The Biergarten
848 Washington Street
(between 13th and
Little West 12th Street)
My sister and I attended Aperitivo!, an event hosted by Anne
Burrell (Food Network and Cooking Channel personality), on Friday, October 14,
2016. The event was part of the New York City Wine and Food Festival (October
13–16, 2016) sponsored by the Food Network and the Cooking Channel—held to aid
in the fight to end hunger.
The event was at The Biergarten. The venue—with its multiple
rooms—was the perfect place to hold such a function where wines and food
offerings from local downtown restaurants and food purveyors were featured.
Upon entering, you instinctively gravitated toward one of
two bar stations, which were set up on opposite sides of the main entrance. One
bar only offered only water or beer. The other bar was fully stocked and
featured the event’s signature cocktail—The St.-Germain Cocktail, comprised of
St.-Germain, Martini & Rossi Prosecco, and soda. The cocktail was a
refreshing and delightful drink to start a night of food sampling.
Though the prosecco on its own was quite tasty, too!
Long tables were set up, with each table featuring an
offering from a particular restaurant. Table signage provided information on
the restaurant, chef, and sample offering. We started off with a goat cheese
bonbon from Great Performances Caterers. A perfect amuse bouche.
We then tried Rebelle restaurant’s pork rillette.
Found the pork rind a bit too hard to bite into.
Stanton Social’s salmon pastrami with pickled mustard was a
standout. Who doesn’t appreciate a juicy-sized piece of salmon?
We then moved on to the meat stations. Little Owl offered
sangria skirt steak on little green lettuce. Delicious!
Boqueria offered seared Colorado lamb skewers with pickled
shallots and salsa verde. Tasty, hearty bite!
Moving into the backroom, I found my favorite tapas tasting
of the night: Barraca’s tuna “crudo”—raw blue fin tuna, black trumpet-truffle
aioli, fried capers, and garlic chips. Fresh fish with a great crunch factor! I
definitely went back for seconds!
Huertas’s roasted eggplant, goat cheese, and honey crostini
was a sweet mix.
The center of attention, though, was the table for Murray’s
Cheese.
For some unfathomable reason, the line and the wait to get to the table
was at least half an hour. The wait was so long I didn’t want to leave it to hear
Anne Burrell’s thank-you host speech as I had already been standing in the line
for at least fifteen minutes.
Was it worth the wait? Probably not as I’ve
sampled Murray’s Cheese charcuterie and cheeses many times before. And Anne
Burrell’s speech was unique to that specific event (and most importantly, I
missed my photo-op shot!). But I guess that’s what happens when one is
drawn into the hype of a mob!
Tache Artisan Chocolate’s offered beautiful yuzu chocolate
samples.
And Loacker was giving out samples of their mini wafers.
They allowed you to take as many different flavors as you wanted. I took
samples of the vanilla, chocolate, and Neapolitan. Perfect way to end the
evening!
Pros:
Great mix of tapas—offering vegetables, fish, meat, and
cheeses.
Open bar.
Cons:
Not enough seating stations or standing tables to eat
comfortably. Many attendees (along with my sister and myself) were forced to
eat standing by the corners of the room near big garbage bins just in case our
food or plastic plates dropped.
Final Thoughts
Really nice event for a great cause.
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