Austin Food & Wine Festival Hosts Lavish Preview Event

The Austin Food & Wine Festival held its second tasty preview event last week at the newly opened and highly anticipated East Austin restaurant laV. The tables were set, wine chilled, and guests began to arrive, entering into this heavenly space lushly decorated in shades of grey and yellow. It's as if I'd stepped off the Metro and in to a swanky hot spot sitting aside the River Seine.

laV's team is impressive. Chef Allison Jenkins serves at the helm of the kitchen as Executive Chef. After tasting her bites I'm happy Chef Jenkins has returned to her Texas roots.  Executive Pastry Chef Janina O'Learly, a 2013 James Beard Award Semi Finalist and a graduate of The French Culinary Institute will be creating masterful desserts for the laV guests. Vilma Mazaite, whom I had the pleasure of meeting a few months ago at the first Austin Food & Wine Festival preview event, is the Advanced Sommelier in charge of the over 1200 labels and a private two-story wine/dining room that boosts upwards of 5000 plus bottles of wine which are "sure to please casual wine drinkers and well as committed oenophiles." Thank you in advance to the Eads family for pulling this fabulous team together, as the City of Austin will be pounding down the doors to get a reservation.

Sarah Abell of Baltz & Company gave a lovely opening speech, introducing the laV Team and talked about some of the gems the upcoming festival will feature. It was a who's who of Austin food and lifestyle writers, including Out & About's Michael Barnes. Guest then continued to dine on delicious bites that included oysters, cod fritters, prosciutto wrapped asparagus and desserts that include in-house made ice creams, decedent chocolate cake and sips of champagne and rose.

If this is just the tip of what's to come at next month's Austin Food & Wine Festival, attendees will be impressed with what's being served once again.

Click here for more info on the Austin Food & Wine Festival and to purchase tickets.