Review – James Beard Foundation Celebration Chef Tour Seattle March 4, 2017

Introduction

A foodie friend of mine told me about this event a few months ago.  She had been in previous years and said it’s a great event.  I don’t remember exact ticket prices, but it was something like $150 for the public or $89 with the USBank Flexperks card.  I was able to buy tickets for 7 other friends just fine.  This year, it was held at the Columbia Tower Club, which has some of the best views of Seattle.  The event started at 6:30PM, and we got there a bit early and it was already pretty packed.

 

Cocktail Hour

When we arrived, there was a “bar area” set up with some complimentary cocktails – a vodka tonic and 2 other ones.  Excuse my memory because the night is hazy due to the open bar.  =)  After a few drinks, we noticed waiters going around with some hors d’oeuvres.  Not just a few, but A LOT of different options.  You’ll see below.

Dinner

Dinner started at around 7:30pm.  I was shocked when I sat down and noticed all the glasses.  YESSSSSS!  Comes with wine pairings!  The 7 course dinner was A LOT.  I remember I drank all of my Elk Cove reisling, and my friend got the waitress to pour me some more.  I remember some friends went to go back to the open bar.  One friend was falling asleep by course 4 due to food + wine coma.  We were probably done by 11:00PM or so.

 

Conclusion

If the tour is coming to your city and you have a USB Flexperks card, I HIGHLY RECOMMEND YOU ATTEND!  I mean where else can you get a 7 course dinner with an open bar all for $90?  This was like a high end wedding dinner.

 

Photos

It’s.about.to.go.DOWN.
Look at that view
jam packed menu
free cup
beef tartare. never loved it so gave it to a friend
loved this octopus dish
foie gras
I had no idea there was a 3X at restaurants with this card
morsels salad

I don’t like carrot cake but this was DELICIOUS

 

8 comments on “Review – James Beard Foundation Celebration Chef Tour Seattle March 4, 2017

  1. I’m a stingy bastard, but even I would’ve done something like this. Unfortunately my wife is allergic to carrots so we pretty much never get to eat out. And long haul flights are tons of fun.

      1. It is in EVERYTHING. Anything that has chicken broth or stock almost always has carrots in it. It’s also used for color, so most srirachas use carrots too. And she has a beef intolerance so she can’t eat anything with beef either. We were on a 16 hour flight HKG-JFK and I had to send her food back to J when I was in F because everything in the J/Y trays had carrots in them. We pretty much cook everything ourselves out of necessity so she doesn’t die. Luckily we have never had to use the epipen, but we went to the ER on Vday last year.

          1. She used to be allergic to tomatoes, grapes, and purple food coloring, but those have luckily gone away. Not life threatening like the carrots, so if that goes away everything else she can live with.

            In London there’s a huge food hall with stands setup. She had to leave after 5mins.

  2. A lot better pricing then those NYC restaurants 🙂

    I have been considering the Amex version of the flexperks for the 3x dining and sign up bonus. Just burned through my flexperks stash so I could use some more! It is up to a 30k bonus for 2k in spend.

      1. $85 not waived I think. Not sure if there is a credit if you spend so much like the regular one though

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