Foodies and wine connoisseurs alike will appreciate the second annual Embers Wood Grill Food and Wine Festival on Sunday.
The three-hour event, located at the high-end chophouse off Archer Road and 34th Street at 3545 SW 34th St., starts at 2 p.m.
The tasting will feature more than 200 wines, champagnes and liquors selected by the certified in-house sommeliers, the restaurant co-owner June Allen said. Swamp Head Brewery, a Gainesville establishment, brewed two specialty beers for the event.
Food options include artisan cheeses, specialty desserts, an outdoor grill station and a seafood and raw bar station, all prepared by the restaurant’s culinary team.
“It can actually educate and elevate our diners and our guests in North Florida and Alachua County for their taste, their experience with wine,” Allen said.
Allen said Embers is the only Florida restaurant north of Orlando to have two in-house sommeliers. She said she hopes this event puts their high-end restaurant on the map.
“People don’t think when you come to Gainesville or you live in Gainesville that you can have that type of dining experience,” she said.
The festival is a way for new and regular guests to attend a rare culinary event, Allen said.
“There’s a lot of unique things that you get to see and try that you might not see anywhere else at any of the other restaurants in Gainesville,” she said.
The event will support scholarship programs in the Eastside High School’s Institute of Culinary Arts Program in Gainesville. Briton Dumas, the executive chef at Embers, is a graduate of the program, Allen said. They plan to award the scholarship during the event.
Embers worked for years to build relationships with distributors and wine makers to put on this event, Allen said.
“It takes a lot to build those relationships, and so people were very, very surprised last year that came — that Gainesville, a business and a restaurant in Gainesville, could pull something off that was that quality,” she said.
Tickets for Sunday’s event are $100 and are available online to those 21 and older at emberswineandfoodfestival.com.
