhelming is the word used most often at this year’s Specialty Food Association’s Summer Fancy Food Show in New York City. Occurring over 3 days (June 25-27, 2023) at the Javits Center in New York, SFA pulled out all the stops. There is a lot of ground to cover here. Let’s first start with some background about me. If you didn’t know this about me already, in my full time job I manage trade shows and events. From someone that does this in their day-to-day, I’d say it’s pretty rare to find a show organizer that is constantly improving and innovating quite like SFA. This year they had:

  • Sold-out show with more than 2,000 domestic and global specialty food and beverage makers and manufacturers.

  • Keynote speaker celebrity chef Giada De Laurentiis

  • Product pavilions dedicated to the hottest categories including: Plant Based, Deli, Bakery/Confectionery/Snacks/Sweets, and Beverage. This year they also had a Sips Bay (Beverage Pavillon and Diversity Pavillon)

  • International Pavilions from 31 countries and regions across Africa, Asia, Europe, North America, Oceana, and South America, including partner country, the Kingdom of Morocco.  

  • State and Regional Pavilions including Brooklyn Goes Global, Georgia, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, New Jersey, New York, Oregon, Pennsylvania, the Southern United States Trade Association (SUSTA), and Virginia. 

  • NEW NOW NEXT Pavilion featuring Incubators and Startups.

  • Unveiling of the sofi™ Product of the Year and New Product of the Year award winners.

  • 5 Borough Block Party - End of the first exhibit day featuring food trucks from the 5 boroughs + drinks and a live DJ…. A real taste of New York.

Most Notable Trends:

There were no shortage of mocktail inspired business here were a few that were on the top of my list.

Alcohol-Free Cocktail Culture

✨Sayso - Sayso is behind the first-ever cocktail tea bag. All you do is steep in cold water for 3 minutes and add your spirits or keep it a mocktail. Flavors include an Old Fashion, Skinny Spicy Margarita, and Rosemary Honey Moscow Mule.

✨Fauxmosa - A bubbly alcohol-free (0.0% ABV) mimosa that playfully blends California grapes, real fruit juice, and botanical flavors with a hint of apple cider vinegar to create a regret-free cocktail that suits your lifestyle. These little cans come in flavors such as: Cranberry with Hibiscus & Ginger, Pineapple with Lemon & Mint, and Orange with Turmeric.

✨Twisted Alchamic - These are 100% cold pressed, fresh juices are for those who care about quality, but would rather spend time creating killer cocktails than juicing and cleaning. I’ll admit I went for seconds on this one. The Three Citrus Margarita and Passion Fruit juice were my top favorites.

Luxury Breakfast

Since brunch is our business, I tried to source and seek out the best new breakfast products. What I found was there were so many brands that were using the finest ingredients in their products or on a mission to make breakfast more family friendly.

High Quality Breakfast Ingredients:

✨Runamok - Runamok is a specialty foods company focused on creating fun, innovative, and delicious products with quality, natural ingredients. At the show I had an interview with the President, Curt Alpeter, he walked me through their product line of syrups, mixers, and honey.

Newly launched this year is their Maple Grenadine cocktail mixer. They showcased this by having this really nice side-by-side comparison of the leading grenadine and the comparison of their quality ingredients. It was delicious and I don’t make a ton of things with grenadine but I’m pretty sure they converted me. Along with this, Curt really took his time to explain to me the different grades and quality of maple syrup. As well as where and how they source their honey, and what the difference is between raw and processed honey. It was a really fascinating conversation about agriculture.

✨Jesha’s Sourdough Pancake Mix - This pancake mix is made from stone-ground whole grains that have been slow fermented with sourdough culture giving it a ton of nutritional value. I love a sourdough, and it didn’t dawn on me how truly tasty a sourdough pancake could be. Plus, I loved that Jesha is a town over from me. Did we just become best friends?!?

✨Cometeer - This coffee company works with some top quality roasters (Joe Coffee, Counter Culture, Birch, Intelligentsia, and more) to brew and flash freeze into these little pods so unlimited flavor. And I will say the the quality shows. As a huge cold brew/iced coffee girl; this packed smooth, bold flavors. I could have taken 20 of these with me.

✨Natural Blonde Bloody Mary Mix - Admittedly, I’m not a big Bloody Mary fan, but, this bloody mary mix was smooth as so much less acidic than a traditional Bloody Mary. It’s made from yellow tomato juice giving it its light blonde color and lower in sodium.

Breakfast Made Easier for Families:

✨Happy Grub - Is a squeezable instant pancake mix, aimed at more fun and less messes, with the goal of bringing more families in the kitchen. Ashley, the founder has been on our podcast before and honestly I’m all for making breakfasts easier and fun with my kiddo. Plus her whole team is incredibly nice and so generous with their time.

✨Hidden Foods Co. - Homestyle Pancakes - With an addition of flaxseed and oats to this protein packed mix--and the hidden fruits & vitamins. I love the concept of sneaking extra goodies in, plus the pancakes tasted great.

✨Mama Biscuits - A gourmet biscuit company, Mama Biscuits specializes in a variety of biscuit flavors including sweet, savory, vegan and gluten free. In the fall of this year, Mama Biscuits will be launching some new ready to-go breakfast biscuit sandwiches.

2023 Overall Show Vibes:

In terms of overall show vibe, it felt different than last year. I had gotten far more Press Releases last year. I’m not sure if it is because more companies didn’t do them. Specialty Food Association honestly provides so many great resources to their exhibitors and members. Including a webinar on PR 101 and how to engage with media and they have cubbies in the press room where you can decorate and drop off materials.

My only thought here was last year in 2022 it was the first real year back with less restrictions after Covid. Perhaps companies had more time to create press releases and new product launches compared to this year. Overall, many exhibitors felt very standoffish and focused on buyers and didn’t engage much. Or even worse were the ones that didn’t sample their products at all.

This leads me to shout out the companies that made a real effort to engage, tell their stories, and had really great products…

More Favorite Brands from Summer Fancy Food 2023:

✨Kola Goodies - Sajani Amarasiri is the founder behind Kola Goodies, vegan superfood lattes for energy, mood, immunity, stress relief & wellness. I tried the Sri Lankan Milk Tea and it was out of this world, incredibly tasty, warm, and gave you all those cozy vibe feelings.

✨Brooklyn Dehli - Premium Indian Pantry staples from sauces, condiments, and spices. My all time favorites are the Coconut Cashew Korma, Tikka Masala sauce, and Mango Chutney. Meeting Chitra Agrawal was also pretty epic, we mostly chatted about kids and Kingston, NY, she was super down to earth.

✨Yolélé - Yolélé is changing conditions for rural West African smallholder farmers. Their mission is to support biodiverse, regenerative, and climate-resilient farming systems; and to share Africa’s ingredients and flavors with the world.

Best know for producing chips, pilaf, and products with Fonio, a gluten-free African grain; what was new this year were their African Spice Rib + Dip mix set - and yes they were so tasty and make for a perfect summer dip.

✨Xinca - Authentic Salvadoria Food - Xinca is a family-owned company led by Cynthia Duran, a *Salvi (Salvadorian American) Latina. After her family migrated to the United States while fleeing the Salvadorian civil war, her family found comfort in cooking authentic dishes that reminded them of home. The Four Bean & Cheese Pupusas were my favorite and absolutely flying off the sample table.

✨ Matriark x Sfoglini - Two great brands that teamed up at the show to collaborate on their products - Sfoglini pasta with Matriark’s tomato sauce.

Matriark Foods upcycles farm surplus and fresh-cut remnants into healthy, delicious, low sodium vegetable products for schools, hospitals, and food banks.

Sfoglini pasta sources the finest North American organic grains and unique ingredients from local farms and green markets with traditional Italian techniques to create fun pasta shapes that hold optimal sauce. Plus they are based in the Hudson Valley.

Would love to hear what your experience was like if you attended Specialty Food Association’s Summer Fancy Food Show this year. What were some of your favorite brands and trends? Let me know in the comments.

I already can’t WAIT to see what next year’s show has in store.

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10 Years of Brunching - Our Most Memorable Brunch Events & Learnings

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This year in 2023, we’re celebrating our 10 year brunch anniversary!

All starting in the summer of 2013 when Sheryl Sandberg, the COO of Facebook at the time, released her new book called Lean In. After the release of the book a huge conversation was starting to emerge around women leadership, women empowerment, and breaking the glass ceiling.

At the time, I was living in NYC and was attending a LOT of events. None of them involved a focus on women and each event felt so bland and impersonal. I remember coming home after each event with a purse full of business cards but couldn’t remember much about any of the people I had just met.

It was the good ol’ “there had to be a better way’’ mentality… and so I set out to combine my event planning experience to create a new type of intimate dining experience, centered around women, and thus Women Who Brunch was born… The brunch component of this is based off the fact that if you know New York, you know brunch is a lifestyle here…. plus I love breakfast foods.

Our first event was held August 2013, at Five Point in Manhattan - this restaurant has charged hands and owners several times unfortunately; but for a large sized group it’s still a great venue. We had speakers Megan Nuttall and Monica Lo, on the subject of “Passion Projects”. At the time, they received Google Glasses to beta test and brought the new technology to the brunch for us to check out. We thought we were so cool…


We have a whole list of past speakers and brunch events, what can I say I’m nostalgic for remembering all our events. Some of the most notable have been Deepica Mutyala, who is now the CEO & Founder of LiveTinted. At the time back in 2015, Deepica was working at Birchbox and her life had completely changed when her YouTube video went viral — a beauty tutorial about how to hide under-eye dark circles with red lipstick. She discussed a ton of marketing and content/social media tips - still a crowd favorite topic discussion at our events.

Learning about Blogging and Morning Pages (a daily practice of writing three pages of longhand, stream of consciousness writing), from Molly Ford - we had brunched at The Penrose, which is a great brunch spot. Days of May flowers provided floral arrangements and Michaela has turned out to be such a successful floral designer. It was at this brunch I realized the power of collaboration and supporting small businesses.

Molly’s now the CEO & Founder of Messy.FM and author of Reach Out: The Simple Strategy You Need to Expand Your Network and Increase Your Influence. She’s always a powerhouse of knowledge.

Dr. Sonya Rhodes gave us her new book at the time and got to brunch is her gorgeous Upper West Side. We felt very glamorous that day; like an experience straight out of Sex and the City - compared to my 4th floor Queens walkup.

Emily Merrell, Founder of Six Degree Society, another great events community for women, taught us how to network like a pro. She introduced me to “Asks”; going around the table and asking everyone what is one thing you need help with. I’ve used it ever since at our brunches because we all have a connection out there and could always learn to ask for more help.

Truly all our speakers have had amazing stories and learnings to share. I get so energized by the things I learn or the people I’ve met that have attended our events. That’s the magic behind keeping them intimate and smaller group sizes, it allows you to really talk and engage with someone. Each time there’s a new opportunity to learn something new, meet someone new, or try out a new brunch spot.

Of course, what had came out of the “pandemic” years was the launch of our podcast, Brunch & Learn Podcast, which is a podcast that features interviews with women in food while combining two of my favorite things: learning something new everyday and talking about food. It’s allowed me to share more stories from women all over the country about their entrepreneurial journeys. It certainly kept conversations and hope going when we couldn’t meet in person for brunch.

Now to present day, I’ve since moved outside the city and the path ahead is to continue to bring these event experiences to the Hudson Valley, NY region. And to continue writing and sharing the local scene around the greater NY & Hudson Valley. The challenge and balance I face often is balancing a full time job, toddler, and this community. I recently went to a conference and one of the speakers had said that we really need to fight for community and connect. We need to fight for in-person - whether that be events or making the effort to meet up with friends. It really struck a cord with me. That in a very social media driven world - the value in in-person is priceless. It’s what keeps me going on this brunch life.

I’d love to hear from you if you’ve attended an event of ours in the past and have a memory to share. Or new to the brunch crew, share your favorite local brunch spot.

And if you love food news, updates on event, or new food/CPG products - Join us over on our WWB Newsletter.

Thank you for being here & Cheers to another 10 Years!