Flavors of April

Thursday, April 26, 6:30-9pm
Salt Lick Pavilion, Driftwood ($75 at www.austinfoodwinealliance.org)

One of the best attended and most successful components of last year's final Texas Hill Country Wine and Food Festival was the Live Fire! event held at the Texas Disposal Systems Exotic Game Ranch. This wonderful party is now presented under the auspices of the Austin Food & Wine Alliance, a new nonprofit dedicated to "fostering awareness and innovation in the Central Texas culinary community" that will be the beneficiary of the Austin Food & Wine Fest­iv­al. Live Fire! moves to the Salt Lick Pavilion this year and will serve as a kickoff for the new fest. It promises to be a fantastic meat blowout with a stellar line-up of more than a dozen Texas and national chefs demonstrating their masterful beef creations. To complement the signature beef dishes, local, national, and international winemakers and distillers will be on hand dispensing beef-friendly libations, and for the first time this year, four local craft breweries will also be pouring. There will even be locally roasted coffee, local tea, and Texas Crazy Water!

Fiddler extraordinaire Elana James and her trio will provide Western swing music suitable for dining or dancing, and Greenling will host a fan favorite text-vote competition to choose the evening's winning dish. This party offers many of the best aspects of the now-defunct Texas Hill Country Wine and Food Festival all in one evening. What's not to love?