Dining and Event News

The Wine Riffs™ dinner series at Universal Orlando's Hard Rock Hotel are starting back up again, after a long hiatus. The popular (and pricey) multi-course experience pairs music, with food, with wine (and room lighting). The colorful and moody lit meal does tend to feature higher end culinary and next tier wines — when compared to other, everyday "signature" restaurants at the various resorts in the Central Florida area. The $200 per person (plus tax, plus gratuity) event is not for ... ( read more ... )

SeaWorld, Orlando's Fifth Annual Craft Beer Festival kicks off on Friday, August 5th, 2022 and takes place on Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays only, through Sunday, September 4th, 2022 — plus Labor Day, Monday, September 5th, 2022. This year, there's "over 15 unique food items" (down 5 items from last year) and over 100 crafts brews, wines, seltzers, and cocktails. Check out the map below for a great overhead look at where the festival kiosks are located. I've put names next to the booths that have ... ( read more ... )

It feels like the Bier Fest at Busch Gardens, Tampa is a little shorter this year, than in years past. There's only a total of four weekends between August 12th and September 5th, 2022 — probably in an effort to make room for the Howl-O-Scream event, which start shortly after that. The concerts this year will feature some of the hottest bands from the local Tampa Bay music scene, all performing at the Coke Canopy Stage, located in the Bird Garden area. The showtimes for all performances are ... ( read more ... )

Here are the beautifully squared off, easy to read, menu boards and prices for the 2022 "Global Marketplaces" (aka food booths) at the Epcot International Food and Wine Festival. Five booths are not open, on the first day of the festival again this year. They're slated to be open on (or before) August 11th, 2022. I'll update the menus here, once those pricing signs are posted. You'll need $483 (give or take) to get one sample of every food item this year. If you happen to be a Pinterest user, individual ... ( read more ... )

While the International Food & Wine Festival over at Epcot seems to be slipping deeper and deeper into "Bar Food and Swaggy IPA" territory... the folks over at the Swan and Dolphin have (at least in their marketing copy) planned up something a little more foodie focused. The "later than usual" Swan and Dolphin Food and Wine Classic is taking place on November 11th and 12th this year, and for the first time since the great pandemic, they've brought back their "Seminar Series" of events (that take ... ( read more ... )

There's quite a lot going on at SeaWorld this summer, mostly as part of the park's Electric Ocean Festival period. It's a little difficult to keep track of everything this year because Electric Ocean looks like it's going to run right into the Craft Beer Festival (which starts at the beginning of August) and most of the festivities will continue (at least on weekends) all the way until the Craft Beer Festival ends… early in September. I wanted to take a second and cover two new additions to the ... ( read more ... )

They're back! After a multi-year hiatus, Culinary and Beverage Seminars are once again on the schedule of events at the 2022 Swan and Dolphin Food & Wine Classic. The seminars generally take place on either Friday or Saturday during the Food & Wine Classic event (depending on which seminar you would like to attend), and usually start an hour or two before the main "strolling the causeway" activity begins. The seminars are an "extra cost" activity and space is very limited. In the past, we've seen ... ( read more ... )

The full menu list for this year's festival has arrived! When the festival opens on July 14th, 2022 there will be approximately 31 food & beverage locations (or "Global Marketplaces") with an additional 5 locations opening on a later date (August 11th, 2022 to be precise). Why? Your guess is as good as mine. While the event is included with park admission, food and beverage items require separate purchase. The annual festival runs from July 14th, 2022 until November 19th, 2022. Food booths open at ... ( read more ... )