As I have mentioned recently in these pages, this past
weekend was the second annual Loreto Food and Wine Festival. The inaugural event last year was a very
successful two day celebration with a street party on the Saturday and a golf
tournament on the Sunday. Due to the
success of the event, the original goal of purchasing a much needed piece of
medical equipment for the hospital in town was more than accomplished, and with
the additional funds left over the organizers was able to assist a number of other
worthy causes in town.
Following this initial success, the organizers realized that
to maximize the benefits of future such events, an umbrella structure was
required and the Amigos de Loreto was created, which I profiled here several
weeks ago (http://livingloreto.blogspot.mx/2013/02/amigos-de-loreto-friends-with-benefits.html
). During the past year, in addition to
administering the distribution of the funds from last year’s Festival and
creating a conduit for ongoing charitable donations from the expanding ex-pat
community, the small group of volunteers that form the core of the “Amigos”
organization had a big “sophomore” challenge facing them – meeting, and
hopefully exceeding, the high expectations that were set by the success of the
first Festival.
One way they set about meeting that challenge was to expand
to a three day event, from the initial two days of last year, with the addition
of a kick-off dinner at the Hotel on the Friday dubbed “White Night” with the
simple, but effective theme of wearing something white. There were 200 tickets available for the
sit-down dinner menu which featured wine pairings from several different Baja
wineries. Homex had generously offered
the Hotel’s large pool patio area for the event and the four course meal was
supplied and prepared by members of the Loreto Restaurant Association.
I had been asked to play a small role conducting the live
auction later on in the evening and so I arrived a little before the scheduled
start time to familiarize myself with the set-up and go over last minute
details with several of the organizers.
The Hotel patio was an impressive sight with large round tables for 10
attractively laid with white linens and table centers filling an area in front
of a temporary stage platform where the Khnemua Jazz Ensemble, a 4 piece
blues/jazz combo from Cabo that would be playing through the evening.
An entrance gateway to the Patio area had been set up where
the guests had their wristbands checked and received a tote bag containing a
complimentary bottle of wine and the ladies were given a white feather boa to
accent the color themed ensembles that almost everyone had managed to put
together. Typical of most Loreto Bay
social events, the crowd started to form a line-up before the planned start
time and as they filtered through the entrance, picking up their “goody bags”
(also white, of course) and began to mingle in the open area beyond, the impact
of a couple of hundred people (almost all of whom were at least partially, and
many completely) dressed in white was a surprisingly impressive!
After a somewhat extended cocktail hour, we were encouraged
to move to the edge of the beach where a fire pit had been prepared for a
bonfire conducted by the same fire dancer I wrote about early in the season, (http://livingloreto.blogspot.mx/2012/10/dos-noches-en-loreto.html)
who had done the same demonstration at the earlier food event I had reported
about where they were actually cooking the local delicacy clams. This time, however, the fire dance was for
entertainment purposes only without the delicious results of the steamed clams
at the conclusion of the fiery show.
However, when we made our way back to our tables to begin the meal we
were greeted by a delightful surprise – an appetizer of Tatemada style cooked Chocolata
clams was waiting for us! 
This was followed by a soup course, a “fresh mint pea bisque”
according to the menu, and not being a lover of pea soups in general - I was
prepared to give this a pass after a sample taste, but I was very pleasantly
surprised by the creamy consistency and fresh, slightly minty, very “un pea
like” taste and enjoyed the whole serving, accompanied by bread sticks and
“gourges”, which I discovered were a small hollow puff pastry balls. After a small fresh greens salad the entrée
was served, a generous portion of Sea Bass presented in a foil “swan” sculpture
nesting on a bed of wild rice with a garnish of sautéed vegetables – the
attractive presentation added to the enjoyment of the delicious food and I was
impressed with how well the Hotel’s staff coped with serving a much larger
group than they are normally prepared to handle.
The meal was accompanied by generous quantities of 4
different wines supplied by several of the different wineries who were
represented at the Festival and concluded with a light desert of Cream Pablova
with mixed Berries. The live
entertainment continued throughout the meal, with the vocalist and stylized
blues/jazz repertoire adding an uncommon “dinner club” atmosphere to the
evening. During the first band break
representatives of several of the wineries introduced themselves and
highlighted the wines we were enjoying with the meal.
My brief stint as Auctioneer was scheduled to take place
during the second band break and, following some descriptions of the items on
offer by Elaine, the Auction Chair of the event, I did my best to coax a total
of over $3,300 US out of the crowd for the four items that included a private
catered dinner for four (later enlarged to eight) in winner’s home by Chef
Kieran from Restaurant 1697, who was the Head Chef for the meal we had all just
enjoyed. There was also a private return
flight for two from Loreto to San Ignacio with a Whale watching tour included,
a two night stay at a golf resort in Cabo and a stay for up to six at the Guest
House at an organic olive orchard in central California.
The next morning preparations were underway early on the
Paseo, with cars being cleared from both sides of the street to make way for
the approximately 500 diners who would be seated at tables in both lanes of the
street, on either side of the open intersection in front of the two Posada
buildings, where the bandstand was set up for the evening’s entertainment. In the center median between the tables on
either side of the street, shade tents were being set up for each of the 13
participating restaurants, all members of the Loreto Restaurant Association,
along with other tents where the wineries offer tastings of their products, and
more tents where bottles of wine could be purchased, and still others selling
beer, water and soft drinks.
When people started arriving for the Street Party in the
late afternoon their appropriate wristbands were checked by volunteers at
reception tents at either end of the blocked off section of the street and then
everyone received another a souvenir wine glass imprinted with the Festival
logo, and a commemorative T-shirt in a similarly logoed tote bag and an all
important restaurant “passport” listing the names of all the food venues and
the specialty they were serving.
Apparently, one of the “areas for improvement” following
last year’s Festival was controlling the food distribution so everyone could
sample from all the restaurants, and so a passport was implemented this year so
when you picked up food from one location that vendor could check themselves
off your sheet with the intention of limiting everyone to one visit and sample
per restaurant. Space limits me from
listing all the restaurants and their offerings, but suffice to say that the
selections ranged from a pork paella, several preparations of clams, ribs ,
chicken and sea-foods, traditional Mexican specialties and even a desert table
of iced cupcakes and other sweets. 
Early in the evening Los Beach Dogs, supplemented with some
guest musicians sitting in, kicked off the entertainment with a classic rock
and roll set – never sounding better, by virtue of the professional sound
system that had been set up for the headline act Bahia Show de La Paz, back by
popular demand following their appearance at last year’s Festival. This 10 piece show-band with a horn section,
two percussionists, keyboards and two vocalists did not disappoint with their
return engagement and kept up a fast paced blend of popular English and Spanish
songs that kept the dance area in front of the stage hopping most of the night.
Interspersed between the wide variety of food and drink to
be enjoyed and the great music, there were more fundraising activities
including a popular silent auction area with a variety of donated art and
crafts along with gift baskets and décor items among other offerings. Featured among some raffle items was a
beautifully reconditioned golf cart supplied by a cart dealer in Cabo and I was
once again recruited to auction off two final getaway packages; one to a Napa
Valley resort and spa and another to a high-end Cabo beach and golf resort.
There were still some hardy dancers enjoying the
hard-working band when I called it a night, well after the usually early “Baja
Midnight” and found my way home again, feeling tired after the uncommon
back-to-back nights of partying – but for a couple of dozen more resilient
golfers, the scramble start of the second annual Festival tournament got off to
an early beginning with an 8:00 am tee off!
I trust you, my patient Readers, will forgive me from passing on the
early rising and the golf that followed, but by all accounts a good time was
had, and many prizes were awarded during the lunch at the 19th Hole
that followed the tournament, which further contributed to the fundraising
purposes of the entire Festival.
Last year I was disappointed that I was away on a visit to
Canada during the first Festival and could only report on it second hand (http://livingloreto.blogspot.mx/2012/03/food-wine-fun-charity-begins-at-home.html),
as a result I have been looking for to this year’s event all Season – and
suffice to say, I was not disappointed!
While in any large event like this, organized and staffed by volunteers,
many of whom put in hundreds of hours of meetings and work for months leading
up to the weekend, there can always be room found for improvements, but there
is no question that this year’s celebration raised the bar much higher and,
along with it, raised considerably more funds which will no doubt benefit that
much longer a list of worthy recipients than were assisted last year. More information will be available about the
fund raising results from the Festival on the Amigo’s website www.amigosdeloreto.org when the final
accounting is completed.
Seeing how this community has pulled together to begin a
Festival tradition that will apparently thrive and grow in the future, and by
so doing, improve the quality of life for many whom we share this beautiful
place with that are less fortunate than we who have recently arrived. And seeing how our enjoyment of the good
things in life can help to benefit so many others – that is truly a special synergy
of “Living Loreto”!
